December 9 Tornado

On December 9, 2023, severe storms across Middle Tennessee resulted in seven tornado touchdowns affecting nine counties. The Clarksville and Nashville metropolitan areas were hardest hit, followed by the business corridor of Hendersonville. The combined tornadoes resulted in seven fatalities and 84 injuries; widespread structural damage affecting homes, businesses, and infrastructure.

CFMT activated the Tennessee Emergency Response Fund (TERF), founded in 2008. TERF was activated specifically to support survivor needs outside of Davidson County.

Priority Focus Areas

Support for social service organizations that provide programs and direct financial assistance for disproportionately affected populations.
Support for Black- and women-led organizations who have built or can build trust networks with survivors in need of recovery assistance.
Support for those advocating for and providing affordable housing, housing repair, and utility assistance.
Support for small or local businesses with unmet financial needs.
Support for uninsured homeowners and renters to rebuild and/ or find affordable housing.
Support for long-term recovery groups working to plan for and enhance community recovery and resilience.

$ 0

in generous donations

$ 0

in grant distributions

grants to 21 responding organizations

Sumner Co. Highlightsexpand_more

Gallatin Cares received a $50,000 grant from the Tennessee Emergency Response Fund. Of this, $40,000 is dedicated to tornado recovery and will provide continued direct cash assistance to families that sustained damage to their primary residence, families that lost employment due to employer-based business damages, families whose vehicles or other capital goods were damaged or destroyed, and families that needed to be relocated due to repair work. The remaining $10,000 is earmarked to support organizational capacity. Supporting Gallatin Cares ensures that residents of Sumner County (beyond Hendersonville) have access to financial assistance to direct their recovery efforts.
The United Way of Sumner County received $93,000 for continued sub-granting to organizations providing direct financial assistance and long-term recovery support, in addition to$32,000 for organizational capacity building. These funds will ensure that the United Way of Sumner County continues to thrive and that funding for essential tornado support to the entire community remains available.
The Hendersonville Chamber of Commerce received a $125,000 grant to contribute to their existing Tornado Relief Small Business Grants Program. This funding is helping the Chamber continue to help with business recovery and enable them to reopen and recover as quickly as possible. Small business support is one of the critical linchpins of the successful long-term recovery in Sumner County. The small business grant program is organized in such a way as to be nimble in its aid ofbusinesses; grants can be reviewed and processed quickly with available funding. A highly effective program, the small grants target funding to needs unlikely to be covered by FEMA, SBA, or insurance.

Montgomery Co. Hightlightsexpand_more

The Long-Term Recovery Group of Clarksville (LTRG) received a two-year $300,000 grant to fund the Unmet Needs Committee. This Committee is designed to fill financial gaps for survivors to complete their recovery. The Unmet Needs Committee ensures that financial power is in the hands of local leaders charged with completing a household’s recovery. It is the final and incredibly important step in the recovery process. Allocating these dollars to the LTRG and Committee means that financial capital will be able to help individuals and families meet their final needs.
The Tennessee-Western Kentucky United Methodist Conference (TWKUMC) received $532,000 to fully staff the disaster case management program in Montgomery County. Case management is a vital part of disaster recovery, without it, recovery simply will not happen. Fundamentally, disaster case management strengthens local resources and facilitates equitable and effective household long-term recovery.
The Irene Center for Hope and Urban Ministries each received $50,000 for staff capacity support and direct financial assistance to tornado-affected individuals and households. Funding to each of these organizations means that the Disaster Case Management Program will now be able to refer survivors to each organization to address their unmet needs. This type of support ensures that survivors can recover efficiently and effectively.
The Hope Station received $20,000 to extend staff capacity support of Charity Tracker (a case management database) for an additional three months. The referral efforts provided by The Hope Station are critical to a streamlined recovery process. Without good administrative management of the database, survivor cases cannot be thoughtfully referred.