More than 20 people are dead and officials fear the death
toll could still rise, as rescuers continued yesterday to search through damage
after tornadoes ripped across Nashville and other parts of Tennessee early
yesterday morning as families slept.
At least 24 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.
The governor of Tennessee declared an emergency and sent the
National Guard to help with search-and-rescue efforts. State emergency
officials, who initially reported at least 25 dead, revised the toll to 24
fatalities last night.
An unspecified number of people were missing.
Early findings by National Weather Service survey teams
indicated that the damage in Nashville and Wilson County to the east was
inflicted by a tornado of at least EF-3 intensity, the agency said.
One twister wrecked homes and businesses across a 10-mile
stretch of Nashville that included parts of downtown, destroying more than
three dozen buildings. Another tornado damaged more
than 100 structures along a 2-mile path of destruction in Cookeville, which is
just a little over an hour south of Lake Cumberland.