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Firefighter, Family Lose Everything In Tornadoes

Chambers Family Lives In Hotel Until Home Can Be Rebuilt

POSTED: 5:24 pm CST February 18, 2008
UPDATED: 5:57 pm CST February 18, 2008

A Sumner County firefighter is experiencing the same feeling as those he was busy helping in the aftermath of the Feb. 5 tornadoes.

Video: Fire Captain Has Home Destroyed By Tornado

Clyde and Rosemary Chambers are living in a Gallatin hotel until their home can be rebuilt. Their family lost everything during the storm.

"I looked over there and it was an empty lot where my house was,” said Clyde Chambers.

While most people were running for cover during the storm, Chambers, a captain in the Hendersonville Fire Department, was doing his job as a first responder. He said it was a shock to respond to Governor Hall Road and discover his own house was gone.

“I was focused on the job. … We were walking through my empty lot and kept on going,” he said.

Chambers said he felt some relief after he found that his wife and daughter were safe in a nearby shelter.

Chambers said he and his family were left with nothing left but the clothes on his back. He said during an interview with Channel 4’s Cynthia Williams that everything he was wearing was new.

"Everything I got on except (my) ring and watch,” he said.

On Monday, Chambers returned to the empty lot that where his family's home was. He said a neighbor's death makes it a bittersweet occasion.

Chambers said he and his family have been trying to put their lives back together. He said he was given a little time off work, but he's back on the job and that it's a relief to be doing something other than making lists of things lost and talking to contractors.

Rosemary Chambers and their 17-year-old daughter rode out the storm at the Sumner County Regional Medical Center shelter with dozens of others.


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