NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Weeks before Christmas, eight tornadoes touched down killing six people and injuring dozens more.
On Dec. 9 in the afternoon, an EF3 tornado with 150 mph winds left parts of Montgomery County decimated and four people dead including Arlan Coty, 10, Donna Allen, 59, and Stephen Hayes, 34 and Penny Scroggins, 78.
"Everybody starts to help me pull my mom and to help try to save Arlan. That was another thing, Arlan was trapped and the amount of people that swarm that house to get him out," Eric Davis said.
Davis said his mom, Donna, was visiting him for the holidays.
"I'm grateful to be here, but I'm also just sad that she's not," Davis said.
According to the National Weather Service, nearly 1,000 homes were impacted and more than 60 people were hurt. One of the youngest people hurt was 4-month-old Lord Youngblood.
"The bassinet was the first thing to go up, but Lord stayed in the bassinet, in the air, like he seen him in the bassinet in the air, they did two twirls he said, then they got thrown,” Sydney Moore said.
Moore said they heard her baby crying.
“He finally found Lord, he was placed in a tree,” Moore said, “I swear to God he looked like he was placed in a tree with a gash on the side of his face right here it was a deep deep gash, but they glued it shut.”
Later that evening, an EF2 tornado tore through Madison and Hendersonville. The winds reached up to 125 mph, according to the NWS surveyors. On Nesbitt Lane, one mobile home toppled on top of another one. The impact killed 37-year-old Joseph Dalton.
"I looked out and didn't see the trailer and heard somebody yell for help. There were people here trying to get to them," Neighbor Wanda McClemor said.
In the other trailer, 31-year-old Floridema Perez and her 2-year-old son, Anthony Mendez, died.
"One of the firemen, I said, 'Did they find the baby?' They said, 'yes.' They couldn't find it because she was holding it — covering it, trying to protect the baby, " McClemor said.
There's still a long road of recovery ahead.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
