'Sad day for our community': At least 6 dead as tornadoes rampage through Middle Tennessee

Cars flipped on I-65. Shoppers hunkered down in store basements.

Trees buckled. Homes were ripped apart. Power failed. Roofs were blown off buildings. There were reports of first responders attempting to rescue people trapped in their homes.

The Big Play game center roof collapsed in Hendersonville.

Tornadoes ripped through Middle Tennessee on Saturday afternoon and evening, killing at least six people — including at least one child — in Montgomery and Davidson counties and leaving more than 160,000 Middle Tennessee residents without power.

Monday's tornado updates: Tennessee tornado outbreak: 'It just hit so fast.' State recovery efforts continue

“This is a sad day for our community," Montgomery County Mayor Wes Golden said. "We are praying for those who are injured, lost loved ones, and lost their homes. This community pulls together like no other and we will be here until the end.”

Daylight Sunday brought evidence of the horrors from the night before.

Community Baptist Church on Dickerson Pike in Nashville was destroyed. Its brick structure stood without a roof. Cars were strewn about the parking lot amid piles of white boards that had once been part of the church.

Dorothy Prayther was at the scene on Sunday morning trying to get more information on her pastor and fellow church members.

“I don’t know anything yet,” she said. “I hope they’re ok.”

Police identified the three people who were killed in storms in Nashville on Saturday.

Joseph Dalton, 37, and Floridalma Gabriel Perez, 31, were killed when Dalton's mobile home was blown on top the Perez home on Nesbitt Lane in Madison, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department. Both died. Perez's son Antony Elmer Mendez, 2, was also killed.

Two other children survived. Perez’s 7-year-old son and Dalton’s 10-year-old son were inside their homes at the time of the storm. They were taken to Vanderbilt Pediatrics with non-life threatening injuries.

Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell urged people to help their neighbors.

"Tonight, Nashville joins other communities across Middle Tennessee grieving loss of life from deadly tornadoes," he said. "As we continue to take stock of the devastation, please keep our neighbors in your thoughts and prayers. Be safe and look after one another."

A possible tornado caused several explosions, and church steeples toppled. Heavy rain also caused flooding in Davidson County.

Madison neighborhood hard hit

Severe weather swooped across portions of the state with ugly tentacles stretching through Clarksville, Springfield and Madison in Nashville and smashing into Hendersonville.

In Nashville, buses were still running on Old Hickory Blvd around 8 p.m. with nothing but the glow of headlights and brake lights illuminating the street.

Massive downed trees lined the road. In a yard on the corner of North Graycroft and Williams avenues, a Christmas nativity scene remained upright among the rubble.

Lyanne Garay was at her mother’s home in Madison with her four children when they heard the tornado sirens blare. Next door, her mother’s neighbors screamed and abandoned their outside gathering as the wind yanked a tarp away.Garay’s husband was at work.

Less than five minutes away on Nesbitt Lane, the tornado ripped through her neighbors’ homes, tearing through roofs and leaving second floor rooms exposed.When she returned home around 5, she found her fence toppled and part of her roof blown off, leaving water damage in her daughter’s upstairs bedroom.“Compared to everybody, we’re fine, but it’s still a shock that we don’t have any place to go or anything to do and our house has been water damaged,” she said.Further down the street, the storm decimated homes and left branches and power lines strewn across the road. Officials confirmed three people in this neighborhood died.Garay is from Costa Rica, and her husband is from El Salvador — they’ve lived here since 2004, but Saturday night's storm was something new.“We always hear the alarms and everything but never experienced something like that," she said.

Council member Jennifer Gamble stood clad in a raincoat on Nesbitt Lane and spoke with Garay. Other neighbors whose home was spared stood alongside her, offering support.Gamble asked her constituents to stay inside in a safe place.“There are a lot of power lines and trees down, and it’s hard to see in the dark with the power outages,” she said.

Storm rips into Hendersonville

The streets of Hendersonville were pitch black with rows of demolished business and downed power lines on Main Street. Traffic remained backed up for miles well into Saturday night as workers cleared power lines from the streets.

Hendersonville police were handling calls from people trapped in structures on West Main Street. TriStar Hendersonville Medical Center was running on emergency power as storm victims arrived for treatment.

Michael Henderson, an employee at The Outpost Armory on Main Street in Hendersonville, was working when he heard the warning siren.

“We swept as many people as we could inside and the took cover in the basement,” he said. “It was quiet and then it hit. It sounded just like a freight train coming through.”

The impact blew out the gun shop’s front windows and shattered the glass display cases. Parts of the roof had caved in.

“It’s major damage,” Henderson said.

Henderson is originally from Southern California and said this was his first tornado.

"I'm used to earthquakes," he said.

Devastation in Clarksville: 'Sounded like a train'

In Clarksville, Vincent Welshman was driving home to his wife and kids when he heard the tornado sirens sound off near his mom's house just a few blocks away.

A low howl quickly turned into what "sounded like a train going down some train tracks," he wrote in a message to The Tennessean.

The sky rapidly grew dark — so dark he could not see the tornado.

When the storm lifted, the Garrettsburg Estates neighborhood was shattered.

"My home was not damaged, thank God, but my neighbors and friends were not so lucky," he wrote. "...The message I want to send is to just never take these emergency bulletins lightly that pop up on our phones."

Mosaic Church is offering food and shelter. Sunday services are canceled and the doors are open to anyone who needs a place to go.

In North Clarksville, Pisgah Elementary School was set up as an emergency shelter.

There were reports of a demolished apartment complex in Springfield. A jewelry story there was flattened.

A Springfield officer directing traffic said he believed a tornado had touched down in the area of Kroger on the south side of the city. Damage to the Valvoline at the corner of Memorial Boulevard and Blackpatch Drive was visible from the road, but only because of the emergency lights.

Further back, Kroger was shrouded in darkness, and authorities weren’t letting anyone get close enough to see the extent of the damages.

Kelly Puente, Cassandra Stephenson, Nicole Young, Evan Mealins, Vivian Jones, Andy Humbles, Kirsten Fiscus and Craig Shoup contributed this report.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee tornadoes: At least 6 dead in Nashville, Clarksville