HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A tornado hit a bowling alley with 200 people inside on Saturday in Hendersonville.
Gabrielle Vannoy, 16, was working at Big Play.
“I am peaceful and happy at my job, I just didn’t want to die in straight chaos," Vannoy said. "There’s kids crying, a lot of people crying."
During the tornado, she grabbed onto a stranger for dear life. "I was holding onto her arm… she was praying," Vannoy said.
A beer still sits at an empty table across from the go-kart area that's destroyed. A manager inside the building had a gut feeling to move people to the middle.
"Who knows how many lives they saved doing that," Big Play Entertainment Center owner, Brandon Wooldridge, said.
They will rebuild one day. Sadly, they'd only been open a couple months. “It’s not going to happen overnight, but we will be back to the drawing board, and we’ll be back bigger and better,” Wooldridge said.
It's hard for Gabrielle and her mom to see the damage in the daylight.
"It’s emotional looking at it, I’m trying not to cry," Enecia Allen said, "Just grateful that she made it out safe."
And she's thankful for the strangers who comforted her daughter.
"That somebody took the time to pray with her during that time is very emotional," Allen said.
"God knew it wasn’t my time to go yet… anyone in that building He knew it wasn’t their time to go,” Vannoy said, “The little kids just wanted to celebrate their birthdays, and it ended in a night of horror.”
The non-profit Live Love Nashville had 500 gifts for children in need at Big Play. Volunteers and workers helped save most of the presents.
September 11, 2001 is a day most associate with terror and tragedy. Austin Pollack shares a story from that day about hope and persistence: the effort to save a little girl’s life – with an organ donation. The problem? The young patient was in Houston, and her life-saving liver here in Nashville. With the grounding of all civilian aircraft, how could it be done? “Nobody ever said this isn’t possible.”
- Rhori Johnston
