The Tennessean
Just after midnight on March 3, as residents slept, a tornado touched down in Davidson County.
When it reached John C. Tune Airport it was a strong EF2 tornado, and from there it tore a path through North Nashville and Germantown, leaving destruction in its wake. By the time it crossed the river into East Nashville it had grown into a monster EF3, and when it descended upon Five Points it claimed its first two casualties.
The storm alternated strength level as it remained on the ground through Donelson, Mount Juliet, Lebanon, and Smith County, taking the lives of even more people. The same storm spawned a second tornado, which roared into Putnam County as a dangerous EF4 with winds up to 175 miles per hour just before 2 a.m. That tornado swept buildings clean off their foundations and killed 19 people. In the light of day, those left in the wake of these two deadly storms were able to clearly see the damage left behind: Gas leaks and downed power lines, collapsed buildings, overturned cars, and shattered lives.
But amidst the destruction there was also hope.
Families reunited. Lives saved. There are countless stories of Middle Tennesseans banding together.
Twice in a Lifetime
The Tennessean
Holly Street Daycare, like many longtime businesses in East Nashville, had been through this all before: When the 1999 tornado swept through town, it was daytime and the facility was open, forcing executive director Karen Stump to rush to make sure the children could all be sheltered safely.
“It was a beautiful day, and people were mowing the lawn,” Stump remembers. “All of the sudden one teacher said, ‘We’re taking cover.’”
A tree destroyed the playground, and terrified parents rushed to comfort their kids. It felt like a nightmare, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Except it wasn’t. Holly Street Daycare took a brutal hit when the March tornado ravaged the area, sending giant trees down into the playground once again, and causing extensive damage to the buildings–even completely removing the porch and parts of the front office, almost as if they never existed. Stump couldn’t believe, as she walked through the grounds the next morning, that they would have to rebuild again, but she did take one huge sigh of relief: the children had not been there.
That was a scenario that she simply did not want to realize in her mind. Volunteers started showing up to help almost immediately: teams of people with chainsaws, sandwiches for lunch, or just wielding trash bags and paper towels, ready to pick up the endless pieces of glass that covered the places where children as young as a few months old used to crawl around in the sunshine. Holly Street’s daycare teachers went from lesson planning to recovery crew, working in the wreckage and coordinating logistics–and one made sure to rescue the newborn chicks that the class of toddlers had just hatched, a beloved school tradition.
Parents, left without someone to watch their kids, stepped away from surveying their own damage (a few families lost their homes completely) to spend hours tossing debris into a dumpster while simultaneously trying to explain to their children why they might not be able to go to school for a long while. Insurance will cover some of the repairs, but not everything. Stump has been relying on donations and is hopeful for grants that will help bridge some gaps, but the support from the community has been a light in a dark tunnel.
“East Nashville has always been so great,” says Stump, who has worked at Holly Street Daycare since 1986, “so it didn’t surprise me. But it was still amazing.”
Love Among the Ruins
The Tennessean
Meg Selby and McCauley Warren’s biggest goal was to be settled before their wedding, which was supposed to be just weeks after disaster hit in March.
They met at a Colorado Target a few years back, and couldn’t wait to make things official. The couple had moved into their Dedham Drive home in the Stanford Estates section of Donelson last September, and had been meticulously making it their own as they planned their nuptials: navigating all the usual stresses, expectations, and rituals that came along with designing a completely new life with the one you love.Selby and Warren weren’t too worried about the tornado warnings coming through until they tuned into a livestream of the news. It was then that they figured they should head to the basement and shelter with their dogs.
When they emerged, they saw a home damaged beyond repair, with parts of the roof that they once slept under laying in pieces on the ground, as if a giant wrecking ball had swung straight through. The shock was heavy.
“It’s like winning the lottery,” says Selby. “Except the complete other end of the spectrum.”
The couple salvaged what they could from the wreckage, even finding chairs from the nearby elementary school—the very school they hope to send their kids to someday—in their basement. They postponed their wedding, which now has the added challenge of weathering the coronavirus pandemic, until September, and they settled into a temporary home. Even so, they have found it hard to stay away from the streets they came to know and find comfort in.
“We find ourselves packing up our dogs and driving over to our old neighborhood a lot to walk the dogs and to try to feel normal,” Selby says. “We just miss it.”
A GoFundMe and support from friends and strangers alike have helped the couple feel more secure in unbearably uncertain times, but Selby admits that, with everything else going on in the world at the moment, it’s easy to feel “forgotten.” Still, she tries to remain as optimistic as she can. They’re planning to rebuild a new home at the exact same spot, and the stresses that surround a wedding have faded.
“Expectations evolved from it being a flawless day into the only thing being important about that day is that we’re here and together,” says Selby who had a moment of hope when she and Warren unearthed their beloved engagement photos from the rubble. “Our full circle moments will come with the wedding and then being able to move back into our neighborhood,” she says. “That’s all we want.”
