Death toll rises to 25 across four counties after tornadoes hit Nashville, Middle Tennessee

At least 25 people are dead after a powerful and fast-moving storm cut across Middle Tennessee in the early hours of Tuesday morning, dropping tornadoes that roared up to 165 miles per hour.

The overnight disaster injured scores of people and damaged or destroyed homes, businesses, schools and churches across four counties.

Among the dead are several children in Putnam County, which suffered the greatest human toll. At least 18 people died and 88 were injured in a 2-mile stretch west of Cookeville. Another 77 are were reported missing Tuesday. That number has gone down to 18 as of Wednesday morning.

Four people died in Wilson County. One person died in Benton County. Two died in Nashville. They were Michael Dolfini, 36, and Albree Sexton, 33. The pair had just left Attaboy Lounge, where Dolfini worked, police said. Most of the other victims identities have not been released.

Lebanon police confirmed Wednesday afternoon that they located the body of an adult male in one of the worst-hit parts of town. Further details on the individual were not immediately released.

The storm occurred while most people were sleeping. The scope of the devastation became apparent only after daybreak, when first responders began searching for survivors.

"It is heartbreaking," Gov. Bill Lee said at a morning news conference. “Maria and I are praying for every single one of those families, and not just those families but also the communities around them.”

President Donald Trump, who spoke to Lee by telephone, tweeted Tuesday his prayers for the storm’s victims. He is expected to tour damaged areas Friday.

“Prayers for all of those affected by the devastating tornadoes in Tennessee. We will continue to monitor the developments. The Federal Government is with you all of the way during this difficult time,” the president tweeted.

East Nashville, Donelson and Mt. Juliet were all hit with an EF-3 tornado, but meteorologists say they're not sure yet whether it was the same, or different, tornadoes.

The tornadoes came behind a severe storm front Monday night that initially dropped hail as large as golf balls west of Nashville before funnel clouds quickly formed and barreled east.

Brendan Schaper, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Nashville, said these lines of severe storms can quickly spawn strong tornadoes. They "usually don’t offer us as much lead time because the tornadoes happen quickly and then they are gone," he said.

It was the deadliest tornado event in the nation since exactly one year ago, when 23 people were killed in Lee County, Alabama, on March 3, 2019.

Storm brings haunting memories of 1998

For longtime Nashvillians, Tuesday revived the horror of 1998, when tornadoes packing 150-mph winds wound a similar path through the heart of Nashville, killing a Vanderbilt University student and destroying more than 100 buildings.

That tragedy occurred during the afternoon hours.

During the overnight hours of Tuesday, at least 40 structures collapsed around Nashville, according to the Nashville Fire Department.

Windows were blown out, cars overturned, gas lines leaked and powerlines torn down in a path that stretched from North Nashville and Germantown into East Nashville, where two people died. The storm continued into Donelson and Hermitage, where it nearly leveled an entire subdivision, before travelling east.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper declared a "state of emergency," allowing city officials to quickly deploy funding toward recovery efforts.

The disaster impacted voting in Tennessee, one of 14 Super Tuesday states. Some polling sites in Nashville were moved, and sites across Davidson and Wilson counties opened an hour late. The Tennessee Democratic Party and the four remaining Democratic presidential campaigns went to court late in the afternoon seeking to keep the polls open longer.

Reggie Ingle and Tsan Lozano, who live on Knowles Street in North Nashville, were trapped on the second floor of their home with their adult son for about seven hours after a large tree fell onto their back porch and blocked the only entrance into their home.

Shortly after daybreak, a neighbor emerged with a ladder and helped the family down to safety.

“It’s so good to be on the ground,” Ingle said after his family made it to safety. “We are so thankful to be alive.”

Behind him, a portion of the huge tree rested inside his home.

The home of their neighbor, George Inmon was spared, but the experience was terrifying.

“We woke up to the sound of a freight train,” Inmon said.

Iconic East Nashville businesses destroyed

Near the corner of 11th and Holly Streets in East Nashville, yellow insulation covered the streets like fall leaves. Outside Fanny’s House of Music saws buzzed as workers boarded up the blown-out windows of the light blue building.

Nearby, the front windows of the popular Burger Up restaurant were shattered, glass strewn across the street. Inside, remarkably, many of the liquor bottles on the shelves behind the bar inside remained intact.

David Haskell stood in front of his house at 18th Avenue and Holly Street in East Nashville, tears in his eyes.

"The cell phone saved our lives," he said, facing the front of his yellow house, where the roof had been ripped off and the walls blown out.

When the alarm on his phone went off, Haskell and his wife tore open the doors on their storm shelter and ran inside.

"Ten seconds later the house just exploded," he said.

So did nearly every other home on the block. Fifty-foot trees with trunks thicker than several men snapped like toothpicks crashing into the road.

Roofs lifted away. Stone facades crumbled exposing kitchens and couches and dining room chandeliers.

"The house is falling apart as we speak," said Matt Nichols, as he stood in the street. "Dry wall is falling in. It’s just devastation."

Tom Lejsek was in his home on Russell Street with his 9-year-old granddaughter when the sirens sounded.

He grabbed her and pulled her into their dirt-floored basement.

"All of a sudden the house was moving," he said. "The walls bowed out. The windows blew in."

When the storm passed and he returned upstairs, wind gusts whipped through his house. There was nothing there to stop it.

On Tuesday morning, he stood on the street with his neighbors surveying what was left.

He had his Bible clutched in his hands.

Path of destruction moves east

After the storm passed through Nashville, it wielded a path of destruction through Wilson County before reaching Putnam County, where weather officials first confirmed the presence of a “large and extremely dangerous” tornado near Cookville at 1:57 a.m. CT.

In Mt. Juliet, three people are dead.

Mt. Juliet's Triple Crown neighborhood was among multiple neighborhoods hit hard by the storm and where Michael and Barbara Shirley had extensive home damage.

"I thought we were going to die," Barbara Shirley said at a shelter set up at Victory Baptist Church in Mt. Juliet. "I thought this was the end."

"We all got our daughter and our dogs and got in the master bedroom closet and right when we got in I could hear that roar that is characteristic of it, and it probably wasn't 60 seconds later when it hit," Michael Shirley said. "It was pretty much like an explosion. It blew out the windows and literally blew our closet door open."

Lebanon resident Jeremy Reeves tweeted a photo of a fax cover sheet he found cleaning up storm debris in his yard. It was from John C Tune Airport in Nashville, 40 miles away. The airport suffered extensive damage.

In Putnam county, at least 16 people are dead.

Somber county officials announced that several children were among the victims. A makeshift morgue was set up at the Church on the Hill west of Cookeville.

Emergency responders were hoping to identify the victims with the help of family members.

“This is an absolutely tragic and devastating day for our city and county,” Cookeville Mayor Ricky Shelton said. “Our first ask is for prayers for our families, community and responders that are out there and have been out there almost 10 hours searching and rescuing and working through that.”

About 100 homes and businesses in the county were damaged, and many were reduced to rubble.

Emergency responders believe more victims may be trapped in basements or under debris. They walked all the streets and searched 30% of the damaged properties by 11 a.m. Tuesday but said the rescue work was slow moving.

Contributing: Andy Humbles, Joel Ebert, Emily West, Yihyun Jeong, Holly Meyer, Mariah Timms, Sandy Mazza, Jason Gonzales, Adam Tamburin, Kerri Bartlett, Brett Kelman, Jamie McGee, Kelly Fisher, Natalie Allison.