Storms leave destruction and fatalities in local counties
UPDATE:
McNairy County Sheriff Guy Buck says the number of fatalities has now risen to nine. He says that two more victims were found around 7:00 pm Saturday evening. He also asked that outside residents please avoid coming to the area to look at damage, as clean up efforts are continuing.
ORIGINAL STORY:
HARDIN CO. and MCNAIRY CO., Tenn.—Seven people are dead in McNairy county after overnight storms swept across the area. We take a look at some of that damage in Adamsville.
One of the deadly storms in the country hit McNairy and Hardin counties on Friday night.
“The second storm, which was the more severe one that came through McNairy county and continued over here about 11:45 pm last night. And it continued to stay on the ground the whole length of Hardin county, for a little over twenty miles and we were out all night clearing roads and checking on people,” said Melvin Martin, EMA Director for Haywood Co.
Many rural areas like Hardin county and McNairy county were hit with storms. Family members and loved ones traveled to their families during the time of danger.
“So I’ve seen it on the news and I’ve paid attention and last night we were even nervous over in Morris Chapel and then it said it was coming to Ramer, it was coming to Selmer, it was coming to Adamsville and we were like, oh no this isn’t good,” said Donna Brado, McNairy Co. resident.
The hardest hit was McNairy with seven confirmed deaths.
“We were at our house in Morris Chapel, when my niece from South Carolina called me. We couldn’t get in touch, bad cell phone service and other stuff and we swapped several dropped calls and she told me that my mom’s house was gone and my mom was missing,” Brado said.
The daughter of 86 year old Billie Pinckney, says her mom was one of the victims, her mother’s home completely destroyed during the storm leaving her and her family searching the area for what could be salvaged.
“I found pictures. I found pictures of her grandkids, a story that my niece wrote, I found a picture of her god daughter’s daughter, so some of them are completely destroyed. I picked them up anyway some of them are full pictures with some damage,” Brado said.
There weren’t any deaths in Hardin county, but several injuries.
“We got here last night in the dark in the rain and by then they had found her which gave us comfort, so yeah its been a very shocking 18 hours or so,” Brado said.
Today, many people were cleaning up the damages. Many coming into to town to help their neighbors, church members, and anyone they could find to help with what was left over.
“Truly, my mom was a very positive person and again having lost my dad a couple of years ago, she was ready to join him when it was her time, this just wasn’t the time we thought it was going to be,” Brado said.
The clean up continues for many counties like McNairy, with other counties helping out and giving aid where they see fit.
There resilient. They’re out cleaning up and working and glad they weren’t hurt and they’re thankful it wasn’t worse even though it was bad, it wasn’t worse,” Martin said.
Crews say the clean up for the damage could last as long as several months.
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