The tornado that hit Nashville, Tennessee last week was particularly devastating to the Black neighborhoods of North Nashville.
Ishvicka Howell said she’s been without electricity for several days and she welcomed the utility trucks when they came over the weekend.
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“When I saw those blinking lights, it was like Christmas,” Howell told ABC News. “No power. No heat. We pioneering it. Grilling it and boiling water on the grill. We’re in survival mode.”
The deadly tornado claimed two lives across the city, but in North Nashville, a community already struggling for decades to get by, the devastation of the storm is hard to calculate. There are blocks of damage— roofs off of homes uprooted trees and downed electrical poles. Some areas in North Nashville were not hit as hard as others, but most residents spent days without electricity, ABC News reported.
In terms of the hardest-hit areas, people worry that Black families may be displaced for quite some time, even permanently.
“We are worried because we know developers are going to come in,” Cornelius A. Hill, pastor of Ephesian Primitive Baptist Church, told ABC News.
Still, Hill said he is thankful for the generosity of people who have come to North Nashville’s aid. His church went without power as donations poured in outside in the parking lot. The same scenario took place in neighborhoods across North Nashville on Friday. Volunteers handed out free water, barbecue, hot dogs, pizza, and practical items such as batteries, trash bags, and diapers, the network reported.
Volunteers also went to work, helping homeowners cover damaged roofs with tarps, cut down dangling trees and piling trash along the curb for public works trucks to haul away.
“This is a historic part of Nashville. Some of these homes have been here 40 or 50 years,” Jonathan Williamson with the community group Friends and Fam told ABC News. “It’s beautiful to see everyone come out and work together to get things fixed.”
Several historically Black colleges and universities are located in North Nashville, including Fisk University, Tennessee State University, and Meharry Medical College. Tennessee State University had significant damage to its agricultural research center, estimated to cost between $30 and $50 million to rebuild, ABC News reported. However, Fisk University and Meharry Medical College had very minimal damage.
Chandra Reddy, Tennessee State University’s College of Agriculture dean, said the damage comes as the HBCU has struggled for years to get funding from the state that is equal to what it gives the University of Tennessee. Reddy said the school has worked diligently to build up the agricultural program.
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“This tornado is a double whammy for us. We were barely putting something up there, and then this comes and wipes it out,” Reddy told the channel. Reddy said Gov. Bill Lee surveyed the damage Tuesday morning and seemed committed to helping the school rebuild.
“If we want to produce top-class research, we need good facilities and good faculty,” Reddy added. “Those don’t come cheap.”
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