Two dead, three injured after tornadoes strike Tennessee

Two people are dead and three others are injured after an EF2 tornado struck portions of Morgan County on Thursday night, weaving a path of destruction in the rural communities of Deer Lodge and Sunbright.

Around 8:30 p.m. Thursday, residents received emergency alerts on their phones advising them of a tornado warning in the area. The storm was on top of the region minutes later, wrenching trees out of the ground by their roots and, in some cases, ripping homes from their foundations.

Brittany Hines was at home near Sunbright when she received a call from her grandmother, who lives across the street, telling her to turn on her TV and watch the weather.

“I knew it was coming, but I just had this sinking feeling,” Hines said. “My dog started panicking, and that’s when I knew something bad was happening.”

Hines grabbed her dogs and sheltered in her bathtub. Then, the tornado hit.

“Boom, hit the house, rocked it sideways, knocked everything (around),” Hines said. “Just chaos and destruction, carnage.”

When the winds settled, Hines found her home had shifted off its foundation. The tornado ripped off her back porch and flung it dozens of feet away, where it was wrapped around a tree. Her carport was lying in a twisted heap in her grandmother’s front yard across the street.

Pierce Gentry WUOT News

Pieces of Morgan County resident Brittany Hines’ roof lay scattered and twisted in her yard on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. On Thursday night, an EF2 tornado moved through the rural areas of Deer Lodge and Sunbright, killing two and injuring three others.

County emergency crews said they were immediately flooded with 911 calls and social media posts from residents following the storm. Early Friday morning, they confirmed a mother and her adult daughter died during the storm in Deer Lodge.

“It didn’t take long to figure out that there was some injuries and fatalities involved, and definitely damage,” said Aaron Evans, spokesperson for Morgan County Emergency Management. “Crews from all over East Tennessee, just about, especially the surrounding counties and cities here, responded to help.”

Crews worked throughout Thursday night and the early morning hours of Friday to clear debris from roadways and tend to any injuries. Many residents, such as Darrell Clark of Sunbright, feel grateful that they were spared.

“We figured it was somewhere close, and instead, it turned out to be right on top of us,” Clark said. “And it destroyed pretty much all things around us, all the trees and stuff … but as far as we know, the house is fine.”

Thursday’s tornado struck just 10 months after an EF1 touched down in Sunbright, causing extensive property damage. In 2023, another EF1 devastated Sunbright’s historic downtown.

“Them people’s been through a lot there, and they’re just now getting over the last one,” Evans said. “So here we are again, and there’s a history of (tornadoes) in this place, specifically that area for whatever reason — the way it lays, where it’s at, whatever other circumstances involved in that. But they’ve been hit hard.”

By Friday afternoon, crews had restored power to hundreds of households as they continued clearing downed lines and debris.

Meanwhile, people like Hines are working to dig themselves out and are grateful for what they were left with.

“It’s kind of devastating,” Hines said. “But again, like everyone says, it’s just material things that can be replaced. It’s just a lot to take in at first, but just move forward.”

The storm originated in Middle Tennessee earlier Thursday evening, unleashing torrential rains and fierce winds before moving to the southeast. Fentress, Grainger, Jackson, Morgan, Overton, Putnam and Sevier counties are all reporting storm impacts, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

By Friday evening, storm surveyors had confirmed five tornadoes.

According to the National Weather Service, Tennessee experienced 19 tornadoes in 2024 that resulted in one death. In 2023, Tennessee saw 40 tornadoes that resulted in 17 deaths. While the majority of Tennessee’s tornado activity takes place in the spring, it’s not unusual for the number of tornadoes to start increasing in February.

This story was last updated at 10 p.m. Friday.

This story was produced by the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, a collaboration between West Virginia Public Broadcasting, WPLN and WUOT in Tennessee, and WEKU, WKMS and WKYU in Kentucky, along with NPR.