More than one-thousand homes were damaged or destroyed when a series of powerful tornadoes moved through Goodletsville, Hendersonville and Gallatin one year ago.
Even today, some homes and businesses that weren’t completely destroyed are tarped and vacant. More-hidden evidence of the storms lies in the empty lots of the Woodhaven neighborhood where three of the area’s nine fatalities occurred.
Carolyn Hercik [HER-sick] lives on the block with those who were killed. She’s already rebuilt but says former residents have been slow to come back.
“You can see there are three lots that are still empty here. And some people didn’t get as much money as they should have gotten so they put the lots up for sale and they’ve gone some place else.”
A memorial service will be held tomorrow at 2:20 p-m to mark the anniversary. But the United Way’s Sumner County president Mike McClanahan says there are plenty of other reminders around.
“Any time you drive from Hendersonville to Gallatin and look to your left and see Vol State Community College still being rebuilt, you get a daily reminder.”
The school took a near-direct hit and sustained roughly 7-million dollars worth of damage, though no one was critically injured there.
McClannahan says the number of requests for financial assistance has been low. His organization – the Sumner Area Disaster Coalition – still has 40-thousand dollars earmarked for tornado victims to cover rental housing or repairs.
The band of tornadoes that moved through Middle Tennessee also hit McMinnville, killing three there. It had already been a deadly week for Tennessee weather. There were 24 storm-related deaths in West Tennessee just five days before the April 7th storms.
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