Deadly tornadoes wreak havoc in Tennessee
Rescuers searched through shattered Tennessee neighbourhoods for bodies yesterday after tornadoes ripped across Nashville and other parts of the state as families slept. At least 25 people were killed, some in their beds, authorities said.
The twisters that struck in the hours after midnight shredded more than 140 buildings and buried people in piles of rubble and wrecked basements. The storms moved so quickly that many people in their path could not flee to safer areas.
‘‘It hit so fast, a lot of folks didn’t have time to take shelter,’’ Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said. ‘‘Many of these folks were sleeping.’’
The governor declared an emergency and sent the National Guard to the county to help with search and rescue efforts.
One twister wrecked homes and businesses across a 16-kilometre stretch of Nashville that included parts of downtown. It smashed more than three dozen buildings, including destroying the tower and stained glass of a historic church.
Another tornado damaged more than 100 structures along a 3.2km path of destruction in Putnam County, wiping some homes from their foundations and depositing the wreckage far away.
Daybreak revealed landscapes littered with blown-down walls and roofs, snapped power lines and huge broken trees, making many city streets and rural roads impassable. Schools, courts, transit lines and an airport were closed. The death toll climbed steadily as first responders gingerly pulled apart wreckage.
In Putnam County, 130km east of Nashville, trees, vehicles and other loose, heavy items had completely flattened houses and businesses. Governor Bill Lee stopped by to tour the devastation.
Nashville residents walked around on streets and sidewalks littered with debris, in neighbourhoods where missing walls and roofs left living rooms and kitchens exposed.
‘‘It is heartbreaking. We have had loss of life all across the state,’’ said Lee, who ordered non-essential state workers to stay home and then boarded a helicopter to survey the damage.
US President Donald Trump spoke with the governor by phone and pledged federal assistance, the White House said. Trump also announced plans to visit the disaster area on Friday.
The tornadoes were spawned by a line of severe storms that stretched from Alabama into western Pennsylvania.
In Nashville, the twister’s path was mostly north and east of the heart of downtown, sparing many of the city’s biggest tourism draws – the honky tonks of Broadway, the Grand Ole Opry, the storied Ryman Auditorium and the convention centre.
Instead, the storm tore through the largely African-American areas of Bordeaux and North Nashville as well as neighbourhoods transformed by a recent building boom.
Paula Wade, of East Nashville, saw the damage at East End United Methodist Church. ‘‘It’s this beautiful Richardsonian Romanesque church. The bell tower is gone, the triptych window of Jesus the good shepherd that they just restored and put back up a few weeks ago is gone,’’ she said.
With more than a dozen Super Tuesday polling places in Nashville’s Davidson County damaged, voters were sent to other locations, some of them with long lines.
The weather also reduced much of the interior of the long-closed Tennessee State Prison in Nashville to huge piles of bricks, the state Department of Corrections said in a tweet. The prison formed the set of The Green Mile and other films.