Feeding the Community
The Tennessean
It was a scene not uncommon to East Nashville–smoke rising from a grill outside Margot Café, a gathering of neighbors, the faint echoes of country music playing from speakers. There were the smells of fried chicken and sizzling burgers, and the sounds of pop-top beer and flocks of small children running in circles around their parents as if they were obstacle courses. This wasn’t an average celebration, though: for many of the people at the cookout organized by owner Margot McCormack and her staff, this was the first hot meal they’d had in days.
Margot Café was still being powered by a generator when they organized their East Nashville Community Cookout as a way to gather and feed those who had been impacted by the tornado–all completely for free. Though the streets and roads leading there were still dark and illuminated by walkers using their smartphone lights as a guide, the Margot staff and helpers managed to arrange a huge, bountiful buffet of everything from salads to dessert, only asking for donations for the service industry relief fund from whoever felt in the place to do so. Organized by Jessica Doyle, that fund ended up raising nearly $50,000.
“We have been feeding the community for nearly 19 years and that won’t stop in our neighborhood’s time of need,” Margot Café posted on their Instagram page the day before the cookout.
“We have power and we want to give all of you a chance to have a meal, take a break, visit with friends, and come together as the amazing community we have enjoyed serving all this time. We are all cleaned up and almost ready to be back in business, but others in the area were not as fortunate so we will be raising funds for hospitality employees in the neighborhood whose buildings didn’t fare as well as ours. Contribute if you can or just show up and take a pause.”
Things took another drastic turn as restaurants were forced to go to delivery and take-out models shortly after, and both Margot Café and its sister restaurant Marché tried to maintain a business. Ultimately, they decided to pause in April, and had to start their own GoFundMe just to keep the staff supported the best they could. But Marché and Margot Café promise that, when they are able to, they will open again–be it for delivery, curbside, or under their red and white umbrellas in the middle of forever-changed Five Points.
Famous Fundraisers
Erika Goldring
Some of the relief funds for Middle Tennessee came from superstar sources. Nashville resident Taylor Swift donated $1 million to the Middle Tennessee Emergency Response Fund, in support of the communities impacted and the nonprofits helping those communities.
“Nashville is my home and the fact that so many people have lost their homes and so much more in Middle Tennessee is devastating to me,” Swift posted to Instagram at the time, urging her followers to donate if they were able.
(Swift has also come to the aid of a beloved East Nashville small business in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon hearing Grimey’s New & Preloved Music was unable to keep its employees working, she provided direct relief by covering their paychecks and healthcare costs.)
Justin Timberlake also posted his support on Instagram, sharing a photo of the devastated façade of the Basement East. He urged fans to join him in donating to Hands on Nashville, the Red Cross, and the Visit Music City Foundation.
“Devastated for this city so many of my friends and family call home,” he posted. “Hurts to watch it get hit like this. But Tennesseans are some of the strongest people out there, and I know we’ll stick together and rebuild.”
Other local celebs, including Chris Young, Caleb Followill, and Lily Aldridge, Brad Paisley and more also donated to the cause, as well as organizations like the Nashville Sounds, the Tennessee Titans, and Ryman Hospitality.
An Answered Call
The Tennessean
Kate Briefs couldn’t believe it: people just kept showing up.
She’s the volunteer coordinator for Gideon’s Army, an organization that emphasizes youth empowerment and community member leadership in North Nashville. With a sister whose own home was destroyed in the tornado, Briefs was worried, like most everyone else, about the immediate aftermath of the destruction– particularly for the oft-underserved area. (“Anyone who works or supports North Nashville knows that is always on your mind,” Briefs says.)
It was barely hours after the storm hit that Rasheedat Fetuga, founder of Gideon’s Army, posted a call on Facebook:
“Stay tuned for next steps and please donate and share,” she wrote. “All money will be used to support families impacted by the storms and tornado tonight. A lot of people have lost absolutely everything and will need help rebuilding their lives.”
Briefs and Fetuga weren’t worried long: volunteers kept coming to the McGruder Family Resource Center, where Gideon’s Army ended up staging much of their efforts, to pitch in. Many even headed out into the field with barely a tangible assignment–just waiting to be called on.
“Every day at McGruder, the same three people were there,” Briefs remembers. “The same three women were there every morning. They didn’t know each other: they didn’t know me. They just showed up and said, ‘Hey, good morning, what’s next?’ They were so committed to serving North Nashville.”
Donations came from across Nashville, sorting went into overdrive and by March 19 alone, Gideon’s Army and the volunteers had distributed over 17,000 goods and supplies to families in need. The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee has also deployed two sizable early grants from the Middle Tennessee Emergency Response Fund to Gideon’s Army to help support their efforts. But the coronavirus pandemic presents new and unique challenges, far beyond ones experienced by those just sheltering in place in the comforts of their own, undamaged home.
“What’s important is that we don’t forget about the tornado,” Briefs stresses. “COVID is a serious global pandemic, but we need to figure out how to support tornado recovery while keeping our community safe. It’s not prioritizing one thing or the other. There are so many concerns, predatory lenders, developers. We cannot forget that the impact of this tornado will last for generations.”
Volunteering has been taking place virtually now, with training sessions going on from home. They are doing what they can.
“We have to get creative,” Briefs says. “The people are still with us.”