Preliminary figures from the National Weather Service showed that more than 50 tornadoes touched down throughout the eastern United States. Most of those killed were in Tennessee, where 17 people died. Twelve others died in Alabama, five in Ohio, one in Pennsylvania and one in Mississippi. One storm slammed into the town of Mossy Grove, in eastern Tennessee, cutting a path of destruction about a mile long and a mile wide, officials said. Brenda Stansberry joined her husband in the basement of their Mossy Grove home only minutes before a tornado destroyed the house. When she came out, she said she was shocked to see the destruction. “It’s terrible,” she said. “I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like a war zone or worse.”
The storm hit during Sunday night services at the New Life Apostolic Church in Mossy Grove, badly damaging the church. The storm partially collapsed the building’s roof and shattered glass, sending parishioners scrambling under pews for safety. No one in the church was injured. David Gunther said he grabbed his 3-year-old daughter, jumped under a pew and started praying. “When you have a child, you just want to protect them. That was my first instinct,” he told CNN. “We got in the doors just in time.” Another congregation member, Kevin Davis, said simply, “We were just praying like we had never prayed before. … God kept his hand on us.”
Eight people were killed and 14 were unaccounted for in surrounding Morgan County, which is about 60 miles northwest of Knoxville, authorities said. One of those killed was a volunteer firefighter, who suffered a heart attack while searching for survivors in the debris. Four others were killed in their car as they tried to outrun the storm. Across the state, storms wreaked havoc, damaging or destroying hundreds of homes, uprooting trees and knocking down power lines. More than 80 people were injured. “I don’t remember ever having a two-day weather event take 17 lives,” said Kurt Pickering, a spokesman for Tennessee Emergency Management.
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The storms were puzzling because tornadoes rarely touch down in the South at this time of year. And according to the Tornado Project, an online encyclopedia of tornado data, there have been no November tornadoes reported in the three most affected Tennessee counties since detailed record- keeping began in 1950.
Until Monday, Morgan County had recorded only three tornadoes in the past 52 years, one each in the months of March, April and May, according to the Tornado Project. The tornadoes that struck Tennessee and Ohio may have exceeded level F3, which indicates an estimated wind speed of between 158 mph and 206 mph, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center. There were four deaths in Cumberland County, two in Montgomery County, two in Coffee County and one in Carroll County. At least 60 serious injuries have been reported. “We’ve been hit hard,” said Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist, who visited the region Monday afternoon to inspect the damage.
About 10,000 customers in Morgan County and another 10,000 in the rest of the state were without power Monday morning, authorities said. Radio announcers read the names of missing people over the air in an attempt to hook them up with authorities or loved ones. Emergency officials in helicopters tried to get an assessment of the damage. Authorities said people who want to find out about missing relatives and the injured in Tennessee should call 1-866-GET-INFO. People who want to make contributions should call 1-800-HELP-NOW.
Alabama was hard hit overnight Sunday as storms claimed at least nine lives in Walker County, northwest of Birmingham, and one life in Cherokee County near the Georgia border, according to Lee Helms, director of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. There was one storm-related death in Cullman County about 60 miles north of Birmingham. John Paul Myrick, an emergency management spokesman, said one person died of a heart attack.
- Tornadoes since 1950
- Cumberland County, Tenn.: 10
- Coffee County, Tenn.: 9
- Walker County, Ala.: 22
- Cullman County, Ala.: 40
- Pickens County, Ga.: 6
- Van Werth County, Ohio: 9
There were many injuries reported throughout the state, said Jimmy Jones, an Alabama emergency management coordinator, as well as damage to a high school, power lines, farm structures and two churches. In Walker County, Johnny Burnette, the emergency management agency director, said Carbon Hill Junior High School was “blown away.” Buildings were damaged, people were trapped in their homes, and one emergency worker was hit by a live power line, he said. (Read more about damage in Carbon Hill) Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman inspected the damage in Walker County after declaring a state of emergency. “In outlying parts of the county, the houses are totally annihilated, devastated, like somebody wrapped up sticks of dynamite and blew these homes into little tiny pieces,” Siegelman said. In Alabama, emergency officials urge citizens who need assistance to call 911 or their local emergency management offices.
Northwestern Ohio’s Van Wert County was one of the hardest-hit areas. Two people were killed, two were critically injured and 17 others were hurt, said Rick McCoy of the county’s emergency management agency. As the band of weather moved northeast, it hit the town of Continental, in Putnam County, killing two people and injuring one, National Weather Service meteorologist Jeff Craven said. Shortly afterward, strong winds and possibly a tornado struck Logan County, south of Putnam. In north-central Ohio, storms caused widespread damage in Seneca County, killing one person and injuring two others when a home was leveled.
In Mississippi’s Lowndes County, a man was killed Sunday night when storms swept through the area, an official said. Fifty-five people were injured, 60 homes were damaged or destroyed and 10 businesses were destroyed in the county, which borders Alabama. Amy Carruth, state emergency management spokeswoman, said the storm knocked out power throughout the city of Columbus, a community of 26,000. Baptist Memorial Hospital is using auxiliary power. The storm slammed the Mississippi University for Women, destroying the gymnasium and two dorms and damaging the student union building, she said. A Mercer County emergency management official confirmed that one person was killed and others hurt during storms in the county, in northwestern Pennsylvania.
Severe storms roared through southeastern Kentucky, striking McCreary County. In Pine Knot, about 15 miles west of Williamsburg, part of the roof was torn from East Tabernacle Church, according to Lt. Stephen Dilreath of the McCreary County Fire Department.
