‘Miracle’ Clarksville school play rescheduling likely saved hundreds of lives from tornado

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - The Clarksville tornado demolished the Clarksville School of Fine Arts, leaving its 150 students and staff with nowhere to learn.

Gabriel Huff, the school’s fine arts director, said at least $45,000 of uninsured equipment was destroyed, in addition to the building space. He 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.

“The instruments were smashed, lighting was gone, our entire theater was gone, our sound equipment, our film equipment,” Huff said. “Everything that we use for teaching classes and for doing what we do here at the school, it was either destroyed or gone.”

In all the destruction, though, Huff said there was a true miracle.

The school’s Christmas play was originally scheduled for Dec. 9 at 1 p.m., the exact day and time the building got hit by a tornado.

However, Huff said to accommodate a student who later told them she was moving out of the country, they moved the play up a week to Dec. 2, with almost 300 people in attendance.

“If we would have had 300 people in the building on the ninth instead of the second, we would be talking about the destruction of possibly hundreds of lives because there’s nothing left of the theater,” Huff said. “The theater is gone.”

Huff said God’s provision is what kept them from being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“I’m devastated at what took place and the destruction that took place,” he said, “but at the same time, I’m grateful and thankful for a God who would protect us months ahead before we had any idea what the weather was going to do.”

For now, Huff said they are figuring out the next steps and grieving with their students and community.

If you would like to help the school rebuild, you can donate to their GoFundMe page.

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