The Jackson Sun from Jackson, Tennessee • 25

IN THE A- lcnraD 4- tttuSntheonSiun: nrn Tuesday, January 19, 1999 PAGE 1D "I found a lot of stuff back there, diplomas, clothes, food, pots and pans and the dog." Candace Rhodes, 15, of Jackson By NICOLE KRAEMER The Jackson Sun Short on sleep, but long on the number of workers ready to help, West Tennessee residents rose Monday morning to bring supplies to storm victims, fix power lines and clear fallen trees from the road. Six people died, including a 9-year-old girl and her mother, after two tornadoes tore through Jackson at 6:25 p.m. Sunday. Two others were killed in surrounding West Tennessee counties, one each in Hardeman and Henderson counties. On the night of the storm, Jackson-Madison County General Hospital officials reported seven people were killed by the tornado.

They revised that number. Monday morning, counting six Madison County fatalities, because one of the deaths was unrelated to the storm, said Jan Boud, spokeswoman for the hospital. More than 200 homes "were destroyed or heavily damaged in the worst tornado in more than a decade, said Madison County Sheriff David Woolfork. About 20 businesses were flattened, said Jackson Police Chief Rick Staples. Thousands of West Ten-nesseans lost electricity Sunday when power lines were snapped by winds that reached speeds of more than 80 mph; But "morbid curiosity seekers" caused some of the biggest worries for police Monday, snarling traffic and getting in the way of disaster relief, said Sgt.

Mike Holt of the Jackson Police Department. The tornado caught many by surprise Sunday night Some said tornado warning sirens didn't sound soon enough. William Brantley, a certified storm spotter for the National Weather Service, said he saw a funnel cloud touch down near his Bemis home at 6:17 p.m. The tornado sirens were sounded in Jackson at 6:30 p.m., said Raymond Via of the Emergency Management Service Agency. Michele Mickleson, meteorologist with the National Weather Service, reported the first tornado touched down in Halls at 6 p.m.

Halls is about 40 miles northwest of Jackson. But Dan Vaughn, director of the Jackson Madison County Emergency Management Service Agency, said at a Monday press conference, "The National Weather Service gave a tornado warning mvki HELEN COMERThe Jackson Sun Charlie and Doris Harris, along with family and friends, pick through the debris to collect some.of their belongings after a tornado destroyed their home in South Jackson. -'TI --VA s. -l-- 1Mf-' at 6:07 p.m. We set off our sirens at 6:09 or 6:10 p.m." Tennessee lawmakers said President Bill Clinton will likely declare West Tennessee a federal disaster area in the next few days.

The protocol for being declared a federal disaster area requires Gov. Don Sundquist to ask the President to make the designation. Then, Madison County could qualify for federal aid. In South Jackson, one of the areas hardest-hit by the storm, an American flag waved at half-mast at the Market Place grocery store. A cellular phone tower, designed to withstand winds of up to 250 mph, was toppled near Harts Bridge Road.

Alongside Airways Boule-' vard, the pole of a metal street light was bent at a 45 degree angle. To get storm call the Jackson Area Chapter of the American Red Cross at 901-427-5543 or. the Tennessee Emergency Management Association at 61 5-741 -51 81 For food heeds, call the Second Harvest Food Bank at 423-3663. Second Harvest is located at 225 Highland Ave. For shelter, the Jacksoa Civic Center and East Union Baptist Church, 2244 Beech Bluff Road, are open.

Jackson General Hospital does have its normal counseling services available. Call 935-' 8200. To find out how you can help, call the Jackson Area Chapter of the American Red Cross at 901-427-5543 or the Tennessee Emergency Management Association at 615-741-5181. The City of Jackson also has a number for people wishing to volunteer their time. Call Barbara Long at 425-8545.

About 75 city workers brought chainsaws to devastated Jackson neighborhoods, clearing trees from the roads and dumping debris at area landfills, said Public Works Director Jerry Gist. Please see TORNADO, 7D HELEN COMERThe Jackson Sun Donnie Garey of JUD removes insulation from area power lines. Sounds of sirens, or silence? Power failure shut down warning I U'ru 'i 7A Sr -KA A1- A storm siren near the Brookfield Apartments on Hollywood Drive was damaged during Sunday night's storm. i MJmJmmiiiMttm. -n h-t fnillt JllKll llinil' ll 'lltt li 1 i ni itirni Trill HELEN COMERThe Jackson Sun About 65 buses were damaged at the Madison County bus garage in South Jackson on Harts Bridge Road.

