Tornadoes ripped across Tennessee early Tuesday, shredding at least 40 buildings and killing at least 19 people. One of the twisters caused severe damage across downtown Nashville, destroying the stained glass in a historic church and leaving hundreds of people homeless.
Daybreak revealed a landscape littered with blown-down walls and roofs, snapped power lines and huge broken trees, leaving city streets in gridlock. Schools, courts, transit lines, an airport and the state capitol were closed, and some damaged polling stations had to be moved only hours before Super Tuesday voting began.
The death toll jumped to 19 Tuesday, Tennessee Emergency Management Spokeswoman Maggie Hannan said, after police and fire crews spent hours pulling survivors and bodies from wrecked buildings.
B次元官网网址淟ast night was a reminder about how fragile life is,B次元官网网址� Nashville Mayor John Cooper said at a Tuesday morning news conference.
Nashville residents walked around in dismay as emergency crews closed off roads. Roofs had been torn off apartment buildings, large trees uprooted and debris littered many sidewalks. Walls were peeled away, exposing living rooms and kitchens in damaged homes. Mangled power lines and broken trees came to rest on cars, streets and piles of rubble.
B次元官网网址淚t is heartbreaking. We have had loss of life all across the state,B次元官网网址� said Gov. Bill Lee. He ordered nonessential state workers to stay home just before he was set to fly in a helicopter to survey damage.
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President Donald Trump said heB次元官网网址檇 visited the area Friday. B次元官网网址淲e send our love and our prayers of the nation to every family that was affected,B次元官网网址� he said. B次元官网网址淲e will get there, and we will recover, and we will rebuild, and we will help them.B次元官网网址�
The tornadoes were spawned by a line of severe storms that stretched from Alabama into western Pennsylvania.
In Nashville, the twisterB次元官网网址檚 path was mostly north and east of the heart of downtown, leaving many of its biggest tourism draws B次元官网网址� the honky tonks of Broadway, the Grand Ole Opry House, the storied Ryman Auditorium, and the convention centreB次元官网网址� unharmed. Instead the storm tore through areas transformed by a recent building boom. Germantown and East Nashville are two of the cityB次元官网网址檚 trendiest neighbourhoods, with restaurants, music venues, high-end apartment complexes and rising home prices threatening to drive out longtime residents.
B次元官网网址淭he dogs started barking before the sirens went off, they knew what was coming,B次元官网网址� said Paula Wade, of East Nashville. B次元官网网址淭hen we heard the roar B次元官网网址� Something made me just sit straight up in bed, and something came through the window right above my head. If I hadnB次元官网网址檛 moved, I wouldB次元官网网址檝e gotten a face full of glass.B次元官网网址�
Then she looked across the street and saw the damage at East End United Methodist Church.
B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 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,B次元官网网址� she said.
Wade immediately recalled how a tornado damaged her own St. AnnB次元官网网址檚 Episcopal church down the street in 1998.
B次元官网网址淚 had no idea that I still had some PTSD from that other experience so long ago, but the sound of the sirens, that low sound, thereB次元官网网址檚 just nothing like it,B次元官网网址� she said. B次元官网网址淭o look out and see the church, its just heartbreaking. It brings out everything that happened to St. AnnB次元官网网址檚.B次元官网网址�
The roof came crashing down on Ronald Baldwin and Harry Nahay in bedroom of the one-story brick home they share in East Nashville. B次元官网网址淲e couldnB次元官网网址檛 get out,B次元官网网址� said Baldwin. B次元官网网址淎nd so I just kept kicking and kicking until we finally made a hole.B次元官网网址�
Also in East Nashville, the roaring wind woke Evan and Carlie Peters, but they had no time to reach the relative safety of an interior bathroom. B次元官网网址淲ithin about 10 seconds, the house started shaking,B次元官网网址� Carlie Peters said. B次元官网网址淭he ceiling started coming down on us, so I jumped on top of the ground; he jumped on top of me. The ceiling landed on top of him. B次元官网网址� weB次元官网网址檙e grateful to be alive.B次元官网网址�
One tornado carved a path about 10 miles (16 kilometres) long, reportedly staying on the ground from near downtown Nashville along Interstate 40 to the cityB次元官网网址檚 eastern suburbs of Mt. Juliet, Lebanon and Hermitage.
Metro Nashville police said crews were responding to about 40 building collapses. Among them was the Basement East Nashville, a popular music venue that had just held an election rally for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. The crowd left shortly before the twister struck, the Tennessean newspaper reported.
The disaster affected voting in Tennessee, one of 14 Super Tuesday states. Officials said more than a dozen voting locations in NashvilleB次元官网网址檚 Davidson County were damaged. Voters are being told they can vote at other open locations nearby. Other sites were opening late.
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B次元官网网址淎nyone that wants to vote, we want to create an opportunity for you,B次元官网网址� Davidson County elections administrator Jeff Roberts said. Because poll workers will be navigating through a damaged city to deliver results Tuesday night, he said the tallying may take longer than anticipated.
A reported gas leak forced an evacuation of the IMT building in Germantown, according to WSMV-TV. Dozens of people, suddenly homeless, were seen carrying their belongings through garbage-strewn streets after the tornado blew through.
Schools were closed in Nashville and beyond. Nashville Electric tweeted that four of its substations were damaged in the tornado. Power outages were affecting more than 44,000 customers early Tuesday, the utility company said.
The governorB次元官网网址檚 spokeswoman, Gillum Ferguson, said hundreds of people went to a Red Cross shelter for displaced residents at the Nashville Farmers Market, just north of the state capitol, but a power outage there forced people to move again to the Centennial Sportsplex.
The storm system left just scattered rain in its wake as it moved eastward. Strong cells capable of causing damage were spotted in central Alabama, eastern Tennessee and the western Carolinas.
AP contributors include Jonathan Mattise and Mark Humphrey in Nashville, Rebecca Reynolds Yonker in Louisville, Kentucky, and Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama.
Travis Loller And Kimberlee Kruesi, The Associated Press
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