Tornadoes Tear Through Tennessee

By R. Clay Hall and Cathy Farmer*

Date: January 25, 1999   Photos Version

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)— "It's like a death has happened," said the Rev. Douglas Norfleet, following a Jan. 22 tornado that destroyed the historic Madison Street United Methodist Church in downtown Clarksville, Tenn., where he is pastor.

The historic church, organized in 1822, and more than 500 other buildings were either destroyed or seriously damaged by the pre-dawn tornado that tore through this city of 100,000 people about 35 miles from Nashville.

"The building took a heck of a lick, but the church is still strong," Norfleet said Jan. 24 during an emotional Sunday worship service held in the Clarksville High School Gymnasium.

"We are blessed that no one was hurt in the storm, and we are challenged to become the church God is to have us to become."

"The church looks like it was bombed," said James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "We mourn with the people of Clarksville as they recover from the loss of such an important part of the community."

Madison Street Church, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, had just undergone a $1.6 million dollar restoration project. The tornado caused the sanctuary and front towers of the church to be declared as a total loss by Mark Kawcynski, a structural engineer from the Tennessee Annual Conference Disaster Response team and a member of Grace United Methodist Church in Mt. Juliet, Tenn.

Many non-residents will remember Madison Street Church as one which they attended while they are a family member were stationed at Fort Campbell Army Base just across the state line. One other historic downtown church, Trinity Episcopal, consecrated in 1881, was demolished.

The Wesley Foundation at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville also suffered from moderate damage.

"We lost all of our windows and had some roof damage," said Rev. Bettye Lewis, United Methodist campus minister at the university. Numerous volunteers from the community gathered Jan. 23 and helped board up the building and put a tarp on the roof.

"We are not sure about the amount of damage," Lewis said, (but) "we do know that it could have been worse. We just praise God that none of our students were seriously injured."

The Rev. Juanita Bass, superintendent of the Clarksville district of the Tennessee Annual Conference, said the church and the community could count on the full support in the recovery process. "We are going to do all that we can to bring the peace of God's love to the community," she said.

Bass was dislocated by the storm as her office is in the Wesley Foundation at the university. "We will work around our inconvenience and praise the Lord that no one in the community was seriously injured."

"We are in this for the long haul," said United Methodist Bishop Kenneth Carder, who leads both the Memphis and Tennessee annual conferences. "The conference and the district will be active in helping Clarksville recover for as long as it takes."

A limited search of the rubble was permitted on Jan. 23 so that personal effects and worship materials could be recovered.

Norfleet emerged from the building carrying a pipe from the beautiful pipe organ that once dominated the chancel area of the church. "This will be a symbol for us," he said. "The music will live on with our faith."

A very special survivor was also discovered. The Castner family, members of the church, went on a special mission to find Lightning, a goldfish mascot in the three-year old Sunday School class. Lightning was found safe and sound and emerged only a little hungry from the ordeal. The goldfish has found a temporary home with the Castners.

When a young child expressed sorrow during the Jan. 24 worship service, Norfleet assured him that the congregation would rebuild. A workshop for child-care workers is scheduled for Jan. 28 to help them deal with children suffering from post traumatic effects from the storm.

Also expressing United Methodism's commitment to "be here for the long haul" was the Rev. Ken Wallace, head of the community surveys and case management team. Wallace is pastor of Clarksville's First United Methodist Church. Located about a half mile from the Madison Street Church, First Church was not touched by the storm.

Earlier in the week, a tornado rolled across Jackson, Tenn.. The Jan. 17 tornado killed Terry Thomas of East Trinity United Methodist Church, just outside Jackson, Tenn., and critically injured wife Teresa, son Michael, 22, and daughter Jamie, 19.

"They were a very close family -- they were always together," said the Rev. Sky Lowe-McCracken, pastor of East Trinity.

Mrs. Thomas suffered several orthopedic and internal injuries; Jamie, a neck injury; and Michael, cuts, abrasions and a broken leg. Ten other families at East Trinity were left homeless by the twin tornadoes that ripped through West Tennessee Jan. 17. East Trinity itself sustained only minor damage.

"We're a church of 150, and when 30 or 20 percent of those are left homeless, it means we have much to do," said Lowe-McCracken.

