4pm1-04132020

4pm1-04132020

Good afternoon, i'm emily cassulo.

And i'm john mercer.

A series of storms and several tornadoes hit the tennessee valley with deadly results.

East brainerd got hit very hard, but so did many other areas like ooltewah, collegedale and north georgia.

There are several deaths to report in murray county.

For the next several hours we will be bringing you coverage of these devastating storms. east brainerd was one of the areas badly hit by last night's storms. one home in particular was struck by a large tree around midnight last night on the corner of bush and john henry road.

The couple said they knew storms were coming and were able to find a safe spot in their pantry when it happened.

Thankfully, no one was hurt.

"it was a little astonishing because last night we could see so much damage, but then when the light was out, there was just so much more than we could anticipate.

I am so grateful to my friends and my family and my neighbors and all these people that i haven't even thanked yet because i've been a little overwhelmed, but as you can see we've gotten a lot of help and i really appreciate it.

The couple has seen many volunteers, some they had never even met before, come help them clean up the debris.

Countless trees were also downed on many of the neighbors yards.

We want to know about the storm damage at your home, and in your neighborhood.

You can call news 12 now at 423-756-1212.

We want to know what happened to, your family and your neighbors.

So again, call us at 423-756-1212.

Georgia governor brian kemp came to murray county to check out the deadly damage from the storm.

The chatsworth times says there are a total of 7 people who have died in 2 different mobile home parks.

This is a look at drone footage of the devastation in that area.

As you can see many homes are destroyed from the storm's path.

In north georgia, many people are still without power as well.

Late sunday evening a tornado swept through chatsworth georgia, devastating two mobile home parks in the area.

News 12 joeli poole is just now getting bavk from chattsworth and is joining us live in the studio.

In murray county today the devastation was unbelieveable.

Again, officials have confirmed at least 7 deaths in the area.

The tornado touched down and ripped through two mobile home parks.

This left several homes upside down, on top of each other, or even completely gone.

Several residents report many power lines down, trees blocking roads, and power outages.

I spoke with one family who says their mother was inside her mobile home when the tornado touched down.

The day after easter this is one of the worst things that could happen.

To see the acts of god in it is terrible.

As terrifying as it was for the people involved , there is people who lived and walked away.

They flipped four times in this thing and other than 14 stitches and some scrapes they are perfectly fine.

Police are asking you to avoid the area if possible to allow cleanup to come through and assess the damage.

Our 24 hour forecast shows the aftermath of last night storms have people with no c1 3 the aftermath of last night storms have people with no home or power and and now looking for shelter.

