Taylor Swift Donates $1 Million for Tornado Relief in Tennessee: Report
Taylor Swift is giving back to her beloved Tennessee after a series of tornadoes left at least six people dead and thousands more without power.
The pop star, 33, donated $1 million to the Tennessee Emergency Response Fund at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, according to a report from USA Today. Hal Cato, the community foundation’s CEO, confirmed Swift’s donation to the newspaper. Cato went on to note that Swift’s donation will “support the immediate and long-term recovery needs” in Sumner County.
According to the foundation’s website, the nonprofit organization is currently assisting Tennessee residents affected by the tornadoes with services including direct financial assistance, food, temporary housing, debris clean-up and animal sheltering.
Severe storms struck Tennessee on Saturday, December 9, with multiple tornadoes touching down across several counties. CNN reported on Monday, December 11, that more than 17,000 homes and businesses are still without power.
The National Weather Service confirmed that one tornado traveled a 43-mile path across three separate counties and was on the ground for more than an hour. It hit a maximum wind speed of 150 miles per hour. Clarksville, one of the cities in the tornado’s path, reported three deaths. In Nashville, a building collapse sent 13 people to the hospital.
“There are no words,” Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts told CNN on Monday after surveying the damage. “There’s not an adjective in the dictionary that would describe what we saw yesterday morning.”
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Pitts and Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell both declared a state of emergency so their cities can receive state and federal resources for disaster relief. “Tonight, Nashville joins other communities across Middle Tennessee grieving loss of life from deadly tornadoes,” O’Connell tweeted on Saturday. “As we continue to take stock of the devastation, please keep our neighbors in your thoughts and prayers. Be safe and look after one another.”
While Swift doesn’t spend as much time in Nashville as she used to, she still has a home there and attended Hendersonville High School, located in Sumner County, for two years after her family moved to Tennesesee from Pennsylvania.
Swift previously donated $1 million to the Middle Tennessee Emergency Response Fund after tornadoes ripped through the state in March 2020. “Nashville is my home and the fact that so many people have lost their homes and so much more in Middle Tennessee is devastating to me,” Swift wrote via Instagram at the time.
