The Jackson Sun from Jackson, Tennessee • 26

INTHE AFTERMATH Page IDra Sur Tuesday, 19. 11m "There's a two-mile strip that is devastated. There are at least 40 houses that are completely destroyed. Michael Stanford, assistant chief of the Henderson County Fire Department 11 Hardeman and Henderson counties deal with the destruction left by Sunday's tornadoes. By JIMMY HART and ROCHELLE DAVIS The Jackson Sun Daylight Monday disturbed hundreds of West Tennesseans outside Madison County who also awoke to toppled trees, downed power lines, beaten homes and battered emotions.

The tornadoes that struck Sunday night left two dead in Hardeman and Henderson counties and resulted in several injuries. Residents spent Monday assessing the damage, calling insurance companies, salvaging remains and counting blessings. "Ain't no doubt about it. We were lucky," said Judy McGill, standing in the front door of her battered double-wide mobile home off Crucifer Road in western Henderson County. McGill counted her blessings while staring at her dark green Dodge Neon which sat crushed underneath an oak tree in her driveway.

Three storage buildings behind the home and a vacant mobile home next door lay strewn unrecognizable in the back. Her neighbors' homes were hit hard as well. Several miles to the west, the wood home of Odell and Edith Evans on Blue Goose Road was leveled by the storm, killing Mrs. Evans, 75. Odell Evans was in stable condition at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital Monday with numerous cuts and bruises.

Residents in west and southwest Henderson County appeared to have been hardest hit by the storm, An area near White Fern, Cot-; ton Grove and Beech Bluff roads was especially devastated by the storm, with several homes reduced to rubble and countless others suffering visible damage. "It's a mess," said Michael Stanford, assistant chief of the Henderson County Fire Department. storm track is obvious from the county line on the west all the way to Highway 104 North. Everything in its path is dam-. Several utility poles along U.S.

412 West just west of Lexington were leaning north at 30- to 45-' degree angles, an unavoidable sal the powerful winds that uprooted 40- and 50-foot oak trees by the dozens. "There's a two-mile strip that is SimiiitV-c jm wA-f- A.Jf MiMhniwnritTr urt it i DREWTARTEFVThe Jackson Sun among the buildings damaged during storms Sunday in the Blue Goose Road-Luray area of Henderson Hay wood County Emergency Management Agency. Another person; a resident of the Hillville community whose identity was not available late Monday) suffered minor scrapes and bruises was treated and released from Methodist Haywood Park Hospital, Waldrop said. She said there were two houses that were destroyed, five with major damage and three with minor damage. There were four mobile homes, five barns and seven sheds destroyed by the tornado, Waldrop said.

Dozens of homes were demolished, including 10 in Crockett County, according to the American Red Cross. In Gadsden, on Highway 221, a shed was blown away and cotton trailers were blown into the road, said Brian Patterson, son of alder and surveyed damage with National Weather Service officials on Monday. He said three houses were demolished in Saulsbury; seven homes were damaged on Highway 57; one trailer was destroyed on Earlye Way; and a church suffered extensive damage on Mississippi Road. "It was just a mess," he said. "Trees were down everywhere." A tornado also touched down in southeast Haywood County, injuring two.

One was a 12-year-old boy in the Estanula community. The boy, from Humboldt, was trapped under a house destroyed by the tornado. He was freed by emergency workers on the scene. The boy, who was visiting his sister in Estanula, was treated and released at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital, said Jane Waldrop of the Brownsville- This house and motor home wer devastated," Stanford said. "There are at least 40 houses that are completely destroyed and hundreds that have damage to them." No damage assessment was available Monday.

Construction workers were perched atop countless homes replacing missing shingles, repairing leaky roofs and sawing up fallen trees along Crucifer Road, just south of Westover Elementary School. Power is still out at the school and at homes along the road, prompting Henderson County school officials to cancel classes throughout the county today. Ronnie Davis, director of operations at the Lexington Electric System, said Monday afternoon that at least 1,000 customers in the county's west end remained without power and probably wouldn't have it restored until 4 UK Funerals arranged for local tornado victims tonight. "It's just a matter of getting in there and getting it done. We've got trees everywhere," said Davis, who asked customers without power to be patient.

"We're doing all we can do. Bear with us." Areas in northeast Henderson County, in the Natchez Trace Drive area, also were hit by strong winds. In Hardetnan County, Gwyn Carter-Williams was killed by a tornado that dropped down in Saulsbury. Her husband, Gary Williams, is in critical condition at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis. Their two boys and girl are in critical to satisfactory condition at Methodist Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, said Saulsbury Alderman Mike Watkins.

Watkins rode in the ambulance with emergency workers Sunday out volunteer passes to those who wanted to help. Cindy Neff was at the com- mand post in the parking lot of the South Jackson Wal-Mart handing out bottled water, sand- i County. man of Tommy Patterson. In Carroll County, two mobile homes were destroyed in McLemoresville. Two people were injured inside one of the homes, but their names and conditions were not available Monday.

