A modular home along state Highway 30 in Rhea County was destroyed as what authorities believe were two tornados passed through the New Harmony community on the Bledsoe/Rhea county line.
Staff Photo by Ben Benton/Chattanooga Times Free PressSequatchie Valley residents are teaming up to provide Bledsoe County’s New Harmony community with food, water, personal items and used furniture for families who are making do with what the tornado left behind.
Four residents of the community on the Bledsoe-Rhea county line died and hundreds of homes were damaged when Wednesday’s EF4 tornado smashed into the mountaintop agricultural community, authorities said.
“We’ve got in excess of 200 residences affected,” Bledsoe County Mayor Bobby Collier said Monday. “We know there have been at least 28 homes destroyed. When I say destroyed, I mean from the foundation up, it’s gone or flattened.”
The tornado “heavily damaged” an additional 20 or more homes, Collier said.
“That means there might be a hole in the roof big enough to drop a car through,” he said. “In my opinion, those are destroyed, too.”