The tornado's toll

Mar. 12--Wilson County has completed a damage assessment for the March 3 tornado, which found a total of 1,307 residential and commercial structures were damaged in addition to previously reported fatalities and injuries.

According to WEMA Director Joey Cooper, 170 of those buildings were completely destroyed, 201 sustained major damage, 283 had minor damage and 653 were lightly affected. More than half of the structures were located in Lebanon.

"As far as the disaster medical report, EMS did transport 25," Cooper said at a press conference Wednesday regarding the tornado relief effort. "There were three fatalities ... 91 people were treated in local emergency rooms or on the scene, and 12 of those were admitted to the hospital. Multiple victims were treated for minor injuries."

While the county is still operating under a state of emergency, the focus has shifted to recovery. Wilson County Mayor Randall Hutto outlined officials' path forward.

"The process that we have right now is probably twofold," he said. "One is clean up the debris and restore people's environments back to what it was, or the best it can be. And the second thing is to document this process properly with FEMA so that we can get the money paid back to us, which is normally 75 cents on the dollar -- because that affects every taxpayer here in Wilson County."

State and federal organizations are also working to provide services for displaced victims.

"We are working our best to find locations for FEMA," Hutto said, noting that plans for the agency to locate at the Lebanon Outlet Mall fell through. "Mt. Juliet has one that will be open Thursday, it is the Hermitage Community Center."

The Tennessee Department of Transportation has set up at the outlet mall and can replace driver's licenses lost in the storm, and the county hopes to bring an IRS group to the same location next week to assist people who lost tax documents.

"As we speak today, Workforce Development through the Department of Labor has a mobile unit at the outlet mall as well," Hutto said. "That is there for you to go and conduct your business. If you need a small office, if you need internet, if you need to file your insurance returns, your FEMA claims, anything else that you might need to do, they're there to help you."

Power outages and road closures have been largely dealt with, but drivers can expect rolling roadblocks at Golden Bear Gateway off Interstate 40 from 9 a.m. to noon Thursday and Friday for repair work.

"It's kind of like a presidential blockade, they will stop you and let you roll through easy," Hutto said, adding that workers hope to complete the job before Saturday. "If they don't do that, they will close on Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m."

Lebanon Mayor Bernie Ash said an estimated 35% of debris in the city had been cleared as of Wednesday afternoon and credited first responders and volunteers for the cleanup.

"What I want to do is thank the many, many volunteers who have turned out to help us out," he said. "In the city we counted over 3,500 volunteers who came from all the counties around us, who came from out of state. I talked to people from Mobile, Alabama, from Indiana, from Ohio, from Kentucky and other places ... we had seven school buses taking volunteers out."

Mt. Juliet Mayor Ed Hagerty was unable to attend the press conference, but he relayed a message through Hutto praising the community's response to the damage.

Wilson County Director of Schools Donna Wright said schools will reopen on Monday, with displaced students from West Wilson Middle and Stoner Creek Elementary schools attending Mt. Juliet Middle and Springdale Elementary, respectively.

Students will attend those schools on four-hour schedules to accommodate the number of children, and the district is waiting on insurance estimates to determine whether to repair or rebuild the damaged schools.

"One thing that we've learned from others that have suffered and experienced this kind of devastation is that you have to get, particularly children, normalcy, a sense of routine and structure," she said. "That is what we've put into place ... not only are we talking about young people that have been traumatized and experienced something they don't know how to get their arms around, but we also have adults as well."

That means the district is exploring options for counseling services to work with children and families affected as they head back to class.

"There's been a lot of support coming in from not only districts around the state, but also outside the state," Wright said. "It's been overwhelming that that many people would offer, as far away as Seattle, Washington, wanting to know what we need, how can we get it there."

Wilson County Sheriff Robert Bryan was also affected by seeing that mindset in the local relief efforts.

"I'll tell you what I've seen in the past nine days," he said. "I've seen teamwork. There's no imaginary line down the middle of the county. I saw people get in their patrol cars, get in their ambulances, get in their fire trucks and everybody's working together for one goal: that's protecting the citizens of this county."

Bryan estimated the county will recover quickly because of that level of engagement, and said the sheriff's department is maintaining increased presence in affected neighborhoods.

"We're in a security phase in relation to law enforcement right now," he said, noting that companies could try and take advantage of victims. "There's people, we've seen signs of some frivolous companies coming into this county ... I want to assure everybody, if they see something like that going on to let us know and we will take care of that."

Hutto said he is encouraged by how friends, families and neighbors have come together since the tornado in a group effort to bring relief.

"The disaster is something that none of us ever wanted to be a part of," Hutto said. "But because of this, there have been many, many stripes of people that have come together and shown their love for one another. If you happen to be out in the field and see people in their blue jeans and T-shirts grabbing a brick and carrying it to the side of the road, that to me is the silver lining of this disaster ... that makes me smile for something that has brought a lot of frowns to a lot of places."

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