14 CONFIRMED DEAD IN MACON COUNTY TORNADOES
(REVISED SUNDAY, FEB. 10, 2008)
The Tennessee Farm Bureau, the insurer with the most clients in hard-hit Macon County, said that of the 336 claims they have received statewide for destroyed homes deemed to be total losses or uninhabitable, more than half have been in Macon County.
One of Macon County's largest employers, Fleetwood Homes, suffered wind damage and loss of power until Friday, February 8.
"We couldn't run our operations, so we told employees to come in and we'd pay them to go out and help with clean-up for relatives or co-workers who had damaged or destroyed homes," said plant manager Bill Graves. About 50 of the plant's employees came in to help with clean-up duties.
F&M Furniture was one of the hardest hit businesses in Macon County. F&M's storage facilities, located about a mile out the Scottsville Road, were destroyed. Four buildings in the company's mini-storage facility were blown away, as were four trailers used to deliver furniture.
Several farmers, including the well-known Marty Coley, who keeps cattle and raises tobacco on his 1,500 acre farm, lost nearly everything in the storm.
Coley lost his home, a rental house nearby, six greenhouses, 11 barns and three miles of fencing.
The personal and property losses come in the wake of tornadoes which ripped a wide swath through Sumner,Trousdale, and Macon counties in Upper Middle Tennessee, and Monroe County in Kentucky Tuesday night, February 5, leaving in its path a savage picture of death and destruction never seen before in this area.
The worst damage and the largest number of fatalities were in Macon County, from the Green Grove community in the southwest, to Galen near the Kentucky line in the northeast.
Fourteen people, from the age of four to elderly citizens in their nineties, were confirmed dead in Macon County; 68-to-70 people were injured seriously, many more were described as "walking wounded," and hundreds were left homeless and 40-to-60 families were being sheltered in the National Guard Armory as of Sunday, February 10.
As many as one thousand homes were in the storm path, and three hundred homes, trailers, businesses and three churches were destroyed, or damaged to where they are structurally unstable.
The tornado completely destroyed the large Columbia Gulf natural gas facility at Green Grove near the Macon-Trousdale County. The flames from the facility could be seen as far away as Cookeville. A number of homes near the facility were also destroyed by the tornado, but were untouched by the flames. No one was working at the Columbia Gulf plant when it erupted in flames, which lit up the night sky.
"It was like Armageddon out here," resident Lawrence York told Nashville TV Channel 4. York watched his own home blow away as he huddled in a cellar nearby.
Macon County Emergency Management director Keith Scruggs said the tornado remained on the ground as it crossed diagonally across the county, leaving a debris field as wide as one-mile wide in places. It brushed the west edge of Lafayette near the golf course at about 10:20 p.m., Tuesday night, destroying a number of homes on the Maple Grove Road, Long Creek Road and Golf Course Drive; the storm continued its path of destruction through the Akersville Road/Williams Community area, where at least five people died in mobile homes and in wood frame homes, many of them on Twins Lane.
Former Times columnist Dixie Ellis "From the Heart of Dixie" was one of the fourteen confirmed fatalities. Ms. Dixie's mobile home was demolished by the storm. At the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, a sturdy brick structure located near Ms. Dixie's house, only the concrete steps of the landmark church remained intact.
Funeral services for Dixie Marie Ellis, 79, were conducted at Alexander Funeral Home in Lafayette at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 9. Burial followed in the Drury Cemetery.
Early reports of the death of Macon Bank and Trust employee Linda Howard happily proved to be untrue. Her home was destroyed but when the tornado hit she was huddled down in an interior hallway with a pillow and a piece of broken drywall for protection. When the storm passed, the walls of the hallway were the only thing left standing. County Commissioner Helen Hesson survived under similar circumstances, with only interior walls of her Golf Club Drive home left standing following the tornado's wrath.
Three people were found Wednesday evening, uninjured but trapped in the basement of their home by debris and the ruins of their brick home.
A second "house to house" search by emergency personnel was conducted Thursday morning, with as many a 200 persons not accounted for and presumed missing at that time.
Confirmed dead in Macon County included Dixie Ellis, Galen Community; William Thomas Manier, 90, Coleman Lane (near Green Grove); Jimmy Shaw, Fox Chase Lane (near Akersville Road; Mark Aaron Brown, 19, (Golf Course Drive area); Stan Francis, 50, Parker Lane (Long Creek Road area); Johnny Doolin, 59, Lafayette; and Carol Boyd, Doublewide Lane (the Williams area); Pablo Gonzalez, (Akersville Road area); Bill Clark (Carr Branch Road); and father Rex Payne, 49, and daughter Courtney Payne, 4 (Twins Lane/Akersville Road).
In the Amos, KY area four persons were confirmed dead: Hunter Stephens, age 2, and his grandmother, Linda Stephens, 53; Joy Dow, 58, and Michael Dow, 50.
In the Castalian Springs area west of Hartsville, a young woman, Keri Stowell died. Keri is the granddaughter of Jimmy and Mildred Cox of Lafayette. The Cox's 11 month-old great grandson survived, found crying in a ditch by local first responder David Harmon
In Hartsville the confirmed dead included Clarence and Christine Scott, an elderly couple thought to be in their 80's.
Officials were reluctant to release a list of all the confirmed fourteen Macon County fatalities until all next of kin had been notified. Information here was obtained from local funeral homes and was incomplete at best. The Times staff is doing its best to gather information and it will appear as it becomes available. Complete obituary information may not be available until Monday at the earliest.
A 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew was put in effect Wednesday night, strictly enforced in the heavily damaged areas to prevent both injuries from unstable structures, and possible looting. One person was arrested for looting homes in the Akersville Road area Wednesday, and three businesses were broken into in Lafayette late Tuesday night, and one similar incidence in Red Boiling Springs. Thieves took advantage of the darkness and inoperative burglar alarm systems due to the county-wide power outage. Power was restored to Lafayette and Red Boiling Springs at about 8 p.m. Wednesday night.
Schools in Macon County were canceled for the remainder of the week and for next week. Classes will resume on Monday, February 18.
Power may not be restored to the hardest hit areas for more than a week. Tri-County EMC was being assisted by crews from Cumberland EMC and a number of private contractors. North Central Telephone Cooperative crews were working along with the Tri-County linemen to restore service as they share poles with the local electric cooperative in many areas.
Look to our Weekly Updates for resources and assistance information available to storm victims. As complete account as possible will appear in our print edition Tuesday afternoon, February 12.
We thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. Volunteer spirit prevails in Tennessee, and we have had ample volunteer assistance from the entire region, and donations of money and supplies are flowing into Lafayette to help feed and house the people left homeless by the storm.
Post a Comment