Now the ymca and other the aftermath of last night storms have people with no patrick core >> right now is th offending entry in the driveway to present your time free wasn't sure what home i with you and me sleeping on my house it was so lower the thunder with the lighting in all the wind that it was really hard for a lot of folks to sleep less than what about you linda and 2 o'clock is scary scary is our is about my boyfriend sister their house is albert without the place where terrible is i would go now all marriage and carpenters have any news, for now and he's been telling us what's been going on as far as hamilton county between us was good that right now the settlement part is to be up in just a second action patrick core's are with us and we get back at us and we do after we talked about mr. carpenter we want to get pat to talk about the odyssey we knew there was any bad storms last night but w expecting this many hands as you know is hard to forecast we thought that we would have a risk of saying a couple of isolated tornadoes but you know you just took it it's hard to prepare for you know something that you think will be this damaging in this widespread so yeah we thought we'd have sever weather and you say okay there's some severe storms you have som damage years and damage they ar but obviously the widespread damage you know it's very very hard or castanet something we'll talk about here just can't stay here but will back with your minicourse marriage and carpenter from hamilton county is on a news conference for analysis and that is the real leader in the beginning this is a rather somber occasion to so we wanted to introduce all the people is been involved in this teamwork is taken as today after you were stricken with this so severe tornado last night and him again we are being conscious and i know some of your thinking about the social distancing and everyone of us appear are doing that as well but i thought it was important during this really challenging time here in the hamilton county city chattanooga city college dale on and even our friends the r&r joining county of bradley all to bring some people out to to be able to show why was that we believe it's the although we had a lot of properties lost today but loss of life and several people hospitalized we think that the do the hard work of a lot of individuals here ready t minimize what could've been eve worse ... you are from the national weather service or shortly in the do know is it was in the f do know is it was in the f3 which the winds of around 940 900 which the winds of around 940 905 miles an hour all they were here and on the ground early the this morning to rotate offices has went through this this is so tornado came in last night it starts at 11:30 pm on and now i want to take this opportunity to say how important it was in the preparation for this and want to give a a lot of credit to emergency management office and our team that actually came in and activated yesterday at 6 pm in anticipation of the storm's as a result of that we feel like it might've a big difference in being able to mobilize the weekly on old chief body here with us that somewhere david body is the time of the department on you know the city chattanooga took the brunt of this in terms of the most damag or set up the unified command which also included are sheriff's department which is that the highway department on along with our highway work trying to clear the roads to be able to get people have access to do search and rescue and i don't know you know how hard it is or how hard it is for someone it's been a little time and responder business i can say that she brought in chief hindman to chris items to the us first apartment on austin ross on the chief deputy congratulations on extremely well organized effort in ladies and gentlemen that does not happen without cooperative effort and a lot of coordination a lot of practice together these practices, drills years and again though in hopes of not having been implemented but we see today on the difference and when your practice and repaired and so again i want to say to all of our first responders it was over 500 501st responders that responded to this incident we have neighboring counties that the too many to name the came in and assisted from all around the region and again that was with law enforcement that was with the emergency medical people providing emphasis in th service this is what was our apartment there's still fire departments that are here in in our county and our communities are responding as a result of them wanting to step up and help one another in this is also something that chattanooga doesn't hamilton county does as well as go to help our our friends is as well made on experience and devastation so again i want to say a special naked all the people the name and dark immunity but does that live here are they just can't because they knew we needed the help only know there was over 13 1300 calls that were made to our dispatch during this event last night of 500 of them were involving collapse either structures or cars or things that nature or which is not unusual in this type of wind in this type of devastation but again to our dispatchers are 91 system beginning of the unsung heroes that are first-line to take these calls and dispatch our first responders were there supposed to be so again was saying no john sermon series director of our 9119 center to all the people that were there at 1130 or little earlier than 1130 taken these calls us a ring and give them all the credit for it so they're entitled to number people were trapped and as result of that we were continuously through this incident command is unified command system that headed up by the chiefs and mentioned earlier were able to get teams of people out as quickly as possible use a mention but that was not before unfortunately oh we had two fatalities and 17 people that were hospitalized only take this opportunity to say special thank you to the terms are representative and congressman chuck flashman who contacted narrowly on this morning we were in need of some personal protective equipment some had arrived at 5 o'clock this morning tina had the and stepped up and brought some minute file park this morning it when it was gone pretty much within a short period times you imagine with the numbers of people that were having needed attention so as a result of that the congressman call this morning said your anything you guys need on the ground let me know and also will function right now the best you can help us with personal protective equipment and it arrived with the other directors she had ordered then and in the back so were very very grateful again for the ordination between federal state and local officials been able make these things happen and that's not always an easy task to i will be sure to give the credit to the people that the two of them have helped us out the most there's a number people are familiar with these local faces all of them know the commissioners and the districts that were impacted the county commissioners sabrina smedley and tim boyd on you been been through the community throughout the day literally walking you know house to house to be able to see you with these may be and then please jim you don't know how to help or that is to the county mayor or city mayor to have their are the representatives of the district out finding out what the needs of the community are should also say that early on in this event there was the people that were obviously displaced and note in the beginning they were set up the ymca from the ymca they were moved either into the yard supe eight motel and look out to lookout valley or at the springhill suites and rules of law again about 140 these people is 45 families on 100 and on 140 people have been displaced in the immediate area that were given shelter and again that's an extremely important that's what emergency management does is coordinate these types of things we talked about this the pandemic again you know a mercy management is always involved in trying to be resourceful and build and provide the resources and they're the ones that make the calls to set this up i say that because it's really important to the community and understand you know the collaborative effort and cooperation of here today is devastating is that is an and as is the we grieve with the families that have lost loved ones are the ones that are you know that were injured all of us here sharon the tree on but we do think that we were able to to minimize that by the readiness and preparedness it's happened plus the fact that they put the strike teams in their immediately for the recovery an rescue which we been in that mode up until just a a few a couple hours at the most ago we still been the rescue mode and recovery and a thinker switching over to hear from chris evans here in minute hill hill explained to you where we are with that also want to say you again as representing our state we have state representative mr helton with this the today in the aisle hodges in the background was manic is a commissioner most of it is known to have known ms. been someone our community forever and then and now he's at the light level mail begin a tremendous asset to be able have these by type of people hiding actually call this morning before 6 am our time which if he was in nashville that would've made it about before five this type to asked what he could do to help on i should also say that i've heard from you know from the governor today of heard from my marsha blackburn's office and also consider him my alexander and again these are the people that represent us at federal level in a constant flashman and two senators again reaching out to say what is it that you need on the ground that can bring comfort to the people in an application extremely extremely grateful for that and i don't think i missed it by the sheriff's most obvious you know that this the sheriff in a law- enforcement people on the sheriff and sheriff jim hammond his chief deputy austin garrett as well as the you know david roddy the chief judge of the chattanooga police department again you know someone i thought to the work with both your i'm in the fire chief all these are extremely talented individuals that have so much experience were sold west i have a mentor community because when you put teams together like this when these kind of when you have this kind of devastation your immunity you know it's second nature to them many of them