New hardwoods, new neighbors

Posted by on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 in June 2011.

Right after the flood, Regina Bailey temporarily had to move her belongings to her lawn. And one night a police patrol caught someone trying to loot some of it. Bailey, a medical receptionist in the Emergency Department at Vanderbilt University Hospital, was only recently summoned as a witness in the trial.

In Bailey’s East Nashville neighborhood, some of the houses abandoned to the flood remain empty, while others have been leased to new tenants.

Neighborhood crime is up, says Bailey, and so is the police presence.

Her house was insured against flooding, but not her deck, which is still missing after being destroyed in the flood. Her backyard shed stands in ruins, and in the woods behind her property Bailey still sees debris deposited there by floodwaters.

Inside the house, Bailey has put in new walls, wiring, plumbing and flooring.

She took the opportunity to switch from carpeting to exposed hardwood.

“I’m doing OK,” she said, a bit hesitantly.

Just OK?

“I’m not going to stretch it,” she added.

—Paul Govern