Six people were dead and at least 23 were hospitalized with injuries after a tornado struck Nashville and the Tennessee town of Clarksville early Saturday evening, officials said.
The dead in Clarksville include two adults and one child, according to a statement from Michelle Newell, spokesperson for Montgomery County, where Clarksville is located.
Nashville Emergency Operations Center officials said three people also died in an northern community of the city along Nesbitt Lane. They reported “severe damage” in the area and asked residents to avoid it as well downed power lines.
The numbers could change, officials said, as authorities continued to search for survivors into the night.
“This is a sad day for our community,” County Mayor Wes Golden said in the Montgomery County statement. “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.”
Multiple tornadoes were reported across Tennessee early Saturday evening, officials said.
Authorities in Weakley County, in the northeast of the state, reported residents trapped and homes damaged following an apparent tornado there.
In the town of Rutherford, 121 miles northeast of Memphis, resident Ethan Goad said the local fire station was destroyed and “everyone around me was freaking out.”
Cindy Walls of the Gibson County Fire Department confirmed damage to the station in Rutherford and to other structures in the town.
“We have damage to homes, barns, and other structures as well,” she said.
The National Weather Service confirmed at least one tornado in Clarksville. Images from the city show structures reduced to twisted piles of wood and trees on the wet ground.
Other reported tornadoes, including one in the area of North Nashville, were not officially confirmed by the weather service but were being considered as likely, a weather service forecaster in Nashville said.
The forecaster said there were “several” tornadoes in the state.
The tornadoes were the result of warm, wet Gulf Coast air colliding with cold air from the north and moving along a front that’s headed east, forecasters said.
Marin Scott, Maya Brown, Michelle Acevedo and Jacob Cavaiani contributed.
