'Our Faith Carries Us Through': TN Residents Hurting, Looking Toward Recovery After Deadly Tornadoes

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - President Trump plans to visit Tennessee this week after a state of emergency was declared following the deadly tornadoes.

Tennessee residents spent the day Tuesday taking inventory of how there lives had changed. Just hours earlier, shortly after midnight, an ambush of destruction forced them to take cover – sheltering from an EF-3 Tornado. 

CBN is on the ground in the area, talking to survivors who are working to recover after these deadly storms.

Local resident Taylor Nelson and her husband took cover from the storm just in time.

"You need to come look at the sky – it was bright lime green, I've never seen, I mean it was lime green," she recalled. 

"We were running into our kitchen to go down to our basement steps as we were running down our basement steps, my ears started popping and our roof took off," Nelson added.

OPERATION BLESSING is on the ground to provide disaster relief in Tennessee. Click Here to Help.

Just down the street in the same neighborhood, Chris Folsom shared a similar experience.

"The sound, you know that they describe, the train, the roaring and it's coming hard and fast," Folsom explained. "I ran downstairs into the basement. As soon as I got in the door, the roof ripped off."

The long-track tornado skipped through parts of Nashville where at least 45 buildings suffered severe damage.

Some of the damage is difficult to fathom, like wood javelined through a brick wall in Germantown – a community in the northern district of Nashville. 

Michael Wagget explained that he could feel his building shake and hear windows blow out.

"You heard this groaning force. It was shaking the building. You could hear windows bursting all around." he said. "It was very obvious Mother Nature had arrived with a vengeance!" 

Numerous Nashville-based relief agencies, like Hope Force responded quickly to evaluate needs of the displaced. 

Steve Laforge said, "It's just unbelievable, everywhere I look, whole houses, front wall, gone! People are hurting!" 

The elementary school wing was destroyed at Donelson Christian Academy (DCA) in Nashville. School officials gathered to survey structural damage and consider their off-site options to continue classes when students return from their Spring Break.

Keith Singer with DCA said keeping faith close to the heart will carry them through these times of difficulty.

"Well, (faith) is the heart of who we are, as a community. And I think really what we're taught is – in difficult times, in adverse times, it is our faith that carries us through. And so I want people praying for our students. I want people praying for our faculty and staff."

OPERATION BLESSING is on the ground to provide disaster relief in Tennessee. Click Here to Help.