HELEN COMERThe Jackson Sun Madison schools closed By PAUL MINNIS The Jackson Sun Tornado damage to about 60 school buses has contributed to the closing of all schools today in the Jackson-Madison County Schools system, while all private schools in Jackson planned to open on schedule. "We took a crippling hit," said Randall Page, transportation supervisor for the school system. "It remains to be seen how long it takes for us to really get back on our feet." The bus station at 59 Harts Bridge Road was destroyed when multiple tornadoes touched down in West Tennessee on Sunday. Page said the buses were in an outside parking lot, and a few sustained serious damage. "But most just had some broken windows," he said.

"Unfortunately, a broken out windshield still means we can't drive the bus. We have to get all those problems fixed." Schools in Henderson and Chester counties are closed today because of power outages. But other counties in the area are expected to be open, either because the storm missed them or because damage was minor. By JACQUE HILLMAN The Jackson Sun Jamie Harrison was driving through South Jackson on Sunday in her Chevy Cavalier when a nado picked up her car and carried it about a block into a nearby front yard on Herron Grove Road. "There was about 15 other people running into this house for cover, all bloody and cut up, and this huge roar," said Harrison, who lives in the Lambuth area.

"The houses beside and across the street were blown away. Then the siren went off." In Jackson, the sirens are turned on by the Jackson-Madison County Emergency Management Agency. But. Harrison and some others throughout the county said the sirens were turned on too late, leaving many unprepared for the deadly storm that killed eight people in West Tennessee. EMA officials said a power outage interrupted their attempt to set off the sirens, so what people heard was actually a second attempt to set them off.

Harrison, along with Brad Kilzer of Henderson, said the siren went off 10 minutes too late in South Jackson. They want to know why. "My aunt Catherine Terry lost the roof of her house," Kilzer said Monday. "The stormB had already traveled in a northeasterly lino, flattening two homes and damaging another at the University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station on Airways Boulevard, followed by damage on Hollywood Avenue and in the Russell Road area. The second tornado followed a line from Mercer to Caldwell Road to Harts Bridge Road to Chester Levee to the Orchard Hill subdivision and struck within a minute of the first.

The siren in the Hollywood area never sounded, say several area residents. "I can tell you the Hollywood siren did not go off," said Pat Webb, who lives at 84 Russell Road. Please see SIRENS, 6D hit when the siren went off. We've been calling up the emergency people and fussing." i "We set off the siren at 6:09 or 6:10 p.m.," said Dan Vaughn director of EMA. "We do not have a backup system for old sirens bought in the 1960s that work on electricity.

When the power failed, they failed. It takes several minutes to reset the system." The National Weather Service in Memphis issued a tornado warning for West Tennessee at 6:07 p.m. Two tornadoes touched down in Madison County about 6:25, one in South Jackson and the other in West Jackson. Harrison said they didn't hear a siren until 6:30. Before the sirens sounded, one tornado that touched down at McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport School and South Side High School had some windows shattered in the storm, but added that no major damage was reported.

He said he feels lucky the damage was as light as it was, despite the problems at the bus station. Some of the buses, he said, were moved by the high winds or completely overturned. He said only about two or three probably can't be repaired. The rest, he said, will be fixed piecemeal. He said the school system has arranged to move the buses today to the former Serra Chevrolet dealership on South Highland Avenue.

He said the dealership has agreed to help the school system. "It's great to see how everybody pulls together on this," he said. "We can't thank those people enough." Most schools out Monday for Martin Luther King birthday. The Jackson Transit Authority has offered to take Madison Coun-. ty students to and from school, at least until the district can get more buses working, said Lydell Sampson, JTA general manager.

She said the buses might run some of the routes to pick up the school children, but added that most students probably will have to come to the bus stops. "Our primary focus is the safety of the student," said Roy Weaver, interim superintendent of Jackson-Madison County Schools. "We'll evaluate everything tomorrow. We'll decide then if we'll have school (on Wednesday)." Weaver said Tigrett Middle.