One Killed, Nearly 100 Injured as Tornadoes Slash Tennessee

Tornadoes spawned by powerful thunderstorms killed at least one person, injured nearly 100 and trapped several people inside their leveled homes Sunday in eastern Tennessee, authorities said.

Officials imposed a 9 p.m.-to-6 a.m curfew. Police checkpoints were put up around the city to keep the curious out.

At least one person was killed in Lenoir City and 35 others hospitalized, said John Keese, spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency in Nashville. A paramedic also reported treating about 60 people at a shelter.

Keese gave no other details on the fatality.

“Houses have been leveled. Businesses have been leveled. All power is out to the city,” Loudon County Sheriff Tim Guider said.

Keese said at least 59 people were forced out of their homes by the storm. Nine were placed in a shelter and the rest found other places to stay Sunday night, he said. Most of those at the shelter were elderly, and some had been evacuated from their homes because of natural gas leaks in the wake of the storm.

Trey Noah was on duty at the Pride gasoline station when two women who had been pumping fuel ran inside, saying there was a tornado coming.

Six people were on the floor when the tornado demolished the station, Noah said. No one was hurt.

Severe thunderstorms from the same disturbance damaged roofs and knocked out power to hundreds of residents in Lexington, Ky. No serious injuries were reported there.

A tornado that touched down in Cedartown, Ga., on Sunday also caused at least one death and several injuries, authorities said.