Readyville tornado survivors a year later appreciate community support from 'everybody'

Folks in rural Readyville feel blessed with community support a year after surviving a tornado that destroyed historic properties.

A good example is Ken and Martha Cruikshank providing the one-bedroom apartment above their garage without asking for rent from Brandon Urban, his wife Heather Smith, and their three children while the family of five rebuilds their neighboring home.

"I'm just paying it forward," Ken says after speaking to Brandon in front of the Urban family's historic home, The Corners on Stones River that was established in 1829 by Charles Ready Sr. Ready also built the original Readyville Mill and dam in 1812. The tornado destroyed the rebuilt Readyville Mill.

Natural disasters sometimes mean grieving, including the 2009 Good Friday tornado in Murfreesboro that killed mother Kori Bryant and her 9-week-old baby. People come together to help each other after damaging storms, such as the folks in Readyville who survived the tornado that hit their community April 1, 2023. Their idyllic rural community is on the far eastside of Rutherford County and far westside of Cannon County.

'People just helping people': Volunteers respond to Readyville tornado

Brandon said he and his wife and children hope to be back in their rebuilt home by Christmas.

They are among others sharing their tornado survival and rebuilding stories. They are grateful for the support they've seen from church groups, including Mennonites, the American Red Cross, emergency responders from Rutherford and Cannon counties, Middle Tennessee Electric utility crews and many neighbors and other volunteers helping each other.

Survivors recount the day the tornado hit

Other Readyville tornado survivors share the same views about the extended community efforts to help others.

There's James and Sonia Pitts, who managed to step out of their destroyed RV before an uninjured Sonia helped a neighbor trapped in rubble.

Then there's Peggy Flitcraft and her 30-year-old autistic son, Robby, who were able to climb out of the rubble of their destroyed house with the help of emergency rescuers.

Those who responded to the 2023 tornado were able to gather for planning and donated supplies at New Hope Church of Christ in Readyville. Minister Ralph Richardson recalled giving an Easter sermon a year ago about how he "saw Jesus in the people."

Ralph said Thursday he prepared this year's Easter sermon with plans to include the tornado that hit a scenic Readyville community with vast fields, grazing cattle and views of tall hills and trees and flourishing wildlife.

"This is God's country," Ralph says. "It's amazing nobody lost their life. The people are resilient."

Ralph is pleased that his congregation donated to a Benevolent Fund to help tornado victims in Clarksville where there were three fatalities and over 60 injuries. He recalled people in Clarksville the year before donating funds to help in the tornado recovery in Readyville.

'Never seen nothing like this': Middle TN communities devastated after tornado, storms

Family plans to rebuild historic home built in 1829

Brandon Urban was on a "dad's vacation" with his buddies in a cabin in Colorado a year ago when he learned the tornado hit Readyville. He recalled the difficulty in calling his wife to make sure she and their three children were safe.

"I was frantic," said Brandon, a stay-at-home father while his wife operates her photography producing business, Smith+ Union, for entertainment and advertising. "I'm never allowed to go anywhere again from now on. From now on, it's just family vacations."

Brandon and Heather have two daughters, 8-year-old Charlee and 3-year-old Jolene; and a son, 6-year-old Wylder.

When the tornado hit, Heather gathered her three children to go outside to the cellar.

Heather also attempted to get their three pet dogs to join them in the cellar, but they declined to seek shelter there and went into the kitchen to take cover from the storm and were unscathed, Brandon said.

The family has two 80-pound Chesapeake Bay retrievers, named, Ryder and Mayville. The third dog is a small Maltese and Yorkshire Terrier mix, called, Girlie.

The pet cat, Kittie, was missing for two days, but Brandon thought she was still around when he noticed dead mice. The family soon had to call her, Mama Kittie, when she gave birth to a litter of five. Brandon said his family found homes for three kittens and kept two, Shadow and Bandit.

The family also has four Highland cows and five sheep.

What impressed the family was the people showing up to help, including about 60 people from Providence Christian Academy in Murfreesboro where Brandon and Heather's three children attend. There were people from the family's Experience Church who helped from both congregations in Murfreesboro and Woodbury.

"Everybody came in droves," Brandon said. "It's been mind blowing to me how much people have helped out."

The Mennonite volunteers also arrived to help clear knocked down trees, and recover fencing and other debris.

"Every dude around here had a chainsaw," Brandon says. "I've never seen a more well-oiled machine."

What was lost included a pecan tree that Brandon estimates was 150- to 200-years-old, and it fell to the back of the house.

The Urban family had been living in the San Diego area when they were looking to move from California. They wanted 5 acres and a home on water, and The Corners on Stones River provided that. They also wanted to downsize from their previous house of about 3,000 square feet but decided the 6,000-square-foot historic Readyville home provided what they wanted when the family moved to Tennessee December 2020.

The Urban's rebuilding plans include adding about 1,000 square feet with a kitchen; three-car garage and pool. The project also includes rebuilding the entire all-brick back of the house and a new front porch.

The family background includes Brandon being from Michigan and Heather from Maryland. They feel like they've found the home they've wanted after seeing the support from the community.

"Everybody's fantastic," Brandon says.

Owner of destroyed Readyville Mill plans to build general store

While the Urban family is pursing plans to restore The Corners on the Stones River, Matt Bratton has been demolishing and salvaging what he can from the destroyed Readyville Mill buildings for the past seven months.

