<p>I was watching the weather channel since I heard there were tornadoes in the South and according to them there is currently severe flooding in Tennessee and other southern states. To current students and anyone who knows, is there any real tornado threat or flooding that happens? Or is the Weather Channel blowing everything out of proportion?</p>
<p>So today’s weather was a little unusual. We do get tornado warnings in the spring, although this was the first day we were issued a warning (which was actually for the other side of the county) this year. Vandy has an ALERTVU e-mail/text message system to warn of severe weather events. If you are one of the lucky few who actually receives their messages, great. I just keep an eye on weather.com for warnings. We haven’t had a tornado touch down since I’ve been here, but there are usually several warnings issued each year. The flooding in highly unusual. I think they said it’s the worst flooding since 79 or something.</p>
<p>The weather has been crazy today and yesterday. Nashville is flooding like crazy to be honest and its unfortunate because major water pipes burst as well and on top of that its raining insanely. This is NOT typical Nashville weather, so I wouldn’t expect this during the fall semester (or spring) if your coming in the fall. I live in nashville and will be attending vandy next fall (as a sophomore). Cars are floating down interstates that have up to 6 feet of water. School out-door portables are floating down highways as well. However the WHOLE city is not engulfed in water only some parts and some major interstates, thankfully the area where I live is not as severly flooded but there is still a significant amount of water here as well, basically you’d need a jetski to get anywhere with this much water hahaha. But yeah this is a serious situation apparently yesterday TN had more rainfal in one day than what we usually do in the whole month of May, working on breaking the record for July at the moment : / </p>
<p>Its pretty bad but its incredibly unusual. And yes there are tornados sometimes here but I have NEVER heard of one going through the heart of Nashville or be anywhere near the Vandy campus. any Tornados that have come through have been out west or east.
hope this helps</p>
<p>Actually, a tornado did come through the east part of the city around 10-12 years ago. There was a lot of wind damage in midtown and downtown Nashville from broken windows and signs-the McDonalds arches on West End was airborne! There were some historic homes in east Nashville that sustained pretty bad damage.
Vanderbilt has never been hit dead on by a tornado. The Nashville area has many options for tornado warnings and you can easily sign up for texts on your cell phone.
This has been a storm of epic proportions regarding rainfall and the damages are from that, not wind shear or a tornado. We are currently at 13+ inches in metro Nashville with more to come today. Many roads are closed and Children’s Hospital has had flooding in their basement, ER, ambulance bays as well as unconfirmed reports of smoke/fire in their basement. The main hospital is also now reporting problems from flooding.
I still have power-not sure for how long- and am praying I don’t have any flooding either.
We have never had this much rain even from Gulf hurricanes coming onshore! This is extremely unusual and my sister who has lived here for 22 years says this trumps anything she has ever seen here by a huge factor.
The mayor of Nashville has stated that the next 24-36 hours will be extremely challenging for our city and these thunderstorms just keep tracking in the same areas repeatedly which only exacerbate already severely impacted areas.
Whether or not this will affect the ability of Vanderbilt students to take exams tomorrow and Tuesday remains to be seen.</p>
<p>Just saw on fb that tomorrow’s exams have been postponed. I have a friend whose D lives in Nashville and she says the D’s neighborhood is flooded and they can’t get out by car. Talked to S yesterday and knew they were having bad rain, but had no idea things were that bad.</p>
<p>It is really bad here and I remain very grateful that I still have power,cable and landline phone service. I don’t know how long I will be so fortunate.
Vanderbilt Medical Center is on diversion except for dire emergencies and all elective surgeries are cancelled for tomorrow. Flooding is bad in both Children’s and the main hospital basements. I am on the emergency phone chain service for our department (anesthesiology) and have been contacted to try to come in tomorrow for relief efforts. I hope I can make it in.
Since we are the main referral center for a wide area it is really frightening if we cannot accept seriously ill patients due to bad weather as we are the last resort for a lot of hospitals. The hospital is full and many staff are unable to leave or come in and emergency shelter is being provided for those who can’t leave. I have offered space in my home for those in our department who cant return due to flooding or closed roads.
