WEAKLEY COUNTY, Tenn. — In many Tennessee communities, folks have their “eyes on the sky” as another round of severe weather moves in.
It comes after stormy Tuesday morning that left one person dead in Dresden, which is in Weakley County.
“I heard my windows shutter and it woke me up out of a dead sleep,” Michael Nelson, a resident, said.
Nelson counts himself as “very lucky” his mobile home was shaken Tuesday morning by a toppled tree when a powerful storm moved through Dresden.
“I came out of my hallway and the back of my trailer. It picked up, and it slammed it back down on the foundation and it threw my trailer off the foundation,” Nelson said.
But one of Nelson’s neighbors, in this small mobile home community was not as fortunate.
A woman identified as 49-year-old Angel Long Jones was killed when a tree crashed down on her mobile home.
Jones was reportedly in her bed when she was killed.
“I know that she was a fine lady. She was liked by those who knew her,” Dresden Mayor Jeff Washburn said.
Washburn says multiple agencies were involved in search and rescue efforts in the mobile home park located on Greenfield Highway 54, where dozens of homes were damaged.
The mayor says Tuesday morning’s storm was part of what he called a “squall line.”
“It brought with it hail, high winds and heavy rain and possibly even some tornadic activity,” Washburn said.
In addition to power outages, high winds blew part of the roof off Dresden High School, as well as the Weakley County Highway Department. At Champion Homes on Old Highway 22, part of the roof was peeled off and two mobile homes were flipped over.
While Thomas Terry worked to clear down trees from the parking lot, he felt pretty sure a tornado was responsible.
“It’s definitely a tornado. The way it twisted them trees back up the road there. It twisted trees and it …it was a mess,” Terry said.
According to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency the Weakley County fatality is the only weather related death reported.
