"We Are Home"

Today I decided to do some digging around to see if I could find some info on the rebuilding that continues to go on in Nashville. 


I started out looking at this website called "Nashville Flood Recovery" which offers some great statistics on its home page about the damage caused by the 2010 flood: 

• 10,940 properties damaged; 3,922 building permits issued
• 333,000 cubic yards of debris removed
• 90,391 volunteer hours donated for recovery projects
• $8.7 million donated to Metro / State Relief Funds
• $5.55 million relief funds awarded to recovery efforts

(You can click here to find more stats.) 

This website has a collection of press releases dating all the way back to May 2, when the flooding began. It is fascinating to read through them and to get a taste of what life must have been like in the aftermath of the torrential rains. One of the more recent releases talks about the "We are Home" Awards, which are rebuilding assistance awards. 

Local members of the public sector quickly recognized that their fellow citizens were not going to have enough money to rebuild their homes and lives. The "We are Home" program is part of "a joint effort of private and public sectors, including The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, financial institutions, nonprofit organizations and Metro Government." The application process is pretty rigorous, since the average amount of the award is well over $20,000.  There are many measures in place to discourage fraudulent applications.  

To date of the press release (09/16/10), 102 people have been given "We are Home" awards totaling over $2.9 million. That's a staggering amount of money. Think of all the lives that have been changed through this program! I really can't even fathom it. 

So there may be some of you who are not able to go on this trip but now you're wishing you could do something to help. Well, there are a million ways you can STILL help rebuild Nashville (they're far from done!), not the least of which is to be in prayer for the Music City. Another way is to support The Housing Fund, which is the nonprofit administering and managing the "We are Home" assistance program. You can make a donation here.