National Weather Service finds homes improperly secured to foundations before tornadoes in Tennessee

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV/Gray News) - With crumbled walls and a missing roof, Juan Resendez knew his tornado-ravaged home on Kendall Drive in Clarksville was a total loss.

He had no idea, though, what National Weather Service inspectors would find under the rubble.

Data from the NWS, reviewed by WSMV4 Investigates, found inspectors determined multiple homes in the North Clarksville region were only secured to their foundations using nails.

At Resendez’s house, inspectors found his home was secured to its foundation with construction adhesive tape and nails.

“It’s almost like an insult to injury,” Resendez told WSMV4 Investigates.

Resendez’s home was built in 1998, and building codes from the time show that walls were supposed to be anchored to the foundation with bolts every four feet.

When the storm hit, Rezendez’s home moved completely off its foundation.

“If your house doesn’t stay attached to its foundation, it makes it almost impossible to survive,” said Krissy Hurley, an inspector with the National Weather Service.

NWS inspectors also found homes where a tree remained standing in the front yard but a house was knocked off its foundation after nails were used to secure it.

In other cases, inspectors could not find any sign of homes being secured to foundations at all.

“Without strapping or extra anchoring, it’s really a bad situation when you have 150-mile-per-hour winds,” Hurley said.

“At this point, I’m like, ‘Who was the builder at the time?’” Resendez said.

WSMV4 Investigates wanted to know, too, but the city’s codes department doesn’t keep building permit requests from that time period. Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts was unaware of the National Weather Service’s findings.

“We want whatever evidence the NWS has so that we can follow up, and if anyone is cutting corners, we want to find out who they are,” Pitts said.