The Nashville Fire Department is responding to approximately 40 structure collapses around the city, a tweet from the agency said.
Police in Mt. Juliet, a suburb 20 miles east of Nashville, are searching for injured people. “There are multiple homes damaged and multiple injuries. We have requested mutual aid from allied agencies. We continue to search for injured,” a tweet from the department said.
Nashville Office of Emergency Center has partially activated to respond to the damage from severe weather, according to a tweet from the center. They’ve opened an emergency shelter at the Farmers Market on Rosa L. Parks Blvd.
John C. Tune Airport in West Nashville also “sustained significant damage,” according to a tweet from Nashville International Airport.
The Airport Authority has activated the Emergency Operations Center, and the public has been advised to stay away from the airport until further notice, the tweet said.
The National Weather Service reported a tornado was located near Nashville at 12:38 a.m. CST, moving east about 45 mph, the agency said.
Scraps of wood and metal lined the street as people stood outside in their pajamas with their pets surveying the damage.
A resident of the area impacted by the tornado, who didn’t give her name, told WTVF she was woken up by the tornado as it tore the roof off part of her building.
“It just woke you out of your sleep,” she said. “I’m lucky my side didn’t get torn off. The other side is totally torn off.”
“When you’re inside it’s one thing, but to walk outside and see this it’s bad,” the woman told the affiliate.
The storm has since cleared the Nashville area and the tornado warning has expired, but tornado warnings were issued by the National Weather Service throughout northern Tennessee.
Investigators with the National Weather Service will survey the damage and confirm the tornado’s intensity later today.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
