Tornadoes kill at least 19 people, leave trail of destruction in and around Nashville

The tornado touched down northwest of Nashville shortly before 12:40 a.m. Eastern time, the National Weather Service said. Damage was reported along a path that ended about 10 miles east of the city, in Hermitage, Tennessee, according to the Associated Press.

Nineteen people have died because of the storms, according to Tennessee Emergency Management Community spokeswoman Maggie Hannan. Fourteen of the 19 dead were in Putnam County, according to Hannan. Two died in Wilson County and one in Benton. In Davidson County, where Nashville is, police said a man and woman were killed when they were struck by debris.

At least 20 people have been hospitalized, and emergency responders will not be able to fully assess the damage until daylight, Nashville Mayor John Cooper said early Tuesday. Thirty first-responders have been injured, according to the fire department.

Nashville Electric Service President Decosta Jenkins said at least 50,000 people were without power after four major substations were damaged and more than 80 electrical polls are out. Jenkins said it will be a "massive coordinated effort" to restore power to those whose homes can still accept it, warning that it was unknown when there would be a full restoration of power.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee declared a state of emergency Tuesday and said he had already been in contact with the White House in anticipation of federal assistance Tennessee will need in the coming days and beyond. The governor said he would survey the damage via helicopter later in the day.

As officials pleaded for residents to stay off the roads when possible, especially in downtown Nashville, Lee asked that residents be cautious when traveling to vote in the Super Tuesday primary.

"Of course we want people to exercise caution in places like downtown Nashville, but we also want people to exercise their rights and get out and vote," he said.

Multiple buildings are significantly damaged in the downtown Nashville area. At least 48 buildings collapsed, according to Nashville Fire Chief William Swann. Officials said gas leaks were "a major concern" in the tornado's wake, as were downed power lines.

About 20 miles east of Nashville, police in Mount Juliet said there were "multiple homes damaged and multiple injuries." Police tweeted that authorities have requested mutual aid from area agencies.

"Our community has been impacted significantly," police said. "We continue to search for injured. Stay home if you can. Watch for downed power lines."

In some neighborhoods - North Nashville, Germantown and East Nashville - roads were unnavigable with downed trees and power lines crossing streets. In Germantown, cars that were parked on the side of the street the night before had been blown to the middle of the road. Local news reported some instances of looting may have occurred. The minor league baseball club's iconic guitar-shaped scoreboard was ripped away in high winds.

The tornadoes struck hours before voting stations were scheduled to open for Tennessee's Super Tuesday primary. Officials announced polls would open an hour late, at 8 a.m. in Davidson County (which includes Nashville) and Wilson County, even as emergency officials were still unclear on the full extent of damage to roads and electrical lines.

Polls will still close at 7 p.m. as previously scheduled, though Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett said he was "working with election officials around the state to ensure polls in affected counties are open for the required 10 hours today."

Jeff Roberts, the election administrator for Davidson County, which oversees elections for counties in the metro Nashville area, said as many as 15 polling sites throughout the county were affected by the tornado, as were election workers.

"Some of our poll officials are trapped in their homes or can't get out of their driveways," Roberts told The Washington Post early Tuesday. "We're trying to create alternate sites where precincts are inaccessible to let people vote."

The two Davidson County election commission offices will serve as "super sites," where anyone from the affected counties may vote.

James Duncan was just about to fall asleep at his girlfriend's apartment in the Germantown neighborhood when he said her phone went off with an alert of a tornado warning. He said he didn't think too much of it until the sirens outside began to blare throughout the city. Then, debris starting hitting the window and objects started slamming against the building.

"The feeling in my head from the pressure was insane," Duncan, a 27-year-old who works in the music industry, told The Washington Post. "I've never felt anything like it."

They had to be evacuated from the building due to a gas leak, so the couple grabbed what was necessary and walked through the debris and downed power lines. Duncan said that he and his girlfriend walked roughly a mile before they could be picked up in what was considered a safe zone, passing by blown-off roofs and obliterated buildings.

"It was chaos," he said to The Post. "It felt like we were in a bad dream."

The storm first prompted a tornado warning at 11:02 p.m., just as it was crossing over Benton County in western Tennessee. Reports of a possible tornado emerged near Camden, nearly 90 minutes before the storm arrived in Nashville. Baseball-sized hail accompanied the storm in Dickson, about 35 miles west-southwest of Nashville. The storm remained under tornado warning until 12:15 a.m. as it trekked east toward Nashville.

A tornado warning was issued for Nashville at 12:35 a.m. But by that point, the tornado had likely already touched down just northwest of the airport on the west side of the city. One minute after the warning came out, Doppler radar confirmed a destructive tornado, with debris lofted into the air, just east of the airport, directly over the state prison near the Cumberland River.

"TAKE COVER NOW!" the NWS tweeted. "THIS IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS STORM!!!!"

It was captured online in videos and highlighted the force of a storm that stretched from north of downtown to East Nashville.

One of the areas reportedly hit the hardest was the Five Points area, a cultural hub of restaurants, bars and shops in East Nashville.

"Five Points in East Nashville looks like an apocalypse," said WKRN reporter Elizabeth Lane.