A Miracle Amidst Tragedy In Clarksville

Image Credit: CSOFA Clarksville School of Fine Arts / Facebook

The Tennessee Conservative [By Rebecca Scott] –

On Saturday, December 9, at approximately 1:35pm, Clarksville, Tennessee was hit with an EF-3 tornado that left a path of destruction 600 yards wide and remained on the ground for 43 miles.

3 lives were lost in Clarksville and, according to Montgomery County Emergency Management, “1,974 residential sites, 58 commercial sites and 3 public facilities were hit by the tornado.”

As Clarksville residents and volunteers grieve, repair, and rebuild, Gabriel Huff, the fine arts director of Clarksville School of Fine Arts, is thankful for a miracle that quite possibly saved hundreds of lives.

The school had originally scheduled its Christmas play to be performed at 1pm on December 9^th.

Due to a student moving out of the country, the school had decided to move the performance up to Saturday, December 2^nd, with almost 300 people in attendance.

Had the event occurred as originally planned, those in attendance would have been in the building at the exact time when the tornado came through Clarksville and destroyed the Clarksville School of Fine Arts.

According to Huff, there is nothing left of the theater where the play had taken place.

Huff said he is “grateful and thankful for a God who would protect us months ahead before we had any idea what the weather was going to do.”

While many lives were most likely saved, the school building was destroyed and $45,000 of uninsured equipment is a total loss.

As reported by WSMV, Huff “said his family worked for a long time to build the business and had just gotten into the building a year and a half ago.”

While there are no definitive plans for how the school will move forward, there is a GoFundMe set up to contribute towards the rebuilding process.

While buildings can be replaced, it is a miracle that so many lives were preserved because of what was originally thought to be a simple scheduling conflict.

Rebecca Scott is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Rebecca at Rebecca@tennesseeconservativenews.com.