Tenn. gets back on feet after tornadoes

GALLATIN, Tenn. -- Residents began cleaning up and rebuilding yesterday, a day after tornadoes killed 12 people in Tennessee in the second wave of violent weather to hit the state in less than a week.

''We'll get on our feet again," Bernard Tavers said as he surveyed the demolished homes and piles of rubble in his neighborhood.

Crews worked to clear away the wreckage and restore services, but some people may have to go without electricity for a week, officials said.

Police patrolled the wrecked neighborhoods yesterday, but there were no reports of looting. Bystanders were warned not to smoke because of leaking gas.

The tornado's path through the Gallatin area was 150 to 200 yards wide and at least 10 miles long, said Jimmy Templeton of the Sumner County Sheriff's Department.

Nearly 170 homes and eight businesses in Gallatin and other parts of Sumner County were damaged or destroyed, said Sonny Briggance, rescue chief for the county's emergency management agency. Several multimillion-dollar homes were pulverized in one subdivision.

Talmadge Woodall described the twister that destroyed his house Friday afternoon as ''rolling, throwing debris hundreds of feet in the air." He lived in an upscale subdivision of Gallatin, about 24 miles northeast of Nashville.

''These were at least half-million-dollar homes or better," said Woodall, 81. ''Now there's nothing left. I didn't even have a shingle off my house."

Later Friday and early yesterday, another line of severe thunderstorms rolled through Alabama and Georgia. Homes and businesses were damaged in the Atlanta suburbs, but the National Weather Service had not confirmed whether the area was hit by tornadoes.

''Several businesses are totally destroyed. Trees literally are sitting inside of houses," said John Oxendine, Georgia insurance commissioner. Several people were injured in Alabama, two by falling trees, but no deaths were reported, officials said yesterday.