Couple get to shelter thanks to alerts
Three remain missing from Tennessee twisters
BAXTER, Tenn. — Billy Dyer’s cellphone blared out an emergency alert, then his wife’s phone followed, giving them just enough time to get downstairs and flip on a TV to check the news.
Then the tornado hit.
When the sun rose Tuesday morning, Billy and Kathy Dyer emerged to find the walls around their corner bedroom gone. Their mattress was perched precariously on their bed’s headboard, with only sky all around.
“Thank God we had enough time to get downstairs to the basement or we would probably not be here,” Dyer said.
State emergency officials said 24 people died when fast-moving storms crossed Tennessee early Tuesday. Eighteen of them died in Putnam County, some 80 miles east of Nashville.
The twister that hit Putnam County was classified EF-4, the second-strongest category, with winds of 175 mph, the National Weather Service said Wednesday evening.
The number of people unaccounted for dropped to three from 21, Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said late Wednesday afternoon. The search is about 90 percent complete, Putnam County Sheriff Eddie Farris said.
“We have made some great progress today,” Porter said, adding it was a “time-consuming process” tracking down those still unaccounted for.
People across Nashville were awakened by outdoor sirens warning of the tornado danger early Tuesday. Sirens also sounded in parts of Putnam County, but in the Dyers’ Double Springs community, deep in the countryside, no such systems exist.
“If the cellphones didn’t have the emergency call, it wouldn’t have been good,” Dyer said.
John C. Tune Airport, a smaller airport in Nashville that generally serves corporate and private aircraft, estimated $93 million in infrastructure damage. Nashville International Airport emerged unscathed.
In Nashville, 33,000 customers remained without power Wednesday, and Nashville Electric Service said service will be restored by Monday to most customers still able to receive power.
Gov. Bill Lee declared an emergency, sent the National Guard to assist search-and-rescue efforts and ordered flags over the state Capitol to fly at half-staff until Friday for those killed. President Donald Trump, who plans to visit Friday, tweeted: “The USA stands with the people of Tennessee 100%, whatever they need!”