"The only good thing I've seen out of this is the overwhelming outpouring of love and support," he said. "The community in general and the church specifically have rallied to support each other.

"Every time I look around, I see people helping other people. We're all still in shock, but we're trying to do what we can. When things were at their worst, I saw people at their best."

More than 45 people gathered at East Trinity Jan. 20 for a prayer service in the aftermath of the killer tornado that devastated their community three days earlier. No one was ashamed to cry and many took comfort in reading Bible passages to each other.

Lowe-McCracken, voice dulled by days and nights of non-stop rescue work, said the church was attempting to get a feel for what it could do.

The pastor was one of the first on the scene. He had been meeting with the church's youth group when the tornado struck a subdivision just down the road. After ascertaining that none of the children were injured, the volunteer firefighter dashed to the rescue.

"I moved a tree with my truck to get there," Lowe-McCracken said. "I felt panicked, but I knew I had to do this. We're trained to be prepared, but no training can prepare you for what I saw."

Lowe-McCracken said he drove into a neighborhood he knew well, but could no longer recognize. Many of East Trinity's members lived there, but their houses were gone.

"There were no street lights, no electricity, it was pitch black. Electric lines were down everywhere, street signs were gone, trees destroyed. The only way I knew where I was, was by counting streets as I went."

In a voice flattened by exhaustion and by acknowledged emotional trauma, Lowe-McCracken told how he concentrated on a job that had to be done. "We had to help the most badly injured. I treated Logan, a 5-year-old boy with a serious head injury, for as long as I could. But he was conscious and breathing. I had to leave him for the ones who weren't conscious and weren't breathing.

"I admit," the young pastor said, as he sat facing his weary and weeping congregation, "the first thing I cried when I stood in the midst of that devastation was, 'Where's God!' Then I realized, 'He's right here. He's right here.' Because it was only by the grace of God that I can explain how we were able to aid so many. "God was right there beside me."

A group of children from Halls United Methodist Church in the Jackson area narrowly escaped tragedy when the storms struck. Church member Karen Hill had treated 20 children of the church's "Awesome Bunch" to a movie in Jackson instead of staying at the church for their regular get-together. Her "treat" saved the children from serious injury or death when a tornado ripped through the church's 1906 sanctuary.

"We'd had a bad week," Hill explained. "Jon Moore, a church member who was only 21, died suddenly of spinal meningitis, and Sunday afternoon we had a funeral for the son of another member. The sun was pouring through the stained glass windows that afternoon and everyone commented on how beautiful they were. We don't usually see them at that time of day."

Ordinarily, the Awesome Bunch gathers for dinner at 6 on Sundays at "their" table, just under the window in the fellowship hall. At 6 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 17, a tornado ripped through the sanctuary, sleeting bricks through that very same window.

"Look at this pavement," Hill said, pointing to the red stain where bricks had been driven into the concrete walk so forcefully the color looked permanent. "We were just so fortunate that the children weren't here."

The Rev. Randy Jetton, Halls' pastor, and his family were at home in the parsonage not 15 feet away when the tornado hit. It lifted briefly, hopping the street and skimming City Hall and the water plant before demolishing a small barbecue restaurant within sight of the church.

"The parsonage was moderately damaged," Jetton said. "Windows broken, siding pulled away, some of the roof blown off. But we were just so thankful that no one was killed. All we got were bruises and scratches."

Jetton said the salvage company hired by their insurance company had already taken the pews, organ, piano, altar, and doors to Memphis for cleaning. "They salvaged two of the smaller windows but had to leave the two in the northeast corner in place. Those windows are holding up what's left of the front wall."

Bob Carswell, church board chairman, said the whole church would meet later to decidewhere to worship until the building is repaired or rebuilt. "We've had several invitations," he said. Carswell feared construction could take as long as "a couple of years."

Donations to the United Methodist Committee on Relief's (UMCOR) Domestic Disaster Response, #901670 will help provide immediate humanitarian assistance and long-term recovery and may be contributed through local churches or mailed to UMCOR at 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY 10115.

January 25, 1999

* Hall is director of communications for the denomination's Tennessee Annual Conference. Farmer is director of communications director for the Memphis Annual Conference.