Springville graduate missing in Nashville after flood

Andy Port knew one of his best friends would follow his musical talent out of town shortly after graduation last year.

“That was his dream,” said Port, 19, on Wednesday when asked about his friend Danny Brown, 18. Port, a student at Kirkwood and former classmate of Brown's, said his friend hasn't been seen since he went tubing in Nashville on Sunday. “To be in a band and produce his own music. He packed up and went off to Nashville.”

The shock of Brown's disappearance is soaking in with his friends back in Springville.

“He was always trying to get us to sing,” said Nate McSpadden, 19, a sophomore at the University of Dubuque. “He was completely into his music.”

Looking through recent yearbooks from Springville High School, Brown's guitar usually dangles off his shoulder. He was just closing out his first year at the School of Audio Engineering in Nashville.

Brown's father, Roger Brown, said Wednesday the efforts to find Danny were “kind of hectic” as Nashville has been hit hard by a raging flood.

“It took a long time to explain what happened and get some focus on it,” said Brown. He said the people at his son's school have set up a task force and are reaching out to help in any way they can. Brown added that he and his wife, Joyce, first got the news on Sunday night and drove to Nashville right away.

As for any actual searching, Brown said the plan is to head out with private boats on Thursday morning to the spot where his son was last seen Sunday.

Brown graduated in 2009 in a class of 44 students at Springville.

“He has always been there for me,” said McSpadden. “Always helped me in whatever trouble I've been in.”

As word spreads through the town, friends say they do feel helpless as they have to close out their own school years.

“It's an awful feeling knowing he is so far away,” said Jordan Scriver, 18, a senior at Springville High. “Nobody can find him. It's just a terrible feeling and I can't describe it.”