The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • A4

4A SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2009 THE TENNESSEAN RUTHERFORD TORNADOES I WHAT HAPPENED Tornado leaves trail of damage TERROR FROM 1A Bryant's husband, John, who was with his wife and child when the storm hit, was in critical condition Friday night in a Middle Tennessee hospital. Their home was demolished. Others were more fortunate. Shane Sheppard climbed into the tub with his family as the tornado approached his Compton Road home northeast of downtown Murfreesboro. The whistling wind was the eeriest sound he had ever heard.

"Is this the end of my life?" he thought. Storm spotters reported more than a half-dozen funnel clouds Friday afternoon, but the only other confirmed tornado of the day hit Sumner County, northwest of Cottontown, where state routes 25 and 76 converge. A few homes were damaged, but few injuries were reported. One home was damaged in Dickson County, according to emergency officials there. No tornado sirens The storm system that raked Tennessee first showed signs of its strength in Arkansas, where three people were killed and a small town was completely devastated late Thursday night.

The storm in the plains triggered the severe weather that swept across Tennessee late Friday morning. A tornado watch remained in effect for much of the day. Many children were home with their families, as schools and state offices were closed for the long Easter weekend. "It was a particularly dangerous situation, because there was a possibility of strong, long-track tornadoes," said Jim Moser, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Nashville. "That appears to have happened in Murfreesboro." At 11 a.m., the storm was near the Tennessee River, and the National Weather Service began issuing severe thunderstorm warnings.

The storms moved nearly 40 mph, sprinting northeast into the Nashville area by 11:45 a.m. Around 12:45 p.m., a twister touched down west of Murfreesboro. It crossed Interstate 24, leaving overturned cars and tractor-trailers in its wake that would temporarily shut down the corridor, leaving motorists stuck in traffic and uncertainty for hours. From there, the storm continued moving north of the city near Tomahawk Trace before pushing on to the Compton Road area. There are no tornado sirens in Murfreesboro, and Terry Long was unaware that a tornado was headed for her home in the Compton Road area until she started to feel the pressure of the storm closing in.

She got into the closet with her partner and her daughter. They pulled a mattress over them. "With something like this, your body goes into autopilot and you just know what An aerial view shows the tornado damage in Murfreesboro. The twister cut a 10-mile path through the city, causing devastation in areas, killing two people and injuring dozens more, four critically, george walker iv the tennessean PATH OF DEADLY TWISTER to do," Long said. "We did what we knew to do, and that's why we're alive." After the storm ended, members of the Tennessee Highway Patrol closed exits leading into Murfreesboro while they assessed the damage and launched search and rescue teams.

Many of the homes and condos in the Indian Creek development in Blackman avoided serious damage. A short walk away, others were reduced to rubble. Jason Jones' home was one of them. The tornado swept his brick-and-siding home off its foundation and reduced it to rubble. "It's just unbelievable," Jones said.

He was on a break at his job in Wilson County when a friend called to tell him his home was in shambles. He said he was so shaken that a friend from work had to drive him back to Murfreesboro. "The first thing I thought (when I got home) was thank God nobody was here," Jones said. "If anybody would have been here, I don't think they would have made it." Residents lend a hand Worried residents checking on their loved ones turned to their cell phones, jamming cell towers, and prompting the Murfreesboro police to ask residents to stay off their phones. Emergency officials said the overload made communication among rescuers difficult.

Urban search and rescue teams trolled the demolished neighborhoods looking for survivors, marking each door with a when they were sure it was clear. A total of 41 people were treated at the Middle Tennessee Medical Center on Friday for storm-related injuries, said hospital spokeswoman Angie Boyd-Chambers. Four people were critically injured. One was transferred to the Van-derbilt University Medical Center, and 16 people were treated and released. As emergency respon-ders arrived, so too did local residents looking to lend a hand, often to people they didn't know.

Young people offered up bottles of water, and men with chainsaws roamed from house to house offering to cut up fallen limbs. Tommy Hill was one of the volunteer helpers. He rode out the storm on Interstate 24. Some of the homes in his neighborhood off Brinkley Road were damaged, he said. Once he knew his wife and 14-year-old son were OK, the three headed over to Blackman to help others.

