38 F
Clarksville
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeBusinessTornado strikes South Clarksville; fairgrounds pavilion demolished

Tornado strikes South Clarksville; fairgrounds pavilion demolished

Power outages, downed power lines, extensive debris, property damage

In the dark of night, lit only by shards of lightning, families in the High Street area surveyed the damage from what at this writing appeared to be a tornado strike just missing downtown Clarksville. Several homes were damaged by trees; power lines, downed signs, blown transformers littered the landscape. Widespread power outages were noted throughout south Clarksville. Initial reports from police and fire crews indicate that at least one twister may have touched down. No injuries were reported at this time.

A home on Crossland Avenue was struck by a downed tree and powerlines which triggered a structure fire.

Along Highway 13/48, the fairgrounds pavilion was demolished and its debris effectively relocated across the street by Mother Nature. At Gary Matthews, transformer poles and power lines were blown down and draped over brand new 2008 SUVs. Police cordoned off the road to all but emergency vehicles as they worked close to the fairgrounds section. Red and blue flashing lights brightened the night sky across the area.

Just a few minutes after midnight, after a day of waiting for the slow moving storms to arrive in Middle Tennessee, sirens roared to life even as the tornadic winds instantly killed power to homes and businesses. CDE, Cable, Highway Department and police and fire crews will have their hands full with clean-up operations in the wake of the storm, which dumped several inches of rain and triggered flash flood warnings for southern Kentucky counties.

In looking over the damages early this morning, Clarksville Online publisher Bill Larson took this gallery of photos. We will continue to follow this developing story.

RELATED ARTICLES

1 COMMENT

Latest Articles