Looking back on the 2020 tornado in Carroll County

CARROLL COUNTY, Tenn. — It was almost a year ago to the day that a tornado outbreak swept across the state.

March 5, 2020: The wall of a Carroll County home lays crumbled after the EF-2 tornado swept through.

Here in West Tennessee, the northern counties such as Carroll, Gibson, and Benton saw an EF-2 tornado touch down.

Amanda Sneed was working at the Carroll County Fire Department when the tornado hit. She still remembers the shock.

“We’ve had a few bad storms here. To me, other than the 2010 flood, that was the worst scenario,” Sneed said. “Because it was dark, and you really couldn’t see what you were getting into.”

Emergency crews immediately started responding to calls of houses in the road, power lines down and more. They set up command centers, and had all hands on deck in response.

“We were not given a tornado warning or watch. Of course things happen, and sometimes storms just pop up when you least expect them,” said Janice Newman, the EMA Director for Carroll County.

When the damage was done, almost 46 structures had been hit and millions of dollars worth of damage was done. But over a year later, some places still have not fully recovered.

Take this house off Barren Springs Church Road in Huntingdon. It sustained major damage in last year’s tornadoes, and now much of that damage is still here.

March 4, 2021: An abandoned home on Barren Springs Church Road in Huntingdon. The house was damaged in the tornadoes that hit the state in March of 2020.

Oddly enough, clean up efforts were scheduled in March, but some bigger ones had to be cancelled due to coronavirus.

Despite this, plenty of residents came out and helped each other in the immediate aftermath.

“To me, the most important thing was just the great turnout of people,” Sneed said.

March 3, 2020: A dog roams the wreckage left behind after a tornado tore through Carroll County in March of 2020.

And crews are thankful that in Carroll County, there were miraculously no deaths.

There was also damage reported in parts of Gibson County and Benton County, and with one death reported near Camden.

In order to be ready for the upcoming storm seas, click here.