Help!! Nashville is drowning! Be her voice.

Help!!!!!

If Nashville could talk, that's what she would say, plead, scream right now.

But she can't.

She's underwater and she's seriously hurt and in trouble.

So it's up to all of the rest of us to reach out and ask for help.

Nashville is literally drowning and needs a lifeboat - many lifeboats.

As my friend, Charlotte Cooper, wrote:

"Non-Nashvillians: please spread the word in case everyone doesn't grasp the severity of what's going on in Nashville. Temporary shelters are at capacity, missing people are unaccounted for, many homes are under water, there is a water conservation emergency, much of Nashville's economic base is threatened by flood damage."

The media has been slow to pick up on this and we could debate the issues as to why, but there's no time for that.

All we know is this for certain:

"Many residents say that there was no warning and that the water was about waist deep in about a minute and a half Sunday."

Many of Nashville's citizens have perished.

People's homes, businesses and personal possessions have been lost.

Many beloved Nashville hallmarks, institutions and mainstays are underwater right now and may be damaged beyond repair.

Lives, beds, books, photos, irreplaceable keepsakes and family heirlooms, instruments, medicine, lyrics, diaries, wedding albums and more just washed away.

Never to return.

Downtown is a river. Not BY the river - it is now a river.

President Obama has declared Nashville (and surrounding counties) a disaster area.

Rep. Jim Cooper said it will take billions of dollars to recover from this.

But Tennessee is the Volunteer State.

Many of my friends there are volunteering around the clock helping others - friends, strangers, animals, venues, businesses- get their heads above water.

They're banding together as a community because that's the only way to get through a disaster.

But they need us to do the same.

They need us to band together our resources and help.

So please do anything you can!

Hear Nashville's cry, just like you've heard the beautiful music that has cried out of that legendary city for decades.

Donate whatever you can and send your prayers, peaceful thoughts and good energy to

Music City.

She needs your faith, hope, compassion and a little generosity. A LOT of generosity.

Please pass this along to EVERYONE you know.

Thanks so much on behalf on a city that has no voice right now.

Text 'REDCROSS' to 90999 to donate $10 to disaster relief

or:

mail a check to the

Nashville Area Red Cross at 2201 Charlotte Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203; or visit www.middletennredcross.org

As a former Nashvillian, I beg you.

Take care out there...

Love to you and yours!