F2 Tornado — Coffee, Tennessee

2002-11-10 · near Fredonia, Coffee, Tennessee

Event narrative

An F2 tornado killed 2 people and injured 24 others. The 2 people were inside their mobile home when the tornado struck. The mobile home was in the New Union Heights subdivision, off state Highway 53 north of Manchester. The boy was moved from his mobile home to the Hillcrest Baptist Church. He died in the church at 705 PM CST. A relative of the boy, a 43-year-old male, was also killed. He was impaled on the upright lid of a washing machine. 24 homes were destroyed, 51 other homes were damaged. 9 mobile homes were destroyed and 5 were damaged. 14 outbuildings also were damaged.

Wider weather episode

11 tornadoes were reported in Middle Tennessee in one of the worst tornadic outbreaks ever in November. 8 people...and possibly a ninth victim...were killed in Middle Tennessee alone. Damage estimate for the tornadoes in Tennessee was placed at $160 million. Primary losses were due to houses and cars. The toll on government owned infrastructure is about $6 million. The federal government is expected to reimburse the state and affected counties for 75% of the costs of responding to the disaster. The FEMA Public Assistance Program has obligated more than $3.6 million to assist local governments. These funds will be used to reimburse local governments for debris removal, the repair of public buildings and utilities, and overtime paid to police officers, firefighters and other emergency personnel.More than 900 families across the state applied for storm aid. This was the worst tornado disaster since the April3-4 outbreak in 1974. The United States Small Business Administration has approved more than 9.7 million dollars in disaster loans to assist disaster victims with repairing their property or replacing lost personal items. The 20 counties that are eligible for disaster assistance to individuals, households, and businesses were: Anderson, Bedford, Bledsoe, Carroll, Coffee, Crockett, Cumberland, Fentress, Gibson, Henderson, Madison, Marshall, Montgomery, Morgan, Roane, Rutherford, Scott, Sumner and Tipton and Van Buren.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.5000, -86.2167)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5322213. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.