Tennessee hit by second deadly tornado outbreak within a week by Laura Gilchrist
Just five days after 24 people lost their lives in a tornado outbreak in West Tennessee, 11 people have been killed in Middle Tennessee, the largest loss of life in the area for over 30 years.
On Friday afternoon a series of violent supercell thunderstorms spawned tornadoes across ten Tennessee counties, with the worst of the damage occurring in the suburbs of Nashville. Urban Nashville was not directly hit, but just to the north of the city the community of Goodlettsville was badly hit. Damage was reported to 55 homes, seven businesses and a church. Eight of the deaths were reported from Sumner County, northeast of Nashville, and three occurred in Warren County, to the southeast.
The loss of life was the largest due to severe weather in Middle Tennessee since 1974, when 22 people died in Lincoln County. Statewide more than 50 people were killed on that day.
47 tornadoes were reported from five US states on Friday, as storms swept from northern Mississippi to northern Virginia. Hailstones over 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter were reported from Alabama, and over 16,000 residents were without power in West Virginia after high winds and heavy rain.
The number of tornadoes in the USA has risen considerably in the first part of 2006 compared with the past few years. From January until the end of March this year an estimated 286 tornadoes has occurred, compared with an average of 70 for the same three-month period in the past three years. Before Friday, the number of tornado-related deaths this year was already standing at 38, compared with an annual average of 45. By this time last year, only five people had lost their lives.
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