TN hit hard by storm

[WhiteLite]

http://www.lebanondemocrat.com/news.php?viewStory=2984

Natural gas fire lights night sky
By NICK FOWLER & AMELIA MORRISON HIPPS



An eerie orange glow pulsated across the Middle Tennessee horizon as a natural gas fire raged across a multi-mile area in Trousdale and Sumner counties Tuesday night.

The blaze was ignited when an apparent tornado touchdown at a Columbia Gulf Natural Gas pumping station on Harsh Road in Castalian Springs near the Trousdale-Sumner counties’ border, Wilson Emergency Management Agency spokesperson Jennifer Harmon said.

Harmon reported an undetermined number of fatalities and injuries due to the tornado. She reported the number of people being transported as “tremendous.”

“The tornado that landed did a tremendous amount of damage to homes and this Columbia Gulf filling station,” Harmon said.

At approximately 2:10 a.m., Harmon said WEMA was seeking donations of food, water and drinks for the responders and victims in Sumner and Trousdale counties.

“Anyone wanting to make donations are asked to please call 444-8799, ext. 110, or bring it by Station 1 on West Main Street in Lebanon,” she said. “Do not attempt to take items to Sumner or Trousdale County.”

As another squall line approached around midnight, emergency responders were rushing to get the injured out of the area, Harmon said.

Power had been out in Trousdale County since about 10:30 p.m. Phone service – both landline and cellular – was intermittent in Trousdale County, according to Liz Ferrell, managing editor of the Hartsville Vidette, a sister paper of The Lebanon Democrat.

Harmon confirmed that the 911 service in the effected area was having trouble. She said the firefighters could only try to mitigate the damage from the fire fueled by natural gas from the filling station.

According to an interview on Channel 4, WSMV-TV’s Web site, Kelly Merritt, a spokesperson for Columbia Gulf Natural Gas, said the company shut off the gas on both sides of the station, which is used to boost pressure in the gas line which runs from Louisiana to the West Virginia/Kentucky border. The station is not manned around the clock.

The glow from the fire, which could be seen 25 miles away in Lebanon and in areas of downtown Nashville, began to subside around midnight. By 12:30 a.m., the glow had disappeared from the skyline.

Wilson County Sheriff Terry Ashe said his department had 10 units committed to the disaster, mostly handling traffic in the area.

As they assisted, he said they began focusing on the incoming storms, which continued to pound the Middle Tennessee area into the early morning hours.

“We’ve got to back up and reassess when the storm hits,” Ashe said around midnight.

U.S. Highway 231 was reported to be packed with people headed south away from the fire.

According to Ferrell, Trousdale County Executive Jerry Clift had recommended that anyone who lives near the fire to evacuate, though there was not an official evacuation plan.

At approximately 1:15 a.m., Bill Mize, administrator of Trousdale Medical Center, said his Hartsville facility was treating several patients from the storm, but he could not confirm how many.

“Everything is out up here,” Mize said. “We’re on emergency power and all of our doctors and nurse practitioners are in. We have a full staff.”

Mize said on his way into the hospital earlier in the evening, he passed an area between the well-known Keller’s Restaurant and a service station down the road where it appeared as if a tornado had touched down.

“There was a lot of debris, and power lines were down,” he said.
Mize could not confirm whether there had been any fatalities in Trousdale County.

Ferrell said some churches in the Hartsville area were opening their doors as shelters if needed. She also that schools had been canceled for today because of the flu, not because of the storms.

Harmon said anyone who may have business north of Sumner or Trousdale counties should either cancel or take a alternative route that does not pass through them.

“They might want to avoid Macon County as well as it has quite a bit of damage as well,” she continued.

In addition, Harmon noted that 41 WEMA personnel – both paid and volunteer – were committed to assisting the neighboring counties as of 2:05 a.m. She said the majority of them were individuals who were scheduled to come to work at 7:30 this morning.

“It was awesome the way everyone jumped up and came in to help out,” she said. “We have continued to run with both on-duty and off-duty personnel who came in to augment our staff. At no time was Wilson County running on low on emergency personnel while assisting our neighbors.”

Hartsville Vidette Managing Editor Liz Ferrell and Staff Writer J.R. Lind contributed to this story.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...020703803.html

Tornado Toll Hits 57, But Survivors Found
Winds Up to 200 mph Pummeled South

By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 8, 2008; Page A12

LAFAYETTE, Tenn. Feb. 7 -- All over this small town of tobacco farms and lumber mills, people began yesterday to grieve and pick up the mess left behind after one of the deadliest tornado strikes in state history.

Rescuers here found three more people trapped in the rubble early Thursday morning -- healthy despite having been buried in their basement more than 24 hours, authorities said. About 75 households camped in a makeshift shelter at the National Guard Armory. And at house after house, families sifted through the destruction to find heirloom Bibles and treasured photographs amid splintered lumber.

Few places suffered as many deaths in the string of tornadoes that swept the South this week, killing 57, including 14 in this town and surrounding Macon County. President Bush is expected to visit on Friday.

"It's unbelievable how much power Mother Nature has -- it just goes to show you who's in charge," Macon County Mayor Shelvy Linville said, standing in a neighborhood in which several brick houses had been leveled. Tufts of insulation hung from trees. "For a lot of these people, the only things they have now is what they had on. There's people without even shoes."

The death toll rose slightly today, and search and rescue operations were continuing. So far, Tennessee has counted 32 dead, Arkansas 13, Kentucky seven and Alabama five.

There is no official national toll of the injured, but in Macon County alone, officials said about 70 had been sent to local hospitals.

National Weather Service officials began to count, map and classify the barrage of tornadoes that swept through. The twister that struck Lafayette could have inflicted far more damage, meteorologists said, but for a fortuitous swerve.

The tornado originated in a "supercell," or severe thunderstorm, that developed near Oxford, Miss., meteorologists said. The supercell passed Nashville, threatening the heavily populated area with devastation, but it rose as it did so.

"It went aloft and spared Nashville," said National Weather Service meteorologist Bobby Boyd. "Just luck, just . . . luck."

After passing Nashville, however, the tornado settled to the ground and tore a path to the northeast through Lafayette and into neighboring Kentucky.

It left behind a path -- of roofless homes, occupants fatally tossed into their yards, spilled furniture and wood framing turned to kindling -- that was sometimes as much as a mile wide, officials said.

The path of destruction was also startlingly long -- more than 20 miles. The average path of a Tennessee tornado is less than seven miles in length, officials said.

National Weather Service officials have estimated the strength of the tornado that struck here at EF2 or EF3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale of tornado severity, with an EF5 being the strongest. The Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said at least two tornadoes this week had wind speeds from 165 to 200 mph.

"They say a tornado sounds like a train -- but this was no train," said Susie Kirby, 38, who rode out the storm out in the cellar of her Lafayette home with her husband and two children, ages 9 and 11. "It sounded to me like a vacuum cleaner."

As the tornado passed in about 10 seconds, the family experienced suction pressure strong enough to lift off the roof, knock down the home's front and rear walls, and send all their belongings into a whirl. They covered their ears in pain.

Thursday morning, the family sorted through the debris looking for photographs and jewelry. Power lines were wrapped like Christmas lights around the yard's statuesque tree, at whose foot the shattered lumber had piled up.

"This is the first time Macon has ever experienced something like this," Linville said. "And I hope it's the last."

[greenhead]

My thoughts and prayers are with the many people who have lost their lives or will need to rebuild their lives from this tragedy.