Seven people have been reported to have been killed and buildings destroyed when tornado touched down in central Tennessee, shredding across the Nashville area in the United States, Associated Press reports.
According to the report, authorities in the area pleaded with people to stay indoors, at least until daybreak could reveal the dangers of a landscape littered with blown-down walls and roofs, snapped power lines and huge broken trees, all from the Tornadoes. Schools, courts and transit lines were closed, and four polling stations were moved only hours before Super Tuesday voting was set to begin.
“A tornado skipped across the county,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper told the Tennessean while visiting an emergency shelter early Tuesday. “You do have people at the hospital and frankly there have been fatalities.”
Tennessee Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Maggie Hannan confirmed the initial death toll of 7 from the Tornadoes. The sheriffs of Putnam and Benton counties joined Nashville’s mayor in reporting fatalities.
The tornadoes near downtown reportedly stayed on the ground into Hermitage, about 10 miles (16 kilometres) east of the city. Other areas reporting extensive damage included Mt. Juliet, downtown Nashville and Germantown.
“Our community has been impacted significantly,” the Mt. Juliet Police Department tweeted early Tuesday. Multiple homes were damaged and multiple injuries were reported, the department said. ”We continue to search for injured. Stay home if you can.”
Police officers and fire crews were responding to about 40 building collapses around the city, Metro Nashville police said.
John C. Tune Airport, Nashville International’s sister airport in West Nashville, “sustained significant damage due to severe weather,”
Spokeswoman Kim Gerlock said in a statement early Tuesday morning. Several hangars have been destroyed and power lines are down, she said, adding that there are no reported injuries.
Gerlock asked that the public avoid the airport until further notice and that the Airport Authority has activated its Emergency Operations Center to coordinate response.
A video posted online from east Nashville showed what appeared to be a well-defined tornado moving quickly across the city. Lightning repeatedly flashed while much of the city was in the dark. The whir of the wind could be heard gusting after the tornado moved out of sight.
A reported gas leak forced an evacuation of the IMT building in the Germantown community, according to WSMV-TV. Photos showed dozens of people in the street carrying their belongings not long after the tornado moved through the city.
Nashville police said in a tweet that two deaths in East Nashville had been reported to the department but did not say if the fatalities were confirmed.
The American Red Cross of Tennessee said on its Twitter account that a shelter had been opened for displaced residents downtown at the Nashville Farmers Market, just north of the state capitol.
Nashville Electric tweeted that four of its substations were damaged in the tornado. Power outages as of 4 a.m. were affecting more than 44,000 customers, the utility company said.
Metro Nashville Public Schools said its schools would be closed Tuesday because of the tornado damage. Wilson County, just east of metro Nashville will close schools for the rest of the week.