Gage Johnson
Editor-in-Chief
All eyes have been on central Tennessee this week after multiple tornadoes including an EF3 tore through the Music City, and that includes many from Murray State.
At approximately 1 a.m. on Tuesday, March 3, a tornado touched down north of downtown Nashville, Tennessee, and continued east, taking the lives of at least 24 people. At press time, 18 people were still missing in Putnam County.
Murray State alumna Lauren Campbell, an account executive at NewsChannel 5 in Nashville, said when they interrupted “The Bachelor” to announce severe weather would be coming in the middle of the night, she never expected how devastating the damage would be.
Campbell slept through the night despite the tornado touching down just a quarter mile from her apartment. With nearly no debris around her complex, she had no idea just how severe the storm had been until she headed to the gym the next morning.
“I knew something had happened, but I just didn’t know how bad yet,” Campbell said. “I got on the interstate and noticed at 6 a.m. it was already backed up, which was odd, and I noticed there were trees everywhere and I was sitting in traffic on my phone and thought ‘wow, this is really bad.’”
Noticing just how bad everything was and knowing her coworkers had been working all night at the television station, she traveled to Germantown to get coffee where she was met with even more destruction, as buildings were leveled and water was spewing from fire hydrants.
“I went down Main Street and you just immediately could tell it was just catastrophic,” Campbell said. “It wasn’t just a normal tornado. Everything was destroyed. I hate to compare it to this, but it felt like what you hear about at ground zero and how it all happened. Everything is flat, all the power lines were down, it was eerily quiet and there were no lights and people walking around everywhere.”
Campbell said the look on people’s faces was incredibly sad.
“People had obviously been put out of their apartments and were walking around with their animals on their phones and they just had this look on their face, like a blank stare,” Campbell said. “Nobody really knew what to do.”
Brian Bourke, associate professor of postsecondary education, was in Nashville for the Student Affairs Conference when the tornado hit. Similar to Campbell, Bourke said the weather was completely unexpected.
Bourke said the weather was beautiful before he returned to his hotel on Monday night, and it wasn’t until around 12:45 a.m. on Tuesday, March 3, when he was awakened by tornado sirens.
“It was a very eerie feeling to hear sirens in the middle of a city while I was in a tall building,” Bourke said. “The siren sounded two more times. On the third time, an Omni staff member came over the speakers connected to the fire alarm system and instructed all guests to enter the stairwells, going down as far as we could. I was staying on the ninth floor and got down between the second and third.”
After ten minutes, Bourke said he was able to return to his room, but the people around him had no idea a tornado actually touched down.
“It wasn’t until I got back to my room and opened the Facebook app and saw the Mark Yourself Safe message pop up that I realized something had actually happened,” Bourke said. “The downtown tornado hit about a mile and a half from the Music City Center and Omni, so I had no sense of any aftermath.”
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee declared a state of emergency following the twisters that ravaged the Volunteer State. Lee also said the families across the state that are suffering from this tragedy need help and prayers.
“I’ve spent the day touring and visiting with victims and walking through neighborhoods and the devastation is heartbreaking,” Lee said. “It’s heartbreaking, it’s incredible [and] our prayers are greatly needed for families out there who are dealing with a sudden tragic event that has occurred in our state.”
During this tragic time, those around the country and the community are doing what they can.
Restaurants and businesses across Nashville are also providing citizens with free food and services, and multiple movers and storage units are being made available to citizens for free as well.
Airbnb, through its Open Homes program, is allowing those who have been displaced or are helping with relief efforts the ability to book free accomodations between March 3 and March 24.
Lee said counties from across the state are going to do what they can to help as well.
“The good news is that the response has been great,” Lee said. “There are counties from across the state that are sending resources. Generators [are] coming, palettes of water [are] coming, highway patrolman [are] being dispatched to places where they’re needed [and] shelters are being put up all across the state to make sure that people have a place to stay tonight who have lost their homes.”
President Donald Trump is set to visit Nashville on Friday, March 6.