Bratton's goal is to build a general store by Spring 2025 on the old Mill property he purchased after the tornado hit. The plans include using shelves and other salvaged materials from the mill property to give the store an "old school feel."

The general store will include a porch and picnic tables, and offer some kind of food but without being considered a restaurant, Bratton said.

One of the former buildings at the Readyville Mill property had provided restaurant space for Goodness Gracious, which now operates at the Fountains at Gateway off Medical Center Boulevard in Murfreesboro.

The old mill land sits next to property that used to be the location of Russell's Market, a place where Russell and Mary offered a business known for its deli with bologna sandwiches long before the building was blown away by the tornado. The only remnants of the Russell's Market are what's left of the concrete where the gas pumps were located.

Mother and son climb out of crawl space of destroyed home

Prior to the tornado arriving, Peggy Flitcraft had thought when she heard the severe weather alert go off on her phone a few hours before sunrise that another straight-line wind was coming. A straight-line wind three years before knocked down trees and tore a hole in the side of her house. So Peggy a year ago grabbed her dog Belle when the tornado hit, while she attempted to enter a closet of her 120-year-old home.

"It leveled the house completely," said Peggy, who recalled being hit in the face by dirt and wind while holding Belle and dropping to her knees. "The floor gave way, and we dropped down to the crawl space."

The mother next remembers asking if her 30-year-old son, Robby, was there, and he said yes. Robby was buried in debris up to his shoulders and had his head sticking out. Peggy next recalled losing visibility when "it went black."

"I started yelling," Peggy said, and a neighbor responded by asking if she was OK. "I said I was."

Rescue crews arrived and dug out enough of the debris to clear a path for Peggy, her dog and Robby.

"We had to snake our way," Peggy said. "We climbed our way through a hole to the top."

When given instructions to get on a stretcher, Peggy said she asked for a sheet because all she had on was a nightgown.

Like other Readyville residents, Peggy appreciates all the people who came to help the tornado victims, including her other son, Brendon Cox.

Among those who helped Peggy is her coworker Milton Harrell at Paul Vaughn Photography Studio on Readyville Street in Rutherford County, where she's managed the business for 12 years.

Milton found Peggy's cat, Salem, in the crawl space of her destroyed home. Milton also recovered some of Peggy's antiques, including a porcelain clock from the early 1800s, a Victorian-era bust, a water pitcher and bowl, and several quilts wrapped around trees.

Milton recalled the quilts being tied in knots.

"We had to pull," Milton said.

Milton also recovered a ring that Vaughn gave Peggy, his 12-year partner, she said.

Vaughn's studio home that dates back to the early 1900s also had damage, including the chimney being torn off the house, Peggy said. She stayed at Vaughn's studio until crews built her a new home that's also on the Rutherford County side of Readyville Street.

Peggy has filled her new home she shares with her sons with both the recovered antiques and other antiques that she's added to provide a Victorian-styled décor.

"It's like walking back in time," said Peggy, who appreciates being part of the Readyville community for 12 years. "God put us here."

Couple survives after tornado destroys RV

James and Sonia Pitts recall the tornado lifting up their RV and crashing their 32-foot trailer into a tree.

"She had to crawl out from under me to get loose," James recalled.

The couple had their two dogs, Pooh Bear and Winnie, with them when the tornado destroyed their RV. The trailer was set up where James has been building a 1,200-square-foot home on a half acre. The future home with scenic views above vast Readyville fields and distant hills had minimal damage thanks to those screws holding the metal roof and walls and columns in place, "and the Lord's protection," James said.

Prior to the tornado, James was still recovering from a 2021 injury that included a broken neck, three rotator cuff tears and an upper bicep with a torn ligament and muscle while working on the future home. James had a construction career that dated back to 1988 and is getting help on building the home from his brother Dan Pitts.

James and Sonia have been able to live in a modular home his sister Kathy Gannon provided where she lived in Rutherford County's rural Kittrell community about 4 miles west. Kathy died March 12.

After the tornado hit, James was not recovered enough to join his wife in rescuing a neighbor, Ms. Bobby Hayes, who was trapped under debris in a hallway of her home.

Sonia recalled being soaking wet in her pink robe and slippers while using her phone to provide light to get by downed power lines and uprooted trees in order to reach Ms. Bobby.

Antiques were everywhere.

"There were all kinds of stuff on top of her," said Sonia, who teamed with neighbor Joey Stafford, who was strong enough to lift Ms. Bobby and put her in a chair. "We had to move it all off of her. I told her we are going to have stop meeting this way."

Ms. Bobby's pacemaker stopped working, so she went to the hospital to spend several days in recovery, Sonia and James said.

James recalled he and his wife remaining calm through all of what happened.

"We had prayed the neighborhood would get cleaned up," James said.

James grew up in Readyville on a 140-acre farm on Locke Creek Road. He looks forward to completing his home in the same community after living in Murfreesboro and Bedford County.

Once the home is ready, James and Sonia will live in the community that has survived a tornado with the help of MTE utility crews, the Red Cross and many volunteers, he said. Those offering their support came from many places, including Nashville, Lebanon, Nolensville, Woodbury Lions Club, the Experience Church in Woodbury and New Hope Church of Christ.

"It brought me close to a lot of good and loving people I didn't even know," James said. "It was a God event."

Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips or questions by emailing him at sbroden@dnj.com. To support his work with The Daily News Journal, sign up for a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Readyville tornado survivors a year later appreciate community support