A Sound Like a Train — then, Wham!

JACKSON, TENNESSEE

Robert Smith heard the tornado coming — "a real loud rumble, like a train." Bobby Carter heard howling wind and hail beating against his house.

Carter, president of Local 773, and Smith were among a dozen union members whose homes and apartments sustained damage during the May 4 tornado. Luckily, Carter says, no one was hurt. (Efforts to reach some other affected AFSCME members were unsuccessful by closing time.)

A front-loader driver for the city of Jackson, Carter was watching television with his wife, Sherry, when sirens started wailing around 11:30 p.m. and rain, hail and high winds began to pummel their old house. First came a reported tornado sighting. "The first thought that went through my mind was that we weren't going to be hit," he recalled.

Then the storm hit. Sheltering themselves within their bathroom, the pair felt atmospheric pressure rise and heard trees crash in the gale. In a few minutes, it was over. Peeking outside, he says, "all you could see was disaster" — broken windows, torn roofs, downed power lines and trees, strewn debris. Although their house was damaged, they escaped injury: "We were blessed."

Smith, a Local 773 member who drives a container delivery truck, feels equally fortunate. His girlfriend, son and daughter (both 14) safely rode out the storm inside a closet in their apartment. Smith himself wasn't quick enough to join them. "So I stood beside a wall, just hoping and praying that nothing hit me" as windows broke, glass flew and rain poured in from a badly damaged roof. They lost clothing and bedding, and were flooded out for a while.

Others weren't so lucky. The tornado that devastated Jackson, and at least one other that ravaged Madison County that night, killed 11 people and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage.