AccuWeather's Leslie Hudson provided a live report of the damage in Selmer, Tennessee, caused by the EF 3 tornado that impacted the area on April 3.
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00:00Every time we check in with you, getting more and more details, you hear the birds chirping in the background, but it's a really sad scene that you're uncovering.
00:10Yeah, that's one of the very oxymoronic pictures that is painted in a catastrophic event like this.
00:16Oftentimes, the sun is out. It is turning out to be a beautiful day here in Selmner in McNary County, Tennessee.
00:24Unfortunately, around us is just such heartbreaking devastation.
00:28I wanted to show you quickly, we found another home that this hopefully kind of paints the picture for you guys.
00:34The level of wind that came through here, they do believe that this is where the core of that tornado came through.
00:40And then Connor, if you want to come back over, we were able to safely hike into a better vantage point over my shoulder this way.
00:47This is the apartment complex that we've been showing you drone video all morning.
00:51This is where the rescue crews are. This is where the search dogs are.
00:55And just before we came live, we saw two ambulances pull in. You can't really see them now, but they are at one of the apartment complexes here.
01:04A rough count, there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, looks about maybe 10 buildings here.
01:08And again, this is where they have focused most of their efforts this morning.
01:12We are a safe distance away. We are not interfering with the rescue efforts there.
01:16So that is one thing we want to make sure that you know that we are keeping our safe distance away from the important work they're doing there.
01:22Let me show you some of the video again with the drone that was up last night.
01:27We were able to get it up around 6 p.m. last night.
01:30Remember, the weather was terrible here yesterday, just onslaught of torrential rain.
01:35It looked like a tropical rain. You know, I do a lot of hurricane coverage in my state of Florida and the rain was unbelievable here, the rain rates.
01:42So the crews really had a tall order trying to get into some of these really hard hit areas in Selmner.
01:48They did a fantastic job.
01:50We also talked to one of the witnesses in this apartment complex. His name is Gene Marshall.
01:55He was with his two little kids when he heard the sirens go off.
01:59He was told to go to the courthouse to seek shelter, and he managed to get there, but he didn't feel comfortable.
02:06Here's what he said happened after that.
02:11My 6-year-old, like I said, he called me about every 20 minutes, asked me if I'm OK, making sure I go in there and check out his gerbil, make sure his gerbil's fine.
02:20Went from crying to being happy, people walking out and they're OK, to upset again when you're finding people that ain't OK.
02:29It's mixed emotions all over the place.
02:34And Gene is just one of the true heroes here. He's been by the police officer's side trying to help answer questions for homeowners.
02:42What is new this morning, we have noticed that the police presence here is allowing homeowners, few at a time, to come into the apartment complex.
02:51And there was a gentleman just over my shoulder looking through some of the rubble.
02:55We also found another homeowner just above on the hill here.
02:58So they are letting a few of the people that live here get into their homes to see if there's anything salvageable.
03:04The weather, again, much better today for that effort.
03:07But as you know, we are anticipating more rain here and more potential severe weather in the coming days.
03:14And that is just going to complicate the process here.
03:17But I wanted to also talk about the horses that were in the video just after Gene's interview.
03:22Because when we were driving around yesterday, the one thing you'll notice in a natural disaster is oftentimes to no fault of the owner's own fault, they leave their pets behind.
03:32It's obviously very difficult to evacuate horses.
03:35Those horses did look like they were in good shape, but their home did sustain significant damage.
03:41So I know there was no one in the home when we shot that video.
03:44We have seen many dogs here, of course, running around.
03:48That's also common after a natural disaster.
03:50But the presence here is impressive.
03:53People are trying to help and do the best they can.
03:55And we know hopefully if this weather holds for the morning and afternoon, they'll be able to get a lot done.
04:00Reporting from Selmert, Tennessee, I'm Leslie Hudson.
04:02Back to you.