Updated at 9:20 p.m. Sunday.
Authorities say at least a half-dozen tornadoes touched down in Tennessee during the weekend’s intense storms and that damage assessments are ongoing in 20 counties.
Surveyors from the National Weather Service fanned out Sunday and have so far confirmed 7 tornadoes that ripped across nearly 70 miles of Middle Tennessee — and they’ll still be evaluating more areas on Monday and Tuesday.
The three strongest tornadoes were each rated at EF-2 in Cheatham, Dickson and Stewart counties, with winds between 115 and 135 mph. Some homes were shifted off their foundations in the hardest-hit areas of Burns, where walls also collapsed and roofs were damaged. A barn collapse was among the damage newly reported in Kingston Springs. In Stewart County, the weather service reported thousands of uprooted trees in heavily wooded areas, flattened barns and roofs lifted off mobile homes.
Additional tornadoes touched down in Perry, Hickman, Davidson and Wilson counties, where numerous trees were snapped and uprooted.
More surveying was ongoing in Sumner, Smith and Stewart counties.
In most communities, power had been restored Sunday. In Nashville, which initially saw some 95,000 outages, there were still about 4,000 customers without power as of 9 p.m. Sunday. Nashville Electric Services says more than 120 power poles were broken in the storm, which has extended the repair process. While major infrastructure work should be finished Monday, NES says restoring power to all customers could take 5 to 7 days.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency says a state of emergency is ongoing. Officials say the storms caused four deaths in West Tennessee. They have not yet share an estimate of damage to structures.
An 11-mile stretch of US-70 / State Route 1 is expected to be closed for 7 to 10 days because of severe storm damage and utility line repairs. The closed portion is from White Bluff Road in White Bluff to SR-249 near Pegram.
Boil water advisories remain in place in three West Tennessee cities — Dresden, Kenton and Samberg — due to impacts to water systems.
7 tornadoes in detail
As of Sunday night, storm assessors had described seven tornadoes in Middle Tennessee:
- Stewart County into Christian County, Ky., EF-2, 115 mph winds, 1,215 yards wide, 22 miles long
- Perry County to Bucksnort in Hickman County, EF-1, 100 mph winds, 250 yards wide, 12.2 miles long
- Hickman County at I-40, EF-0, 85 mph winds, 100 yards wide, 4.66 miles long
- Dickson County, EF-2, 135 mph winds, 500 yards wide, 8.34 miles long
- Dickson County in Burns, EF-1, 110 mph winds, 175 yards wide, 5.3 miles long
- Cheatham County in Kingston Springs, EF-2, 125 mph winds, 400 yards wide, 10.5 miles long
- Davidson County at Percy Priest Lake to Mt. Juliet in Wilson County, EF-1, 105 mph winds, 100 yards wide 7.6 miles long
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