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U.S. NEWS Thursday 5 March 2020
Cellphone alerts helped

Tennessee couple

escape to basement

By TERESA M. WALKER stroyed aircraft and other
BAXTER, Tenn. (AP) — Billy damaged vehicles. Nash-
Dyer's cellphone blared ville International Airport
out an emergency alert, emerged unscathed.
then his wife Kathy's phone In Nashville, 33,000 cus-
followed, giving them just tomers remained without
enough time to get down- power Wednesday, and
stairs and flip on a TV to Nashville Electric Service
check the news. said most customers able
Then the tornado hit. to still receive power will be
When the sun rose Tues- restored by Monday.
day morning, the Dyers The storm has already
emerged to find the walls spurred an outpouring of
around their corner bed- private donations, includ-
room gone. Their mattress ing $1 million from Tennes-
was perched precariously see Titans controlling owner
on their bed's headboard, Amy Adams Strunk and the
with only sky all around. Titans Foundation.
"Thank God we had Dyer's own 34-year-old
enough time to get down- daughter, Brooke, found
stairs to the basement or shelter in the basement of
we would probably not be the house he grew up in
here," Dyer said. next door, and then "called
State emergency officials me screaming and crying."
said 24 people died when Moments after the tornado
fast-moving storms crossed passed, he ventured out
Tennessee early Tuesday. into the darkness and freed
Eighteen of them, including her from the rubble.
five pre-teen children, died "Thank God my mother had In this Tuesday, March 3, 2020 photo, Henry Watts works to re-
move debris from his home after a tornado ripped through the
in Putnam County, some 80 a basement, a very small Stanford Estates Neighborhood near Donelson Christian Acad-
miles (130 kilometers) east basement," the 64-year-old emy in Nashville, Tenn.
of Nashville. Eighty-eight Dyer said. "She was stand- Associated Press
more were injured in the ing there between the
county. crack of the door scream- homes from their founda- "In the worst of circum-
Twenty-one people remain ing and crying, top of the tions and scattered debris. stances, the best of people
unaccounted for, Putnam house gone." The garage Dyer's father comes out, and that's what
Sheriff Eddie Farris said, and Gov. Bill Lee declared an used as an auto mechanic we're seeing," he said.
about 40% of the rubble re- emergency, sent the Na- was scraped off its con- Justin Douglas, 22, was one
mains to be searched. tional Guard to help with crete slab, with metal raf- of them. He's a native of Mt.
People across Nashville search-and-rescue efforts ters crushing the front and Juliet outside Nashville, and
were awakened by out- and ordered flags over the rear of his red Mustang recently graduated from
door sirens warning of the state Capitol to fly at half- with an Elvis Presley license Tennessee Tech University
tornado danger early Tues- staff until Friday for those plate. in Cookeville — both plac-
day. Sirens also sounded in killed. President Donald Terry Cooler, an elder at es hit hard by tornadoes.
parts of Putnam County, Trump, who plans to visit the Double Springs Church He said he knew some of
but in the Dyers' Double Friday, tweeted: "The USA of Christ, found only a hole the victims.
Springs community, deep stands with the people of in his roof, which he thinks "Back home, there were
in the Tennessee country- Tennessee 100%, whatever was caused by flying de- some family friends that
side, no such systems exist. they need!" bris. Much worse was the they found laying in the
"If the cellphones didn't National Weather Service fate of the mother of a bed with the house col-
have the emergency call, it survey teams indicated deacon at his church, who lapsed on top of them, and
wouldn't have been good," that the damage in Nash- lost her home in the storm then a guy I went to church
Dyer said. ville and Wilson County to and then was rushed to with growing up, his daugh-
The twisters ripped off brick the east was inflicted by a a hospital for angioplasty ter passed and I don't know
facades, bent metal poles tornado of at least EF-3 in- and a stent. how him and his wife are,"
and shredded more than tensity, with wind speeds "I'm sure the stress didn't Douglas said. "I heard they
140 buildings while burying up to 165 mph (266 kmh), help her," Cooler said. "She's were in the hospital in
people in piles of rubble the agency said. One twist- 86 and lost everything." rough shape."
and wrecked basements. er wrecked homes and Dyer and his neighbors Douglas moved his skid-
Officials are still assessing businesses across a 10-mile spent Tuesday picking steer loader to the Double
the damage. (16 kilometer) stretch of through shattered glass, Springs area Tuesday night,
John C. Tune Airport, a Nashville, including parts of busted walls and drenched ready to help clean up
smaller airport in Nashville downtown. belongings for anything to Wednesday.
that generally serves cor- The tornado that struck salvage. "Well, we need to go help
porate and private air- Putnam County damaged After surveying the dam- because these are our
craft, estimated $93 million more than 100 structures age Tuesday, Tennessee friends, our neighbors,
in infrastructure damage, along a 2-mile (3.2-kilome- Gov. Bill Lee marveled at our family," Douglas said.
not accounting for 90 de- ter) path that wiped some people's resilience. "We're going to go help."q