Tornadoes with winds as high as 180 mph 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.
Early reports said it was an EF2 tornado, but by this Monday the National Weather Service had revised this assessment to EF3, with winds between 135-180 mph.
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.
Thirteen 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 many as one thousand homes were in the storm path, and more than three hundred homes, trailers, businesses and three churches were destroyed, or damaged to where they are structurally unstable. An additional 118 homes have been determined to be severely damaged, but structurally sound.
The latest damage assessment in Macon County lists 194 houses completely destroyed by the storm; 63 more homes have severe structural damage, and 54 have enough damage to render them uninhabitable.
An estimated 257 households are homeless, but many are staying with family... and/friends.
Roofing tarps, generators and other emergency supplies are available for those who can remain in their homes with the available emergency assistance on hand.
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 tornado completely destroyed the large Columbia Gulf natural gas facility at Green Grove near the Macon-Trousdale County line. 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 thirteen 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.
A 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew was put in effect Wednesday night and continues, 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 Tuesday, February 19.
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.
A third house to house, road by road search was completed on Saturday afternoon, February 9, and all missing and unaccounted persons had been located at that time. The search and recovery effort then turned to a full-scale clean up mode.
Everyone has a story to tell, and we relate as many of them as possible in this week's paper.
[The Times staff wishes to thank all of the fine Emergency Management personnel who have cooperated day and night in getting as much information that would be useful to the media and the public out, with grace under fire. The Times Internet site has been updated every day since last Thursday, when power was restored to Lafayette. In times of public emergency, look to our local radio station and www.maconcountytimes.com for complete coverage of our community in our times of trial and tribulation.]
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