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Tornadoes hit Tennessee; 11 dead

(AP)
Updated: 2006-04-08 20:18
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In the second wave of violent weather to hit the state in less than a week, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes tore off roofs, overturned cars and left 11 people dead.

Tornadoes hit Tennessee; 11 dead
Pieces of building material litter the area near the front of the Metro Baptist Church in Goodlettsville, Tenn., Friday, April 7, 2006, after a tornado hit the area. A line of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes marched across Tennessee on Friday, pulverizing homes, flipping cars and killing at least 11 people, officials said. The latest storms were spread widely across the state, with tornadoes touching down in about 10 separate counties, but the worst damage appeared to be in the fast-growing suburbs north of Nashville. No one was injured at the church. [AP]

While families of Sunday's tornado victims in the western counties of Dyer and Gibson planned funerals for this weekend, many residents of Sumner County began picking through newly flattened homes and mangled cars.

Talmadge Woodall, 81, described the twister that destroyed his house Friday afternoon as "rolling, throwing debris hundreds of feet in the air." He lived in an upscale subdivision of Gallatin, about 24 miles northeast of Nashville, where three bodies were found.

"These were at least half-million-dollar homes or better," he said. "Now there's nothing left. I didn't even have a shingle off my house."

The storm leveled at least five houses in the neighborhood to their hardwood floors. Aerial TV footage showed a tornado carved a destructive path, with serious damage to dozens more homes.

Fire crews worked Friday evening with backhoes and heavy equipment to clear debris and used dogs to search for people trapped in the rubble.

Weather officials said tornadoes were spotted in about 10 Tennessee counties, but the worst damage appeared to be in the suburbs northeast of Nashville.

Eight people died in Sumner County and three deaths were reported in Warren County, about 65 miles southeast of Nashville. Warren County Executive Kenneth Rogers said the people killed there were found inside destroyed mobile homes.

Steven Davis, who lives about a block away from Woodall's subdivision, said he was at home when he heard the storm was coming. He ran to a neighbor's home to take shelter in a crawl space.

"When the tornado came through, the roof was off just like that," Davis said, snapping his fingers. Houses on each side of his street were destroyed.

Diane Carrier was in her house in the same area when her boyfriend called to warn her. She got some pillows and bedding and covered herself up in the laundry room.

"The next thing you know, the lights went out and everything started shaking and rumbling," she said. "I could hear cracking and snapping, and that was the roof coming off. It took seconds, then it was over."

Hospitals admitted at least 60 people with storm-related injuries and transferred at least nine critically injured patients to Nashville hospitals. Hendersonville Medical Center, south of Gallatin, was running on emergency power after the storm and admitted 20 patients.

Downtown Nashville was spared any damage, but the northern suburb of Goodlettsville took a heavy hit, said Molly Sudderth, spokeswoman for the Nashville mayor's office.

She said there were reports of damage to 55 homes, seven businesses and a church in Goodlettsville.

Nashville Electrical Service reported hundreds of electrical lines down and power outages for up to 16,000 customers, mostly in Goodlettsville. The number of power outages was down to 3,060 early Saturday, officials said.

The number of tornadoes in the United States has jumped dramatically through the first part of 2006 compared with the past few years, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center.

Through the end of March, an estimated 286 tornadoes had hit the United States, compared with an average of 70 for the same three-month period in each of the past three years.

The number of tornado-related deaths was 38 before Friday's storms. The average number of deaths from 2003 to 2005 was 45 a year, the prediction center said.

Dan McCarthy, with the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said the number of storms and deaths this season seems high because the past few years have been unusually mild.