As Nashville faced the worst flooding in Tennessee history, Melaleuca Marketing Executives pooled resources to aid those in need.
Thirteen inches. Who knew a mere thirteen inches could leave about 2,600 people homeless on the streets, cause 42 (out of 92) Tennessee counties to be declared national disasters and take the lives of 21 people? Just 13 inches—that’s all it took for the banks of the Cumberland River to unleash its muddy water into the streets of the music capital of the world, Nashville, Tenn., and forever alter the lives of thousands of people.
Downtown Nashville is seen following flooding from the Cumberland River on May 5, 2010. Nashville received over 13 inches of rain over the weekend causing flash floods that has killed at least 18 people and forced the evacuation of Nashville landmarks like the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry. UPI/Terry Wyatt
Rhonda and Michael Hendrix were among those people whose lives changed due to the flood. They didn’t lose their home, but their basement flooded, ruining many of the power tools Michael, a contractor, used to earn a living.
“I lovingly called this his ‘man cave,’” says Rhonda. “All of his tools, saws, equipment, his pool table, and even office furniture were floating in brown, murky water.”
"You never know until you're faced with something of that magnitude. I can't imagine where we would be without Melaleuca" - Rhonda Hendrix, Executive Director III
But things got especially bad when the water reached chest depth and kept rising. The Hendrixes worried the flood would rise to the main floor and ruin their entire home. The basement was salvageable, but the whole house would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to rebuild, and they were just one year away from paying off their mortgage.
“When we realized that the water might come into the main floor,” says Rhonda, “my husband looked at me and said, ‘Okay, we need to start carrying things upstairs, but we can’t carry everything, so what do you want to take upstairs?’ I just thought, ‘Here we are, working so hard to pay off everything and we’re about to lose it all.’”
Fortunately, the water did not inch its way up to the main floor. Instead, it gradually started to subside and the Hendrix family gave a sigh of relief.
The view from Executive Director III Rhonda Hendrix's deck
For the first few days, their only means of transportation was a boat. They had no electricity for five days and no cell phone service for 10. And, because they didn’t live on a flood plain, the Hendrix family didn’t have flood insurance. Fortunately, what they do have is a strong, residual Melaleuca income of $9,664.41 in May.
“My husband didn’t work for almost the entire month of May,” says Rhonda. “We were able to rely on the residual income [from Melaleuca] and the money we’d saved from my Melaleuca business. We worked together to remodel our home and not worry about finances.”
Financial stability is not the only way Melaleuca helped the Hendrix family through this trying time. Rhonda says they received a lot of support from the Melaleuca team, especially National Vice President Johnny Morigson and Regional Manager Evan Mann.
“How many companies support people in the field like that?” asked Rhonda.
- The effects of the flood in the Hendrix basement
The Hendrix family was not the only family blessed by Melaleuca during the flood. Executive Director JoAnn Goodman was acting as event director for the Nashville Launch when the storm began. Though a truck ran into her car and caused $15,000 worth of damage during the storm, the hotel the Launch was held at was far enough away from the flood damage that the 80 Melaleuca builders who attended were safely out of harm’s way.
Though it was devastating for JoAnn to lose her brand-new Mercedes that was featured in the May Leadership in Action, she put her sorrow aside and helped those in worse conditions. She met a woman who didn’t even have enough money to pay for shoes so she could attend her child’s graduation. JoAnn collected clothes and shoes from her friends and presented them to the devastated woman.
“These people weren’t poverty stricken, and, all of a sudden, everything was taken from them,” says JoAnn. “I can’t complain at all about having a damaged car because many people lost everything they had.”
Though she wouldn’t wish to go through this disaster again, JoAnn believes that it brought everyone closer together. She says it was wonderful to see everyone step in and help those in need.
Thousands of people were evacuated and 2,000 homes were destroyed or damaged by the flood. Nashville Mayor Karl Dean says it will cost an estimated $1.5 billion to cleanup and repair the city.
“Unless you’ve been through this, you can’t even imagine what we’re going through,” says JoAnn. “A lot of people lost their jobs. A lot of people lost everything.”
Yet for Melaleuca Marketing Executives—even those who watched their lives wash away in the disaster—there is hope for the future.
“You never know until you’ll be faced with something like that,” says Rhonda. “I can’t imagine where we would be without Melaleuca.”
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