Earlier this year a devastating flood ripped through Nashville, Tenn., laying waste to everything in its path. Sadly, one of the companies in its path was Gibson USA. While the Gibson plant is operational again, the company is just now providing images of the damage caused by the storm. Calling the flood “a tragedy of staggering proportion,” Gibson said it was also a story of “perseverance, dedication, and spirit of the Nashville people.”

Gibson said that all of the guitars that were affected, or even possibly affected by the flood waters, have been destroyed. I certainly understand why they had to do that, but it breaks my heart to see so many guitars destroyed like that.

“It’s amazing how connected the employees are with this plant and this company,” said Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz. “When workers saw the damage, first came the tears. They wanted to know what happened to ‘their’ plant. They had been hit personally. But no one was hanging his head. Instantly, the focus turned to how Gibson could come back even better than before. Out of the disaster came an opportunity to be bigger, better and stronger. Gibson USA is producing the world’s greatest instruments and will continue to bring our many fans only the finest products.”

Clearly there are some incredible stories that happened behind the scenes. Gibson mentions a security guard who refused to leave his post until the last possible second and a supplier who drove all night from Chicago to bring critical items to the plant. They also said the human resources manager drove to the plant through torrential rains to help move items to dry areas.

On top of it all, Gibson worked with Music Rising, MusiCares and the Gibson Foundation to donate $250,000 to the musicians of Nashville so they could get new instruments.