NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — National Weather Service survey teams were set to evaluate damage from powerful storms that swept across the state, killing three people and damaging dozens of homes.
Jeremy Heidt, spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, said Thursday morning that no additional fatalities were discovered overnight. He also said rescuers had not been able to recover the body of a person killed in DeKalb County because the house was so badly damaged it was unstable for rescuers to enter. Two other people were killed in Cumberland County when severe storms raked the central portion of the state Wednesday.
Weather service spokeswoman Brittney Whitehead said survey teams will determine if tornadoes touched down in what appears to be the state's most deadly weather outbreak since 37 people died in tornadoes last April.
State officials said at least seven homes were destroyed and 50 damaged in Cumberland County.
Doug Scarlett, an American Red Cross official, said the organization is anticipating some storm victims being left homeless.
He said it's unclear how vast the devastation is because the storms struck just before dark Wednesday.
Aerial video shown on WSMV-TV in Nashville Thursday morning showed homes wrecked and semi-trailers tumbled in the lot of a processing plant, which was also destroyed.