At least 6 dead after severe storms, tornadoes hit Tennessee, leave trail of damage

Extreme storms that tore by way of central Tennessee killed six folks Saturday and despatched no less than three dozen others to space hospitals, as houses and companies had been broken in a number of cities.

Three folks, together with a baby, had been killed after a twister struck Montgomery County north of Nashville close to the Kentucky state line, county officers mentioned in a information launch. Montgomery County officers mentioned one other 23 there have been handled for accidents at hospitals.

And the Nashville Emergency Operation Middle mentioned in a publish on a social media account that one other three folks had been killed by extreme storms there. 

A constructing collapse at a Nashville church despatched 13 folks to native hospitals, the Nashville Workplace of Emergency Administration reported late Saturday evening. The sufferers had been all in steady situation. 

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Workplace famous it was “nonetheless within the search and rescue section of this catastrophe.”

“We have been hit very arduous by a twister right here in Clarksville and Montgomery County,” Montgomery County Mayor Wes Golden mentioned in a video posted to social media Saturday night.

Pictures posted by the Clarksville hearth division on social media confirmed broken homes with particles strewn within the lawns, a tractor trailer flipped on its aspect on a freeway and insulation ripped out of constructing partitions.

“We nonetheless have a number of energy strains down, there are a number of areas which can be unsafe,” Golden mentioned.

Residents had been requested to remain at residence whereas first responders evaluated the state of affairs. 

“We all know there’s in depth injury all through the neighborhood, so we have to maintain households who’re desperately in want of assist,” Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts mentioned within the video.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned in an earlier assertion {that a} twister touched down round 2 p.m. native time. A shelter was arrange at an area highschool.

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell declared a state of emergency to permit for town to obtain state and federal emergency sources.

“Tonight, Nashville joins different communities throughout Center Tennessee grieving lack of life from lethal tornadoes,” O’Connell wrote on social media. “As we proceed to take inventory of the devastation, please preserve our neighbors in your ideas and prayers. Be protected and take care of each other.”

The Nashville Workplace of Emergency Administration mentioned that “a big and very harmful twister” that was transferring east was reported by the Nationwide Climate Service in White Bluff, a city about 30 miles east of Nashville, and extreme climate hit the Nashville space at about 4 p.m. native time. 

Shanika Washington advised the Related Press that as quickly as she heard the storm sirens going off in her Clarksville neighborhood, she took her kids, ages 5 and 10, to a windowless rest room within the basement of her townhouse.

“The lights had been flickering, so I knew it was someplace shut within the neighborhood,” she mentioned. “I simply saved praying to God because it was happening. It was very terrifying and scary.”

Throughout their 20 harrowing minutes within the rest room, Washington hovered over her kids as a protecting protect.

“The again door completely did fly open, and also you simply heard a bunch of wind,” she mentioned. “The blinds and stuff had been like shaking actually dangerous. I might inform that we had been lifeless smack in the midst of a storm.”

When she got here out of the toilet, she seemed out of a window and noticed the destruction: Particles swept onto automobiles that had their home windows damaged out. Shutters ripped from houses. Some roofs had been ripped off townhouses. Air-con models and yard grills had been tossed like toys, and wood dividers between townhouses had been lacking.

As a result of the ability within the space was out, Washington took her kids to a lodge for the evening.

“I am nonetheless shaken up a bit bit, so I in all probability will not get a lot sleep tonight,” Washington mentioned. “I am nonetheless attempting to simply sort of like course of all of it.”

Greater than 56,000 prospects had been with out energy in Tennessee as of late Saturday evening, in keeping with utility tracker PowerOutage.us. Town of Springfield, situated about 30 miles east of Clarksville, reported Saturday evening that energy was out to the whole metropolis, and requested its residents to remain off the roads. 

The Nationwide Climate Service issued a number of twister warnings in Tennessee, and mentioned it deliberate to survey an space the place an obvious twister hit in Kentucky.

Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee mentioned he and his spouse, Maria, had been praying for all Tennesseans who had been affected by the storms.

“We mourn the lives misplaced and ask that everybody proceed to observe steerage from native and state officers,” Lee mentioned in a press release.

The storm got here practically two years to the day after the Nationwide Climate Service recorded 41 tornadoes by way of a handful of states, together with 16 in Tennessee and eight in Kentucky. A complete of 81 folks died in Kentucky alone.  

Extra from CBS Information