East Brainerd Tornado Spawned More Tornadoes That Did Heavy Damage In Bradley County

  • Saturday, April 18, 2020

The tornado that wrecked East Brainerd on East Sunday spiraled into a storm that spawned more tornados in Bradley County.

The first began at 11:45 p.m. and was an EF2.

The National Weather Service said the East Brainerd storm formed a mesocyclone and moved directly over downtown Cleveland. A tornado then formed quickly in Cleveland, less than a mile east northeast of downtown.

The NWS said a residential section was hit, including single family homes as well as mobile homes. There were 26 destroyed and 23 had major damage. Another 62 residences were affected.

A church in this area was heavy damaged and hundreds of trees were either uprooted or had large limbs snapped, the report says.

The tornado then moved out of the city before occluding and dissipating in rural areas near Benton Pike east of downtown.

After the Cleveland tornado, another tornado was spawned that began near Michigan Avenue Road and Minnis Road. This began at 11:50 p.m. and was an EF1.

Snapped and uprooted trees were seen in this area along with downed utility poles.

The NWS said this tornado continued moving northeast and strengthened near Corvin and Wilkerson Roads where single family homes sustained significant roof damage, several barns and outbuildings were either partially or completely destroyed, and hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted. This type of damage continued along Chatata Valley Road through Julian Road.

The tornado then began to dissipate along Julian Road northeast of Evans Road where damage was mainly to trees and roof shingles.

Around the time that the second Bradley County tornado was advancing along Julian Road, another tornado began developing south of Tasso just to the southwest of the New Friendship Cemetery. This began at 11:55 p.m. and was an EF1.

Many trees were snapped and uprooted in the cemetery, and a wooded area between the cemetery and a private residence was deforested.

The tornado weakened as it moved across Chatata Valley Road before restrengthening along Cates Lane and Morgan Road where hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted along with roof and cosmetic damage to a few single family homes and outbuildings.

Similar damage continued as the tornado traveled along Baker Bridge Road before it began to weaken with its path becoming less defined. The tornado dissipated near Geren and Upper River Roads where a wider area of tree damage occurred.

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