Central Tennessee residents and emergency workers have begun cleaning up after severe weekend storms that killed six people while damaging buildings, turning over vehicles and knocking out power to tens of thousands.
Officials confirmed that three people, including a toddler, died after an apparent tornado struck Montgomery County 50 miles north west of Nashville near the Kentucky state border on Saturday afternoon.
Some 23 people were treated for injuries at hospitals in the county.
In a neighbourhood just north of central Nashville, three people were killed on Saturday as a result of the storms, the city’s Emergency Operation Centre said.
Photos posted by the Clarksville fire department on social media showed damaged houses with debris strewn on lawns, a lorry flipped on its side on a highway and insulation ripped out of building walls.
Video footage from the Tennessee storms showed a ball of fire rising from behind a row of homes into the sky.
A curfew was in effect both on Saturday night and Sunday night in Clarksville, where officials urged motorists to keep away from the damaged areas so as not to impede the work of first responders and utility crews.
“We are praying for those who are injured, lost loved ones, and lost their homes,” Montgomery County Mayor Wes Golden said. “This community pulls together like no other and we will be here until the end.”
Residents in the region are familiar with severe weather in late autumn.
Saturday’s storm came nearly two years to the day after the National Weather Service recorded 41 tornadoes through a handful of states, including 16 in Tennessee and eight in Kentucky. A total of 81 people died in Kentucky alone.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department identified three victims as Joseph Dalton, 37, Floridema Gabriel Perez, 31, and her son, Anthony Elmer Mendez, two.
Mr Dalton was inside his mobile home when the storm tossed it on top of Ms Perez’s residence. Two other children, one in each home, were taken to hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, the department said.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said he and his wife, Maria, were praying for all Tennesseans who had been affected by the storms.
“We mourn the lives lost and ask that everyone continue to follow guidance from local and state officials,” Mr Lee said in a statement.
About 45,000 electricity customers were without power in Tennessee early on Sunday, according to PowerOutage.us, down from more than 80,000 on Saturday night.
The National Weather Service had issued multiple tornado warnings in Tennessee on Saturday.
