Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/26753
$270 BY EDITH BILLUPS On November 19th, following his speech to those attend- ing a spectacular grand reopening celebration of the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville,TN, CEO Colin Reed beamed as guests applauded the herculean feat that his staff had accomplished in amere 195 days. Everything about the newly reopened GaylordOprylandResort&Convention Center has been improved after a record- breaking flood leftmuch ofNashville,TN underwater.Rather thana traditional rib- bon-cutting ceremony, Gaylord Entertainment chose to reopen its signa- ture resort with an awe-inspiring display of modern dancers on wires hung from the ceiling,a gospel choir,a full orchestra, and a spectacular array of pyrotechnics throughout themassiveDeltaAtrium. Hotel guests and other invited digni- taries filled every seat, crowded thewalk- ways, and leaned over banisters on the second and third floors to get a view of the impressive entertainment below. Noting that,“It’s still difficult to describe the emotions I felt at sunrise on May 32 third, when the first light revealed the water completely surrounding and breaching this magnificent hotel. But despite the devastation we witnessed, I never had any doubt that our company, with the support of our STARS and our community,would prove ourselves to be equal to this challenge,” saidReed. ThehistoricNashville floodtookplace during the first two days ofMay when 13 inches of rain rapidly fell, causing The Cumberland River to reach nearly 12 ft. above flood stage. The flood displaced thousands of residents and closed hun- dreds of businesses, including the Grand OldOpry,The Schermerhorn Symphony Center and the 2,881-room Gaylord Opryland Resort that incurred extensive damage at a cost of more than $270 mil- lion. The largest non-gaming in-hotel facili- ty located in the continental United States, Gaylord Opryland boasts more than600,000 sq. ft.ofmeeting,convention and exhibit space and is known for pro- viding superior products and service to themeeting and convention industry. And with nearly 3,600 STARS (hotel employees), the resort provides one- fourth of the county’s revenues from hotel rooms.When the largest flood to impact the city of Nashville in years occurred, the hotel’s closingwould have a major impact on the city. According to Pete Wein, the resort’s senior vice president and generalmanag- er, “On Saturday, we had begun to see some power outages, but on the second day, we started to see flooding in the hotel, so we decided to stop checking people in, When we saw the levee’s waters were about to crest,we made the decision to start powering down and move our 1,500 guests.We used 16motor coaches to move our guests to a nearby high school. Later, nearly 500 local resi- dents also came.” On May 3rd, Wein returned to the hotel at 5 a.m.“andwas completely taken aback by the water that had gotten in. It ripped my heart out to see nine feet of water in some places in the hotel, with chairs floating by. It was a sobering expe- rience not knowing what the future held Black Meetings & Tourism January/February 2011: www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com