After tornado outbreak slams Tennessee, long road to recovery begins: 'Our community is strong'

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the name of Arlan Coty, a 10-year-old boy who died in Clarksville from Saturday’s storms.

A tattered American flag waved in the breeze at a car dealership in Madison, near Nesbitt Lane where two adults and a child were killed.

Residents of that battered neighborhood — and neighborhoods all across the path of destruction in Middle Tennessee from Saturday's storms — were outside helping each other, picking up debris and cleaning up wreckage. People from nearby streets were also walking over to see the damage. “This is unbelievable, so sad,” said one woman.

The storms, labeled by the National Weather Service as EF-3 in Clarksville and EF-2 in Madison and in Sumner County, ripped up chunks of roofs from homes, and toppled over trees and power lines.

As reports of damage piled up Sunday, residents of Middle Tennessee began to dig out, clean up debris and help each other. At least six people are confirmed dead, and Gov. Bill Lee and area towns and counties have issued states of emergency.

The grimmest of details emerged. Among the dead were two children, a 10-year-old and a 2-year-old.

Late Sunday, Lee and first lady Maria Lee walked through paths of rubble as they surveyed the tornado damage along Nesbitt Lane.

The governor talked with some residents as the first lady gave hugs and words of encouragement.

“I’m happy to see you, governor, thank you for coming,” said resident Keith Speer, whose home was damaged.

Lee and his wife stopped in a mobile home park where a mother and her 2-year-old child were killed in the storm.

They met with resident James Gibson and his 16-year-old son Dylan, who were both inside their mobile home when it was demolished. They miraculously survived, though they lost everything.

“I didn’t expect the governor to be here,” Dylan Gibson said.

Lee previously visited Gallatin, Hendersonville and Clarksville, where three people were killed.

While the damage is “sad and heartbreaking,” the governor said he was touched by the Volunteer State’s fortitude.

“Everywhere we went we saw volunteers," he said. "Tennesseans that were coming into neighborhoods they didn’t live in and coming alongside people to make sure they were doing all they could to help."

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Power was out at some point for 160,000 residents. Businesses and churches were destroyed. Trees toppled. Street signs blew down. Homes were rendered unlivable.

As many as 100 military families have been displaced from Fort Campbell housing in Clarksville. Across the region, nearly 80 people have been hospitalized.

“Yesterday was unfortunately another heartbreaking day for Nashville and so many in our Middle Tennessee community,” Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said in a news conference Sunday morning before thanking first responders, many of whom worked through the night.

Twenty-two structures collapsed as a result of the storm and “countless” others were damaged, O’Connell said.

“Nashville is a place where when we face adversity, the community always steps up,” O’Connell said.

Devastation from Madison to Hendersonville and beyond

Madison resident Frank Bassett said the tornado hit so fast that he barely had time to take cover with his with wife Pamela under a pile of pillows in corner of the living room.

“All of a sudden the wind picked up a hit us,” he said. “It was like a millisecond.”

His home, like many on the street, suffered major structural damage.

Carl Lindsey’s power was out so he made due by boiling tea from makeshift campfire.

Neighbor Nate Marsland’s home had major damage from an uprooted tree. For Marsland, this is his second disaster. His family lost their home in in Biloxi, Mississippi during Hurricane Katrina when he was 8 years old.

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“It could be worse,” he said. “It could always be worse.”

On Dickerson Pike in Nashville, the Community Baptist Church was flattened, and dented cars had been thrown around the parking lot like they were toys.

John Sharpe, owner of Sharpe Hook Bait and Tackle store on Main Street in Hendersonville, moved boxes out of his store Sunday morning with his wife Whitney Bohannon and other volunteers.

Water damaged everything inside, leaving products unsellable.

"Everything is soaked, the roof is gone," Sharpe said. "I was out here all night, just trying to prevent people from stealing."

Bohannon put shelved products into a box alongside employees and volunteers helping take out all of the items from the store.

"I feel emotional when friends and families and neighbors and complete strangers are showing up to help," Bohannon said.

A number of homes on opposite sides of each other along Airport Road in Gallatin had extensive damage as residents and friends started the massive cleanup work Sunday morning.

“I feel blessed, it could have been a lot worse,” said Ronald Durard, 68, as he and wife Ruthie were picking up the remains of two porches, two sheds, car port and house damage with friends and helpers joining the cleanup at their home in The Crossings neighborhood.

