By Philip Duncan

America is having a rough time at the moment with major floods devastating the country music home of Nashville and a major oil slick now hitting the southern coastlines.

I was in Nashville in October last year – as my mother is a singer with the international Sweet Adelines (her division is the Waikato Rivertones).  To be honest I hate country music but I fell in love with Nashville.  It’s beautiful in its own way – very clean and the people are very friendly.

The country music area is actually amazing… where stars like Johnny Cash were born…and the very bars that they performed in still exist today.  It’s horrible to think such an historical city is being affected like this….not to say that less important cities deserve it…but if a flood has to hit somewhere you don’t want it to damage history I guess.

I spent a week in this city, only has about a million people, so it was easy to feel like one of the locals.

28 people have lost their lives in this state due to the floods – a number unheard of here in New Zealand, so it must be absolutely devastating for them.  Yes, America is big, but this state is not.

The good news is the flood levels are dropping.

Down to the southern coastline and the the major oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico is now making landfall.  Again, devastating… fisherman are banned from fishing by the US Government now… livelihoods on the line.  It’s terrible. 

I got flack from my blog in the Herald yesterday by saying people should stop attacking BP for this disaster…it was an accident, these things happen.  Let me make it clear that I’m not saying BP should be excused…but an accident doesn’t make them evil.  That was the point I was trying to make.  We all rely on oil…this is, unfortunately, a terrible consequence.