NASHVILLE: Severe storms that tore through central Tennessee killed six people Saturday and sent about two dozen to the hospital as homes and businesses were damaged in multiple cities.
Three people, including a child, were killed after an apparent tornado struck Montgomery County north of Nashville near the Kentucky state line, county officials said in a news release.
The Nashville Emergency Operation Center said in a post on a social media account that three people were killed by severe storms in a neighbourhood just north of downtown. Meanwhile, another 23 people were treated for injuries at hospitals in Montgomery County.
Photos posted by the Clarksville fire department on social media showed damaged houses with debris strewn in the lawns, a tractor-trailer flipped on its side on a highway and insulation ripped out of building walls.
“This is devastating news and our hearts are broken for the families of those who lost loved ones,” said Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts in a statement. “The city stands ready to help them in their time of grief.”
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department identified the victims killed north of downtown as Joseph Dalton, 37; Florida Gabriel Perez, 31, and her son, Anthony Elmer Mendez, 2. Dalton was inside his mobile home when the storm-tossed it on top of Perez’s residence. Two other children, one in each home, were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the department said in a statement.
No further information about the other three deaths was immediately available Saturday night.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that a tornado touched down around 2 p.m. A shelter was set up at a local high school.
Residents were asked to stay at home while first responders evaluated the situation. In a briefing shared on social media, Pitts said there was extensive damage.
“So please, if you need help, call 911 and help will be on the way immediately. But if you can, please stay home. Do not get out on the roads. Our first responders need time and space,” he said.
Allie Phillips, who lives in Clarksville, said she was grabbing lunch when she began receiving notifications that a tornado was quickly approaching her neighbourhood.
“It was excruciating watching the livestream and not knowing if my house was still there,” she said. “When we finally decided to leave, the road to my home was shut down because so many power lines were on the road and we had to take a detour.”
Phillips said her home survived with minimal damage – noting that her daughter’s toys were banged up and that a neighbour’s dog kennel hit the back of her home – but she was saddened to see that her neighbour’s house was missing a roof and home up the block had all but completely disappeared.
The National Weather Service issued multiple tornado warnings in Tennessee and said it planned to survey an area where an apparent tornado hit Kentucky.
More than 80,000 electricity customers were without power in Tennessee on Saturday night, according to PowerOutage.us.
The storm came nearly two years to the day after the National Weather Service recorded 41 tornadoes through a handful of states, including 16 in Tennessee and eight in Kentucky. A total of 81 people died in Kentucky alone.