Two tornadoes swept through the center of Dyersburg last night, destroying a mobile home park before cutting a swath of destruction from the Finley Street area north to Lake Road and the U.S. Highway 51 Bypass. A third vortex swept across the west side of the city, uprooting trees and downing power lines.

No one was killed but several were injured.

(Advertisement)

"I said, 'Please God, no,'" said Barker Trailer Park resident Margie Bentley. "It was the worst thing I've ever seen."

Dyersburg Emergency Services Director Tommy Gibbons said property damage is across the city, with the most damage in the south-to-north line the tornadoes marked.

"It looks like it hit the Christie Street-bypass area before crossing the Forked Deer and hitting the Finley Street area," said Gibbons. "Then it apparently lifted up over the Ford and Forcum street area before dropping back down at the college and high school.

Several homes are damaged and trees are down in the Finley Street area.

Helen Moses, whose 641 Finley Street home is in the center of the destruction, said she and 13 of her children and grandchildren packed into an interior hallway to wait out the storm.

Like many structures in the storm's path, the Moses home has cracks in the walls and leaks in the roof apparent from the tornadoes' fierce winds.

On Forcum Street, an ancient oak tree more than 80 feet tall with a root wad some 15 feet across was lifted from the ground and knocked over the driveway of Dot Frazier, who had moved to the house on Saturday.

"I don't know what to think," she said.

The sportsplex at Dyersburg High School was totaled and the back wall of the Yates building was ripped from its foundation.

Damage in the county also was widespread.

Dyer County Sheriff Jeff Holt said the Finley community and Richwood Road area south of Finley sustained significant damage.

Holt said he saw a funnel drop from roiling black clouds from his view atop Chickasaw Bluff, but it did not drop to the ground.

Newbern and Trimble suffered downed power lines and fallen trees. The Pine View Subdivision west of Newbern sustained damage to several houses.

Gibbons said seven people were treated for injuries at the Dyersburg Regional Medical Center. A report last night of a fatality has been retracted, said Gibbons.

The tornadoes were part of a vicious set of severe thunderstorms that crossed from Arkansas starting in the early evening Sunday.

Gibbons said storm spotters deployed by the Dyer County Rescue Squad spotted funnel clouds forming several minutes before official notice came from the National Weather Service in Memphis. At 7:58 p.m., the city's emergency warning sirens were activated, howling the alarm for residents to take cover.

"It was old tactics and new technology," said Gibbons.

City and county schools are closed today and more dangerous weather is forecast.

Scattered thunderstorms, some severe, are forecast through Friday.

The local chapter of the American Red Cross has set up a shelter in the fellowship hall of the First United Methodist Church.