MADISON, Tenn. – The Metro Baptist Church congregation gathered under a basketball scoreboard and state championship banners in a school gymnasium Sunday, a temporary place to worship after a twister ripped the church building’s stucco and concrete blocks from its steel frame two days earlier.
The Rev. Phil Martin showed members photos of crumpled ceilings and pews filled with splintered wood and debris as he recalled how he looked out his window Friday and saw the whirling, black tornado heading toward him.
Members were thankful no one was hurt in the Goodlettsville church, just north of Nashville.
“We were all in a state of shock to realize how close it really was,” said Jessica Lankford, one of the church’s preschool teachers who rushed 35 children to a windowless room and told them all to crawl under the chairs.
When the powerful storm rolled over Tennessee, it was the second round of deadly storms to hit the state in a week; twisters killed 24 people the previous weekend and four others died in Missouri and Illinois.
Tennessee Emergency Management Agency spokesman Randy Harris said Sunday that the tornado that killed nine people in Sumner County on Friday had been tentatively classified as an F-3 on the five-step Fujita scale, with wind of about 165 mph.
Harris said about 160 people were injured and about 3,000 homes, businesses and farms were damaged or destroyed in 20 counties.
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