EF 1 Tornado Confirmed

Wednesday night we had a tornado come through Newport which is about 10 miles from our house. Our neighbor up the road from us had a window blow in, but since we are down by the creek we are apparently somewhat protected and had no problems at all.

Below is the write-up from the local paper.

"The Hobart Ford Adult Education Building suffered heavy damage during Wednesday night's storm in Newport. The front of the building was removed along with part of the roof."

NEWPORT-Strong storms and a possible tornado ripped through Newport Wednesday night, damaging buildings, downing trees and power lines and causing flooding in the downtown area.

Some of the worst damage was along Hedrick Drive where the Hobart Ford Adult Education Building received extensive damage. Some damage was also reported at Cocke County High School and the school's football field, where pine trees were snapped and damaged the scoreboard.

Trees and powers lines were reported down across town. Several roads were blocked by trees, including Broadway in front of Eastern Plaza and at Eastport. Heavy rains accompanying the storms also caused minor flooding of Broadway between the Cocke County Courthouse and Food City East.

City and county law enforcement worked to control traffic while crews from Newport Utilities were working throughout the town to restore power.

Lt. Terry Lawson, of the Newport Police Department, said at the end of his night shift, around 6 a.m. today, "In 23 years of law enforcement, I hadn't seen this type of weather before."

"Miraculously, no one got hurt or killed-so far," Lawson said.

He said that Patrolman Matthew Elliott was in his patrol car on Hedrick Drive when strong winds-perhaps a tornado-hit the adult high school and Cocke County High School. Lawson said Elliott was in his patrol car when it was blown into a ditch, and Elliott said he blacked out for about 20 seconds, but was otherwise not injured.

Capt. Ronnie Landers was driving his patrol car when winds hit and spun his vehicle around "a couple of times," Lawson said.

Lawson said trees were down "all over downtown Newport" and it took him 25 minutes to find a path open to the Baptist Hospital of Cocke County. Lawson said at the time he was transporting a person who had allegedly overdosed to the emergency room.

"It was hailing really bad," Lawson said, "and it was raining so hard at one point you couldn't see in front of you."

Some of the damage he encountered were trees down, trees on vehicles, and trees that crashed into homes, and roofs were blown off homes. He said he had to rescue people trapped in their homes and others suddenly without a roof on their house.

"Nobody was killed," Cocke County firefighter Tracy Short said.

Short said he and other firefighters were busy cutting up trees that fell on the road near the Eastport BP and car wash, all the way to the Eastport bridge. He said a private citizen showed up with a Bobcat and scooted the cut trees off the road.

He said firefighters were trying to dodge what was either a tornado or very strong winds, in order to reach people in distress due to the storm's damage.

Short said a house burned to the ground in Sunset Gap, near the Sevier County line.

The roof of 911 dispatch was also damaged.