NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Residents of Nashville are cleaning up because they know, they can’t put the pieces back together.
In barely 10 minutes as most people were asleep, 12:40 a.m. local time, a tornado ripped through East Nashville, destroying everything in its path.
“You see it everywhere else and you don’t think something this magnitude can hit here and it has,” Crystal said.
More than two hours from where she was born, Crystal’s Louisville family left worried about her safety.
“Multiple people checked out with me since I live here, making sure I was okay – messages on Facebook,” she said.
There’s nothing left of her sister’s home – her sister, thankful to be alive.
“Buildings one and two completely destroyed,” she said.
Even though the destruction was just steps away from where Crystal’s sister lives, she hopes it doesn’t stop people from all over the country from coming to her home in Nashville.
“Even if you don’t live in the area, it’s home – so you can’t not be affected,” she said.
When the tornado ripped through Main Street, people from various areas were staying in the heart of the community.
“Our team went door to door to find people. I don’t think there was much notice of the tornado,” Robert said. “Some of them as you look down the street aren’t here anymore. Just in the course of like two seconds, really, things are gone.
Every guest was evacuated safely and relocated, only to leave a destroyed 7-month hotel.
“The hardest part is that people have lost their lives and so this is great we can fix this, everything here we can fix," Robert said.
Less than three miles from the devastation, the heart of Nashville's downtown sits untouched. Some of the aftermath proving, Nashville can get through this.
"Nashville will bounce back. We did in 2010. We'll bounce back now."
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