Tennessee cleans up after tornadoes

GALLATIN, Tenn. – Emergency teams spray-painted damaged houses with “X” signs Saturday after checking them for bodies or survivors and crews moved in dump trucks to haul away the wreckage piled up by tornadoes blamed for 12 deaths.

Bystanders were warned not to smoke because of leaking gas, while police patrolled to ensure there was no looting.

Emergency officials implemented a dusk-to-dawn curfew for the worst-hit areas, and National Guard soldiers were brought in to patrol.

“If there’s tore-up stuff, don’t go there,” Gallatin Police Chief John A. Tisdale said.

Tornadoes were spotted in about 10 Tennessee counties on Friday, the second wave of deadly storms to hit the state in less than a week, weather officials said. The worst damage appeared to be in Gallatin and other suburbs northeast of Nashville.

Steve Hurt and eight other people survived by taking shelter in a fireproof room with concrete walls at Lee Electric Supply Co. in Gallatin.

“You could hear people yelling and screaming outside and the debris hitting the walls,” said Hurt, who said one of his co-workers was killed.

One of the tornadoes that hit the area chewed up a path 150 to 200 yards wide and at least 10 miles long, estimated Jimmy Templeton of the Sumner County Sheriff’s Department.

Nine people were killed in Sumner County and three were killed in Warren County, about 65 miles southeast of Nashville, state Emergency Management Agency spokesman Randy Harris said Saturday. Hospitals admitted at least 60 people with storm-related injuries.

Harris said a preliminary count showed that 700 to 900 homes in Sumner County and another 500 to 700 in Warren County were damaged or destroyed.

“I’m amazed we didn’t have more fatalities,” said Sonny Briggance, rescue chief for Sumner County. “Although the number is high, we are still very lucky.”

Later Friday and into Saturday, another line of severe thunderstorms rolled through Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.

The National Weather Service said four tornadoes swept through Georgia. The twisters destroyed businesses, homes and at least one church in the Atlanta area and knocked out power to tens of thousands, authorities said. No deaths or serious injuries were reported.

Several people were injured in Alabama, two by falling trees, but no deaths were reported, officials said Saturday.

One person was injured in South Carolina as three tornadoes touched down around Charleston, the weather service said.