The waters are receding, but the damage wreaked by last week's sever flooding in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi will be felt for many years to come. In addition to the human loss -- at least 32 deaths have been attributed to the flooding that resulted from an especially intense and slow-moving front originating in the Gulf of Mexico -- is the millions of dollars' (billions by some estimates) worth of damage to property across the southern US flood plains. Music mecca Nashville was hit particularly hard–the Cumberland River which passed through the center of the city flooded to 50' (10' over the flood line), submerging many culturally and economically significant buildings and about fifty public schools in three to five feet of water for over three days.

Gibson USA reportedly shut down production for several days even after the flood waters receded, with employees unable to enter the 645 Massman Drive facilities for several days to even assess the damage. (We contact Gibson for more information last week, but were referred to their official press release about damage incurred, which doesn't offer many details.)

The Grand Ole Opry House sustained extreme damage with flooding filling the main auditorium, leaving the entire 4,000+ audience seating save the last six rows underwater. Dressing rooms and storage were flooded as well, damaging costumes, instruments, and more. The Grand Ole Opry has moved temporarily from the Opry House to the Ryman Auditorium (once the official home of the Opry) with other venues slated to host additional scheduled shows.

Perhaps worst hit were the Music Hall of Fame -- which lost one of Jimi Hendrix's Stratocasters -- and Soundcheck Nashville, the rehearsal / storage / staging complex where most of Nashville's A-listers and first-call session players practice–and where they store their instruments. To keep their clients informed of flood-related developments and help coordinate salvage efforts, Soundcheck started a flood blog. It dramatically details the events as they unfolded:

"As many of you know, the Cumberland river has risen to 50′. This is 10 feet above flood stage. The river is completely covering the Cowan St. river basin. This has put the water level inside of Soundcheck at about 3.5′ – 4′. The Army Corps of Engineers is hopping the river will crest sometime around Noon today, at no more than 51′. The police are not letting anyone in. We got some people to go in on SeeDoos and look at the building, but they were unable to get inside."

NPR's All Things Considered featured a dramatic audio interview with several musicians in the middle of gear-triage at Soundcheck, many of them retracing their careers by cataloging the instruments that did or didn't survive the flooding. Brad Paisley was gearing up for his -- no joke -- H2O tour at Soundcheck when the flooding hit (the tour is named for his recent hit song entitled "Water"). His entire stage, equipment, mixing board, everything was underwater. Instead of canceling the tour, Paisely's tech crew is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace lost gear in time for the tour's kick-off.

Rehearsal / storage / staging complex Soundcheck Nashville underwater on May 4th. Point of reference: that's the security fence in the foreground. Photo Source: soundchecknashville.com/wordpress/

Lest you think the sole victims of the flooding were recording megastars for whom replacing instruments is a matter of recalculating tour grosses, remember that Nashville -- Soundcheck included -- is home to thousands of blue-collar musicians, few of whom have any kind of insurance on their gear. The good news is that there are now a great deal of charitable and relief funds set up to help musicians and other flood victims. The Gibson Foundation has their own charitable fund setup, and are hosting an event in Nashville on June 18th (opening day of Summer NAMM–still scheduled to take place) to help raise additional funds. The Grammy foundation's MusiCares has setup a Nashville Flood Relief fund, as has the Nashville Chapter of the American Federation of Musicians (find information on donating at the AMF Local 257's website. FEMA has promised $87 Million in aid for flood-affect areas.

For rigorous ongoing updates, the Tennessean online has been providing constant updates, including reporting on yet another severe weather system moving through the middle Tennessee area. We've got our ears to the ground for Summer NAMM updates. While the show is still planned to take place as scheduled there has been word of major exhibitors pulling out of the show or dramatically scaling back their NAMM-presence. We'll try and keep you abreast of any developments.

In the meantime, donate if you can.