Said Hill: "It's God's work." Debbie Morgan's mailbox ended up on the roof of her Blackman home. Her air conditioner lay upside down in the neighbors' yard. The remains of her pool house were scattered across the back of her lot. But Morgan's home, while damaged, was left largely intact by Friday afternoon's tornado. The homes of some of her neighbors were left in ruins.

Friday afternoon, Morgan faced a decision that several to tell his mother where the tornado was about to hit. "He saw it happen," Werner said. Andrew Piro, 23, a student at Middle Tennessee State University, also was following the tornado with a video camera in hand. Piro turned into a neighborhood near Wilkerson Lane and ended up trapped when a utility pole fell across the Cherry A tornado swept through Rutherford County from just west of 1-24 in the Blackman community and continued northeast through Murfreesboro. W.

Thomp; son Sulpher Springs Road i Haynes Drive Tomahawk Dr. North West Broad at Thompson Lane 1 Center Homes and businesses were destroyed, vehicles were overturned, many were injured and two killed. Blaze Dr. BLACKMAN COMMUNITY Franklin Rd. 96 MAP AREA Nashville Franklin (3) Medical Parkway Ln.

Ln. 3 Compton Rd. I i Penny Ln. i. 0( E- Clark Bvd.

Dr. I Middle Tennessee State University E. Main St. Mercyeivd. The Tennessean, Daily News Journal reports THE TENNESSEAN Merry Mangrum said she planned to stay in her home, even without utilities.

"I think it may be a while before we get power," Mangrum said. "The first thing I thought (when I got home) was thank God nobody was here. If anybody would have been here, I don't think they would have made it." JASON JONES, whose home was reduced to rubble The Red Cross opened a shelter at the New Vision Baptist Church and sent aid trucks down the affected streets. Cleanup efforts began right away. Two weeks ago, on March 28, a tornado touched down in the South Nashville area and again in Murfreesboro, where a Boys Girls Club was damaged.

No injuries were reported in that storm Tennessean and Gannett Tennessee staff writers Clay Carey, Nicole Young, Suzanne Normand Blackwood, Chasity Gunn, Mark Bell, Scott Broden, Greg Mabry, Melinda Hudgins and Mealand Ragland-Hud-gins and Sandee Suitt contributed to this report. Contact Kate Howard at 615-726-8968 or kahoward(a tennessean.com. She took photographs and also worked with the Project Go! program, an antidrug program for children in the city. "She was a sweet girl," Werner said of Kori Bryant. "She loved" motherhood.

Matt Lakin of the Knoxville News Sentinel contributed to this report. Contact Kate Howard at 615-726-8968 or kahowardtennessean. com. 4 W- "ark Blvd. 'aison Pfc THEAVENUE -MURFREESBORO SOURCE: sturdy.

Still, she was without natural gas, running water or electricity, so she said she would probably stay somewhere else. Just down the street, destroy 'It broke my heart' Piro said he and the other man went to what remained of the house where friends had last seen Kori Bryant. They found her outside the house, under the debris. "It broke my heart," Piro said. Emergency management workers thought they might have been trying to get in Man sees fatal tornado brother's house of her neighbors were wrestling with: whether to spend the night in her home.

There was damage to a sunroom, she said, but the rest of the house seemed road behind his car. He said he got out to help with rescue efforts once he saw the damage. "It looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off," Piro said. "Me and one guy went off together. We met a guy who said his brother's wife and baby were missing.

You could see he'd been crying and was shaken up." VICTIMS FROM 1A were dead." The family learned of the danger before the Bryants felt the impact. John Bryant's brother was tracking the storm about 12:45 p.m. when he realized the twister was headed for his brother's house on Sulphur Springs Road. He called Werner's home in Alabama their car when the brunt of the storm bore down on their house. John Bryant was found unconscious and taken to the hospital, where he was in surgery late Friday, according to family members.

According to a colleague, Kori Bryant worked in the marketing department at the Murfreesboro Parks and Recreation Department..