Tornado Causes Damage, Closes Some Sites At Stones River Battlefield
The twister, rated as a deadly F4 by the National Weather Service, destroyed hundreds of homes, took two lives and injured several in this college community some 30 miles south of Nashville. Murfreesboro Police Officer Adam Wade was one of the first to respond to a nearby neighborhood. "With debris and downed trees everywhere my partner and I went house to house making sure no one was trapped. We noted massive tree damage in the battlefield area," said Wade. Stones River Superintendent Stuart Johnson was at the park when the storm blew through in the early afternoon. It came across nearby Interstate 24 from the west, cutting a path through several residential and commercial areas. "The visitor center was built in 1963 with a bomb shelter in the basement and that's where we went," said Johnson. Park employees, visitors and people fleeing the nearby highway rode out the storm in the shelter. There were no injuries at the battlefield but massive amounts of debris and downed trees forced closing of the park's main loop tour road. Johnson said the tornado "was about 100 yards from the visitor center at one point." Most of the facilities structures and monuments were spared damage, but a fallen tree destroyed part of the Stones River National Cemetery wall and the Hazen Monument was inaccessible as presstime. “It will be a long project to restore the park to its prestorm appearance," said Johnson. The "emergency phase" dollar estimate is about $200,000 to $300,000, at least for now, said Johnson. Crews from several other parks helped in the cleanup, including Big South Fork National Recreation Area, Smoky Mountain National Park, Mammoth Cave National Park and the Natchez Trace Parkway. Their work included everything from clearing downed limbs and removing trees to equipment maintenance and safety. Civil War Patrol members picked up trash and fence rails from some park fields. The storm passed when many people were at work. "Had this been at night, it would have been even more a catastrophe," Wade noted. Stones River National Battlefield marks the site of a different kind of storm that swept the area Dec. 31, 1862-Jan. 2, 1863. The battle between Union forces under Gen. William Rosecrans and Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee involved over 80,000 troops and roughly 25,000 casualties. The visitor center, cemetery, Fortress Rosecrans, Redoubt Brannan and other units are open, but many of the trails and main tour road remain closed. For more information go to www.nps.gov/stri. Donations to help with cleanup may be made to Friends of Stones River National Battlefield at www.friendsofstonesriver.org |
