McKenzie resident discusses damage left by EF-2 tornado

CARROLL COUNTY, Tenn. — The National Weather service confirmed an EF-2 tornado swept through parts of Carroll County Monday night.

Officials in the county say the storm did over a million dollars worth of damage to homes.

“An estimated 46 structures, that’s homes, that’s been damaged,” Carroll County Emergency Management Agency director, Janice Newman said.

Most of the damage came in the northern part of the county, as shown by this map. One of the worst hit areas was Barren Springs Church Road, just north of Huntingdon.

“The storm started on the west side of the county and pretty much traveled across the northern part of the county, all the way from the Gibson to the Benton County line,” Newman said.

Officials say they’re still not sure how many are without power. They have crews determining that number now.

Highway 22 in McKenzie had power lines down, and officials say those will still be down for a few more days.

“That’s going to take a while. That’s having to be done by someone other than our local electric department,” Newman said.

Steve Jackson is one of the people with damage from the tornado. He was home with his wife and their two dogs when the tornado hit, leveling his house.

“I’m not going to say I’m not scared of them. I don’t get up and run every time I hear one is coming, but I may start,”

This is the only room in the house that still has the roof above it.  Jackson says he was actually sleeping in here when his wife ran in and told him there’s a storm coming.

“The den is right next to the kitchen. I could see in there. Of course we didn’t have any lights, but I could see in there. There wasn’t a roof, so I knew I had quite a bit of damage,” McKenzie resident Steve Jackson said.

Jackson says the house will take at least a year to fix up.

“It’ll take a year. If I just called somebody and told them I wanted the house replaced, it would take a year to get that done,” he said.

“We’re going to be disrupted for a while, but I just thank the Lord that he was looking over us,” he said.

Newman confirmed that there were no fatalities in the county, and the most serious injury was only some cuts and bruises.