Some of you have asked this morning to see if we were affected by the tornado yesterday afternoon. Thank you for checking in with us. Fortunately, we were not affected by the tornado. While, we did get a good hit from the storm, everything appears to be fine at the house and we are safe and sound! I did have to drive through the heavy rains yesterday, which was a trip. I couldn't get my wipers to go fast enough! I actually had to go work an event last night (lucky me!), but Justin was home with Zoe and prepared to take cover if necessary. It also sounds like I left work just in time, as they had to close several streets around Vanderbilt's campus due to flooding. In fact, the one side of the parking garage that I park in flooded the first floor up to the door handles of people's cars! We still have streets on campus shut down due to damage. The storm sewers have to be replaced and the streets have to be repaved.
It's only April, and we've already had two bad storms roll through! I'm not looking forward to summer! What's really interesting though is that they are saying we could have snow flurries next week.
Funnel cloud barrels through South Nashville
Storm leaves most damage on property
By Kate Howard and Andy Humbles • THE TENNESSEAN • April 3, 2009
A funnel cloud swept through Davidson County on Thursday afternoon, leaving in its wake property damage and downed trees, but there were no reports of serious injury or death.
More than 1,000 households in South Nashville and Donelson lost power during the mid-afternoon deluge, which flooded and closed some Nashville streets. Two tractor trailers overturned on Interstate 40 East near the Briley Parkway exit creating gridlock for hours.
Meteorologists are confident they will confirm today that it was a tornado that touched down on Murfreesboro Road around 4 p.m.
As the storm barreled down the road, Larry Garcia and his coworkers took cover in the back of the Bridgestone/Firestone shop. An exterior wall of concrete and neon letters folded right into the bed of Garcia's Dodge 1500. With the storm over and two snapped power lines hanging over their parking lot, a co-worker joked with Garcia about the free advertising on his truck.
"It has 'Firestone' all over it," Garcia said with a laugh. "You see that. What can you do?"
A customer approached the staff, huddled in the garage as the rain came down, and asked if he could get his car out. But he could not, since a cinderblock came in through the back window of the customer's Toyota Camry.
"Everyone's safe and that's all we can ask for," store manager Andy Cash said. "It was definitely one of the scariest moments of my life."
Storm-clogged traffic
Forecasters said the storm came in weaker than originally predicted but still caused flash flooding across Middle Tennessee. Originally a tornado watch was issued until 8 p.m., but meteorologists extended the watch to 2 a.m. in Davidson and surrounding counties.
Traffic crawled across Nashville, with all the major interstates clogged through rush hour. The damage on Murfreesboro Road caused a backup for several miles.
Downed trees and power lines were widespread near the Nashville International Airport, where the flight tower was briefly evacuated after a storm spotter reported a funnel cloud nearby.
Airport authority spokeswoman Emily Richard said that planes coming and going from the airport were temporarily grounded until the storm passed.
In Williamson County, elementary school students who were supposed to be dismissed as the storm swept through were held late until the worst of it passed. In Franklin, investigators are working to determine whether lightning caused a fire that started at the nursing home.
City spokeswoman Milissa Reierson said the fire at the NHC health care facility reported about 3:30 p.m. started in a mechanical room.
"At this point, we don't know if it was weather related or electrical," Reierson said.
Though severe thunderstorms drenched several counties, no major damage was reported outside Davidson County, according to Jeremy Heidt, spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
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