“We lost a lot but we’re still here.”

Robert Robinson, 64, lives across the street and was in his truck after picking up dinner when the tornado hit. His wife Lisa Robinson was inside.

“I was backing up and noticed the leaves — I’ve never seen leaves move that fast,” Robert Robinson said. “(Lisa) was calling me and said ‘it’s here.’ Something hit my truck, I think it was that trampoline. I feel lucky.”

Clarksville, Springfield residents begin cleanup efforts

In Springfield in Robertson County, the extent of the damage happened in the area of Memorial Boulevard and Blackpatch Drive on the south side of town.

From Saturday: 6 dead as Nashville, Middle TN ravaged by high winds, tornadoes

A clear path of destruction extended through a residential neighborhood, damaging homes and downing trees. Nearby businesses of Holman Jewelers and a dental practice also suffered heavy damage before the storm moved across Memorial to an area near a Kroger, where a Jet's Pizza was completely flattened.

As part of a strip mall, the pizzeria was the worst hit, though all the businesses, which include an urgent care and cell phone shop, suffered some kind of damage from the passing storm. Kroger's gas pumps and a nearby Valvoline were also extensively damaged as were dozens of cars in the Kroger parking lot.

Police and emergency workers maintained a heavy presence in Springfield. One officer told The Tennessean that three cars from the parking lot had been tossed down an embankment and into a retaining pond.

Bricks from the front of the Kroger had been ripped from the building, but Christmas wreaths still hung neatly near the front doors. A power chair and cart, to assist disabled shoppers, sat in the parking lot, the vinyl ripped from its seat but otherwise unscathed. Utility crews had worked through the night, but most of the city remained without power Sunday morning.

In Clarksville, the 10-year-old victim was identified.

Arlan Coty died Saturday after a tornado destroyed his Henry Place Boulevard home.

More than 50 people were on hand at the Burnham family home, sifting through rubble and debris as they searched for treasured family mementos. Most of the people helping were from Wyatt Johnson Toyota, where the one of the boy's parents, Kyle Burnham, works.

The mayor praised residents for helping each other.

“One thing I love about this city — when there’s a need, we rally around that need, and we had neighbor helping neighbor,” Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts said of crews and volunteers that helped through the night.

He warned it could be "a couple of weeks" before power is fully restored but teams from around the country are headed to the site to help.

“Our community is strong and our faith is strong. We will get through this together. Please pray for all of those involved,” Montgomery County Mayor Wes Golden said, fighting back tears.

With Grinch on the door and a Christmas tree decorated and ready for the holidays, you would never know that just 24 hours before, Christina Johnson, her husband and dog were all running to the bathroom as a tornado wreaked havoc outside.

Before the storm hit, Johnson was moving things in the garage with her husband when her dog, George began to act differently.

In a second, he went from a calm dog in the garage to scratching the concrete and whining like it was the Fourth of July.

Johnson took George inside but he continued to whine and scratch at the garage door.

“That’s not something he does,” Johnson said. “So I came back in to see if I could get him to calm down.”

Before she had a chance to comfort her dog, her ears began to pop and she watched a tree and shed fly past her window.

Many associate a tornado with the sound of a freight train, but Clarksville’s Dustin Arnold experienced a visual of a flying trampoline as he headed for shelter.

"It went straight in the air like a UFO summoned it," Arnold, 35, said. "It didn’t turn or anything."

Arnold, an active U.S. Army soldier, saw heavy damage to his home on Cabana Drive. Along with the trampoline visual, he said glass shattering was probably the most memorable noise.

He and his wife were working in the garage with their 9-year-old daughter reading upstairs when the wind picked up and notifications for the oncoming storm began. They sheltered in the downstairs center hallway.

No one was injured, including the family's black Labrador mix, despite the storm ripping portions of the roof and a back wall apart. A speed-limit sign landed in the living room and a neighbor's shed settled in their yard — near where Arnold's shed stood before the storm.

"The whole thing happened in about 45 seconds," Arnold said. "It was very aggressive. (Initially) you don’t know your house is gone. I’m definitely blessed. Not even a couple blocks over are people without a home. Ours isn’t habitable, but it’s not as bad off."

Nicole Young, Sandy Mazza, Molly Davis and Kenya Anderson contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee tornadoes: Long recovery starts in Clarksville, Nashville