Selmer residents clean up tornado damage
SELMER, Tenn. — Dozens of Selmer residents aren’t spending Christmas Eve around the Christmas tree.
“I got here at seven this morning, but there’s been workers here all through the day and overnight,” Hayden Nash said Thursday morning.
Nash is helping clean up his family’s destroyed home.
While driving along Falcon Ridge Road, the damage from a Wednesday night tornado is obvious. “We could just hear the roaring and things hitting the house,” Gary Lipford said.
Lipford said he and other family members and neighbors hunkered down in his basement. “We didn’t have any idea it done this kind of damage,” he said.
A portion of Lipford’s roof had to be torn down Thursday morning because the damage is so severe.
Right next door to his house, Lipford’s wife’s family home is a shell. “My wife’s sister still lives in there,” he said. “Had she not have come down here and gotten in the basement, she wouldn’t be here because it’s totally destroyed.”
Nash said even though the tornado put a damper on the holiday, the magic of Christmas is still alive as the community comes together to help neighbors clean up.
“All the support, all the prayers, all the people — it just really shows how much people care,” he said. “It’s a Christmas gift.”