Please pray for us as this is the most dire situation I have ever seen.</p>
<p>some of the dorms are flooded, and they’ve moved kids out to dry dorms. The Library is flooded - Vanderbilt’s home page is one huge severe weather warning.</p>
<p>Well,if anyone wants a dry place to stay, PM me. As of now, I am very luckily still dry, have power,internet access,cable, and land line phone service. Guess I should contact my daughter now to see how she is doing!</p>
<p>I just talked to my D, who was busily studying for her 3 finals that were to have all taken place tomorrow. They are postponed, and she is waiting to hear from her profs about alternate test dates. She is very fortunate, because she isn’t coming home for the summer … so no problem for her to just wait things out & take her exams whenever they are rescheduled. She feels bad for all the students whose families are coming to move them out, or who have flights home. </p>
<p>She did go out to make sure her car is okay, and she said it sounds like things are really bad around town. What a rough situation, especially for the hospitals. I hope the rain ends soon.</p>
<p>Just spoke to my S, who didn’t know how bad it was until he took a break and put the TV on. He said the devastation is just awful, but the area around West End, at least where he is, isn’t too bad. His dorm has a little water in the basement, but that’s about it for now. He’s also gotten emails from professors regarding papers that are due - as in - OK to email them, instead of handing in hard copies. He’s also wondering about those who have flights scheduled for Monday or Tuesday and will now have to make up exams. The Weather Channel has said the water is receding in Memphis, so hopefully Nashville won’t be too far behind</p>
<p>hope4freeride,
I am always in awe of how those in the medical profession must carry on in the face of adversity. Will keep all of the VUMC staff and the entire Nashville area in my prayers.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses, my parents were watching the weather channel and started to get a little worried since I’ve lived in California all my life. We barely get any rain except during winter and early spring, let alone enough to carry cars down highways.</p>
<p>My DD finished up Friday morning and headed out to New Orleans for the weekend. Looks like she missed all the fun stuff! She called last night to tell us she wasn’t sure if she was going to get back today or not. She may have to extend her trip by a day. I’m sure she’s devastated. Hang in there down there!</p>
<p>This was NOT typical Nashville weather. We received 13"-18" of rain in less than 36 hours. All kinds of records have been broken. While the flooding is devastating in areas, the campus seems to generally be OK.</p>
<p>We are being asked to curtail on water use at Vanderbilt and all over Nashville. Our pager system has been unreliable,oxygen distribution facility has flooded but we can still safely take care of patients, use of linens are being curttailed. No, it is not a Katrina type of disaster but it’s still serious.
Students who are finished with exams should just move out and get home to conserve limited resources. I know many want to stay and visit with friends until Friday or next week but they really need to go home if they are done with exams and not seniors. Students are being asked to take dirty laundry home with them instead of washing it here. Every little bit helps.
If you go to the Common Place page and click on storm update, scroll to photo galleries and its quite an eyeful of how bad it is.</p>
<p>It looks pretty bad from the pictures coming out of Nashville and especially from what CNN was reporting today. Thanks again everyone. Good luck to everyone down there, stay safe.</p>
<p>Can the Vandy students get out on the highways around Nashville or are they flooded? Are I-65 and I-40 (or 440) passable? I want to know if students can drive out safely to get home? Thanks for any information.</p>
<p>Only certain parts of some interstates are flooded now. But I believe most are ok</p>
<p>daecollege:</p>
<p>40 is open going west out of Nashville, but it is in bad shape and they are telling people not to use it unless necessary.</p>
<p>Parts of 24 that were deep underwater have had the wrecked vehicles cleared and it seems to be open.</p>
<p>The above is from News Channel 5 in Nashville. They also suggest the following for road closure information:</p>
<p>“They can also check the TDOT website and go to the SmartWay section. We’ve got a map that shows the latest information on road closures,” said Doughty.
TDOT SmartWay</p>
<p>I’m flying out to Nashville to visit Vanderbilt on Thursday. I’m from Southern California. What should I be expecting?</p>