“Not A Page Gone!” – Bibles Survive Nashville Tornadoes Undamaged

Several bibles survive Nashville Tornadoes

Despite the adverse effect of the Tuesday, March 3, early morning tornadoes in areas around Nashville, Tennessee with death toll rising to about 25 as at March 5, a number of Bibles have been discovered undamaged.

USA Today reported that on Wednesday, March 4, hundreds of additional volunteers “headed for hard-hit neighborhoods to help homeowners and renters sift through debris to find belongings and mementos.”

Among the debris are Bibles, one inscribed with the name of the owner and the date it was inscribed, perhaps marking a birthday or another landmark event in the recipient’s life.

In Putnam County, hardest hit with 18 deaths, the Bible was found among debris by first a responder identified only as Officer Denton of the Sparta Police Department, Amanda Hara of TV station WVLT reported.

“There’s not a page gone in this Bible,” Denton told WVLT. “It’s a family Bible. We’d like to find out whose family Bible it was.”

WVLT’s report said that search crews are “collecting items like that Bible and will try to get it back to the rightful owners. Officials said crews found two other Bibles, also untouched.”

One of the Bibles Denton found, the report said, “had been presented to Mary Evelyn Randalph (or Randelph) in 1946.” Hara said Denton asked her to take the Bible and help find its owner.

“You guys have a better shot at getting them back to their rightful owners than we do,” Hara said Denton told her in a live report from the disaster area.

Big Cee O’Neal, a musician and producer, was helping a friend clean up storm damage when he noticed a large book caught in a tree. It was the Holy Bible.