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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Strong storms that ripped through central Tennessee killed six people Saturday and sent about two dozen to the hospital as homes and businesses were damaged in several cities. .
Three people, including a child, were killed when an apparent tornado struck Montgomery County north of Nashville near the Kentucky state line, county officials said in a statement. new. And the Nashville Emergency Operation Center said in a post on social media that three people died in the storm in a neighborhood north of the city. Meanwhile, 23 other people were treated for injuries at hospitals in Montgomery County.
Photos posted by the Clarksville fire department on social media showed damaged homes and debris strewn across the lawn, a tractor trailer overturned on its side on a highway and away from the walls of houses.
“This is sad news and our hearts are broken for the families of those who have lost loved ones,” Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts said in a statement. “The city is ready to help them in their time of sorrow.”
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department identified those killed in the north side of the city as Joseph Dalton, 37; Floridema Gabriel Perez, 31, and her son, Anthony Elmer Mendez, 2. Dalton was in her mobile home when the storm tore over Perez’s home. The other two children, one from each home, were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, the department said in a statement.
No other 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 indoors while first responders investigated the situation. In a statement shared on social media, Pitts said there were many negatives.
“Please, if you need help, call 911 and help will come quickly. But if you can, please stay at home. Do not go on the roads. Our first responders need time and space,” he said.
Tennessee governor Bill Lee said he and his wife, Maria, were praying for all Tennesseans affected by the storms.
“We mourn the loss of life and ask everyone to continue to follow local and state guidelines,” Lee said in a statement.
Shanika Washington said that as soon as she heard the roar of the storm in her Clarksville neighborhood, she took her children, ages 5 and 10, to a windowless basement bathroom. his house.
“The lights were flashing, so I knew it was somewhere close,” he said. “I just kept praying to God while it was going on. It was very scary and scary.”
During their difficult 20 minutes in the bathroom, Washington hovered over her children as a protective shield.
“The back door really flew open, and you heard a breeze,” he said. “The blindness and things like tremors were really bad. I could tell we were dying in the middle of a storm.”
When he came out of the bathroom, he looked out the window and saw the devastation: Debris flowed over cars with broken windows. The shutters are torn from the houses. Some roofs were torn off the houses of the town. Air conditioners and backyard grills were tossed around like toys, and wooden rafts were missing between townhouses.
Since the power was out in the area, Washington took his children to a hotel for the night.
“I’m still shaking, maybe I won’t sleep much tonight,” said Washington. “I’m still trying to just take it all in.”
Allie Phillips, who lives in Clarksville, said she was eating lunch when she started getting reports of a tornado quickly approaching her neighborhood.
“It was very painful watching the live stream and not knowing if my house was still there,” he said. “When we decided to leave, the road to my house was closed because there were many power lines on the road and we had to take a road.”
Phillips said her home escaped with minimal damage — noting her daughter’s toys were hit and a neighbor’s dog house hit the back of her house — but he was saddened to see his neighbor’s house without a roof and a house on the block. all disappeared.
The National Weather Service issued several tornado warnings in Tennessee, and said it plans to search for an apparent tornado hit in Kentucky.
More than 80,000 electric 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 it 41 tornadoes in several states, including 16 in Tennessee and eight in Kentucky. 81 people died in Kentucky alone.
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Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia.