MCNAIRY COUNTY, Tenn. — There’s a lot of extensive damage across the Mid-South after severe storms rolled through the Mid-South over the weekend.
One of the hardest hit areas includes McNairy County. Homeowners in Selmer say they are thankful they escaped unharmed.
Monday a crew was working to remove a huge tree from Steve Droke’s home in Selmer, Tennessee.
“That’s basically the den back there and that’s where I was at…I was on the couch and it fell right across,” Droke said.
Droke and his dog Otis were watching tv when the storms hit.
“My wife got smart. She went down to her sister’s a few houses down the road and got in the basement,” Droke said.
When powerful winds brought destruction.
“You could hear stuff hitting the windows, like hail or something, and then bam! It was all over, just like that, in a split second,” Droke said.
Droke says he hasn’t been able to get back into his house to tally up the damage, but he thinks it’s totaled. In his neighborhood there’s plenty of evidence of how devastating the storm was with roads closed.
Power lines down and houses draped in blue plastic. He says he’ll never forget how close he came to injury or death.
Brian Rogers is also giving thanks. He watched from his front door as the storm approached.
“And the rain started blowing sideways and then stuff started flying by my front porch,” Rogers said.
He says he got inside and dropped to the floor beside his bed.
“It shook me up pretty bad,” Rogers said.
Rogers says when it was safe to come outside he found his front porch and roof relocated to the back of his house. He says he’s blessed to have survived what he believes was a tornado, and it’s not the first time.
“This is the second tornado that I’ve been through. The second time my house has been destroyed, so I knew kind of what to expect,” Rogers said.
The Tennessee Emergency Management agency says a “boil water notice” is in effect until Wednesday for the City of Adamsville in McNairy County.