Carroll County Electric System Manager Lynn Compton said of the 4,000 customers left without power from the storm, only two customers remained without power Monday afternoon. Numerous downed trees and power lines were reported in the Christmasville Road community and McLemoresville in the west, Huntingdon in the center, West-port and Clarksburg in the south and Bruceton in the east. "It was pretty well widespread all over the county," Compton said. "It covered us from one end to the other." Services for Snider are at 1 p.m. today at Shackelford Funeral Directors Chapel in Bolivar.

The burial is in Cearley Cemetery near Medon. Two deaths in Madison County occurred in the Orchard Hill subdivision, which suffered the heaviest damage, with about two-thirds of 90 homes destroyed. Linda Woodfin, 29, and her daughter Jessica, 9, were killed in the tornado when' it leveled their home in Orchard Hill. The Woodfins' funeral arrangements were not available Monday. Edith G.

Evans, 75, of Lexington died Sunday of injuries sustained in the tornado. Evans is survived by her husband, Odell Evans of Lexingtqn; one son, Larry Britton of Huron; one stepson, Sammy Evans of Parsons; two daughters, Carolyn Douglas of Camden and Patricia Crider of Hollow Rock; three stepdaughters, Debbie Rosson, Helen Hill and Patricia Maness, all of Parsons, and one sister, Ellen Fahnestock of California. Funeral arrangements are incomplete. For more information, call Parsons Mortuary at 847-3441. Other victims with incomplete funeral arrangements are: William Paul (Bill) Cantrell, 43, of Jackson.

For more information, call Lawrence-Sorenson Funeral Home at 424-2424. Lura Dorris, 81, of Jackson. Terry Thomas, 43, of Jackson. Gwyn Carter-Williams, of Saulsbury. For more information call Dixie Funeral Home at Volunteers ease pain of tornado aftermath By NICOLE KRAEMER The Jackson Sun Dianne Awatt and her son, Elliott, heard about the tornado's destruction and went straight to the attic.

They stuffed clothes and blankets into nearly a dozen plastic garbage bags Monday, filled their mini-van and drove to Wal-Mart SuperCenter in North Jackson, a donation drop-off site. "I don't like to see people suffering," Elliott Awatt said. The 17-year-old North Side High School student plans to gather his friends today to help the victims of the tornadoes. Volunteers and Wal-Mart employees loaded trucks with donations from West Tennessee residents. Some emptied their attics and basements, others wheeled shopping carts of school supplies and toiletries directly from Wal-Mart's cash registers to the donation site.

A flowered lamp shade was at the left of the heap, near a used washing machine and a pile of dresses still clinging to wire hangers. "I think it has really surprised all of us how much people have brought," said Laura Hodge, whose husband, Bill, is a national sales manager for the donation drive sponsors, radio stations WYNU-FM, WTNV-FM and WTJS-AM. All the stations 4" By CHANDRA M. HAYSLETT The Jackson Sun The tornado that swept through Jackson and West Tennessee on Sunday with 80-mph winds took the lives of eight people. About 100 people vere injured, several critically, by a twister that touched down in Jackson around 6:25 p.m.

The tornado flattened houses, uprooted trees and damaged numerous businesses. Of the eight killed, six were from Madison County, one from Henderson County and one from Hardeman County. Nine deaths in West Tennessee were originally reportedt with seven from Madison County. Jan Boud, marketing director for West Tennessee Healthcare, said when she provided the information Sunday evening, there were three victims at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital and four en route. But one of the four on the way to the hospital was a older resident who died of natural causes at her home, not from tornado-related injuries.

Ann Snider, 46, of Beech Bluff was one of the six from Madison County who died. She was killed after being buried under debris at Peoples Chapel on Grove Avenue when three walls and the roof were torn off the one-story building. She is survived by her husband, Jerry Snider of Beech Bluff; her mother, Betty Warren of Toone; a daughter, Angela Mattox Hampton of Toone and three brothers, Marvin Wilson Sr. of Henderson, James Wilson of Medon and Jerry Wilson of Toone. 4 Neff said local businesses donated coffee, sandwiches, sodas and water for "whoever is hun- gry." Kids First Child Development Center at 110 Directors Row is who have been affected by the tor- nadoes.

Hours at the center are 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. For more information, call 668- 6722. wis HELEN COMERThe Jackson Sun Volunteer Cindy Neff hands out bottles of water Monday to Sgt. Brandon McFarland, with the National Guard Military Police unit, in the Bemis area.

are in Jackson. Tommy Climer, public relations director for the North Jack- son Wal-Mart, said donations were taken to area charities such as Regional Inter-Faith Associa- tion and the Salvation Army. The donation drive will continue today from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Climer said. In South Jackson, one of the areas hardest hit, police officers set up a command post to hand wiches and soda from the back of offering free child care on a first-a parked car.

come, first-served basis for those I just nobody, said Neff, who took a dav off from work to help with thelfelief effort. "I felt bad because I was lucky and I did n't get hurt.".