I've been thinking about floods a lot lately. A few weeks ago my hometown, Nashville, TN was hit with the worst flooding it's had in at least 80 years. Seeing all the images of the damage was pretty mind-blowing. I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around the extent of it all.

To make at least a little sense of it, I started diving into as much of the raw data as I could find. In the process, I realized a sad truth about floods. It's really easy to underestimate how big of a deal they are, provided they don't happen near to a place you have a particular attachment to. In the past decade, there have been a few floods that were at least as destructive as the Tennessee floods, but I don't really remember them. Or, I do remember them, but didn't think they were that big of a deal. Just a whole lot of rain. Add that to the fact that the Tennessee floods went down on a weekend where there was an environmental crisis, and a failed terrorist attack in NYC, and it's easy to see how the severity of the situation was lost on a lot of people outside of the South.

Here's an infographic I pulled together exploring the damages and lives lost in several of the largest floods over the past 100 years. Click through for a larger version.

And please, if you're feeling at all generous, there's a lot of folks in Nashville that could use a hand. Consider making a donation, buying something, or if you're in the area, take a little time to help out. Thanks.