Tornado damage

[Todd Watts]

This past Friday a tornado ripped through Murfreesboro, TN and scored a direct hit through the center of Stones River National Battlefield. Thankfully, the few monuments there and the guns and visitors' center and people escaped damage. But fences and many trees have been blown down or ripped into shards. Through shear luck or Divine intervention, it crossed the Old Nashville Pike to the railroad tracks through the only clearing available to it, missing the cemetery with its huge old trees and the Hazen's Brigade Monument which is not all that stable as it is. Interestingly, it seemed to follow the Confederate advance route and did what Cleburne was unable to do, reach the Pike and the rails beyond. The tour road will be close this week and some of the trails may not reopen this summer until the debris can be safely removed.

http://www.nps.gov/stri/photosmultimedia/photogallery.htm?eid=116090&root_aId=430#

[TKlas]

Re: Tornado damage

Hi Todd,

Thanks for sharing this information on the damage to the battlefield which is indeed sad to see. Many of us have a soft spot for Stone's River as Steve Acker put together a federal living history here back in 2005 with members from the ONV, WIG, and Southern Guard in attendence.

Most importantly I hope everyone in the area is alright from the tornado and I am glad to hear Hazen's monument made it through the storm.

If there is anything we can do on our end, please let us know. Jim Lewis was wonderful to work with and we wish the NMP the best.

Tom

[Todd Watts]

Re: Tornado damage

Jim was the last one into the VC as they ushered the volunteers and visitors into its basement, and said he actually saw the twister as it entered the field near the tour stop 3 corner. Luckily, he said the only thing lost to it besides the trees and fences was 1 display limber pole that was snapped when a tree from the cemetery broke and fell out of the cemetery and landed on the limber of one of the two Parrots located at the corner by the Old Nashville Pike. It could have been much, much worse. Larry Hicklin's Nashville Relics website has some other pics of the damage.

[PalmettoGuard]

Re: Tornado damage

Wow. It's good to hear there was no serious damage though I'm sure the park will have its hands full cleaning up. Hard to believe that there could be worse weather than the tropical storm we endured there back in 2005!

[Todd Watts]

Re: Tornado damage

http://www.dnj.com/article/20090413/NEWS01/90413074

The local paper's website has a fly-over video of the damage. Stones River Battlefield is the large wooded area starting at the time clock counter point 3:59 and ending at 3:25. It crossed Broad Street hitting the GE plant (original spot of the "Round Forest" and then the smaller section of the park where McFadden's Ford was is right at the river, seen at counter 3:07. After seeing the aerial video I am revising my earlier statement that it went through the clearing between the Hazen's Brigade Monument and the cemetery. It appears to have instead come up on the opposite side of the Hazen's Brigade Monument only barely missing a direct hit on it. The damage in the cemetery corner must have just been the collateral winds sucking the trees toward the twister. Since it is early spring the leaves are not green enough to make it easy to see its path through the woods, but you can see a little more gray in a path it cut as it tore the trees apart. It parralelled Wilkinson Pike for a while and came up Van Cleve Ln which bisects the park.

[MercyAngel62]

Re: Tornado damage

I'm a senior at MTSU and I commute to Murfreesboro every day. I take Broad street into town and that whole area got beat up pretty badly. On Monday, I drove out towards Stones River but of course, the park is closed. From what I could see, many trees were down and the park service is going to have their hands full for awhile with clean up.

Keep all of those folks that live and work in that area in your prayers! :(

[Lorna]

Re: Tornado damage

Thanks for the update. When I saw the news I wondered how the battlefield had fared during the storm.

[Todd Watts]

Re: Tornado damage

I was there last evening for a volunteers picnic which we needed. The news is essentially that "the round forest" is gone and it won't be regrown back to the way it was for several decades. The park estimates a loss of "hundreds to a thousand" trees. A portion of the rock wall around the cemetery was destroyed by a large pine that fell out of the cemetery and it was that tree that snapped the display limber pole, the only piece of equipment lost. I saw something wierd there at the Hazen Brigade Monument which is right at the impact zone. The split-rail worm fence (zig-zag fence) along the Nashville Pike had been moved about 10 feet, but was still stacked neatly in its zig-zag formation. How on earth does that happen when trees all around it are literally ripped out of the ground and tossed around in every direction!? On the plus side, while we are all shocked and saddened at the devastation, morale among the volunteers and the staff is high. Ranger crews are coming in from the region for clean-up work and extra policing. The visitor center and Fortress Rosecrans portions of the battlefield are open and they hope to get the tour loop road open in about 2 weeks. Some of the trails will be closed most of the summer however. In spots you have to cut a tree out of the path, wlak 10 feet, cut another tree, walk 10 feet, cut, and so on for long distances. At least we'll have plenty of real good firewood the next few seasons instead of rotting pieces of cedar rails that leave no cooking coals.:D