Medon residents share experiences from Monday’s tornado

MEDON, Tenn. — Today, May 28, we bring you continuing coverage of what is now being confirmed as a tornado that hit an area of south Madison County early Monday morning, May 27.

“After I went in the house, I heard a loud sound. It sounded like something was hitting my house. And from 1:15 to probably like 1:30, that’s how long the tornado hit,” said one resident of Medon.

According to the National Weather Service in Memphis, there were high winds around 95 miles per hour during the tornado early Monday morning.

It traveled for 11 miles starting northeast of Cloverport, TN, and lifted east of Medon toward Highway 18.

We saw that Bowman Road was greatly affected with debris on the ground and trees on some residents homes.

Bobby March, whose shed was damaged by the tornado, said that he was shocked at the damage it did.

“People need help out here. We were out of power for 8 to 10 hours yesterday. They were working all day out here trying to get the power restored. And plus, I went down the road myself with my tractor trying to help clear it so they can get through,” said March.

One resident even told us off camera that she was grateful that her tree hit the side of her house and did not go forward as it could have, toward her bedroom.

“Next thing you know, it sounded like an airplane coming over the house. Then you hear stuff just start plumbing up in the air, I guess,” said March.

One of the biggest issues that residents are having in Medon is that they say they cannot hear the alarm to take cover.

“I did not hear any sirens go off or anything. I didn’t hear nothing like that. I asked my wife did she hear anything. We were tying to take cover. That’s all,” said March.

“This is a very tight knit community, so we have Facebook groups and different things like that where we check on individuals, but unfortunately no sirens were heard,” said Kelsea Merriweather, resident of Medon.

These residents have an option for active alerts in Medon.

“Maybe an evaluation needs to be done to understand where exactly are the sirens being heard. Make sure that every resident of the Medon community particularly and then also in Toone is able to hear. That’s our privilege to life or death,” said Merriweather.

Some residents in Medon are still waiting for fallen trees and debris to be cleared off of their roads but are hopeful that it will be completed soon.

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