Holly Hills Pool in Tennessee Raising Funds to Rebuild after Tornado

Photo Courtesy: Competitor

As swim clubs across the U.S. struggle to reopen this summer thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, one in Tennessee is faced with having to quite literally rebuild.

A deadly line of tornadoes that swept through the South in April counts among its damage the Holly Hills Pool in Brainerd, Tennessee, and its members have started an online fundraising campaign to rebuild.

Holly Hills has been open since the 1980s, a cornerstone in the community for some 40 years. In addition to a neighborhood club for residents, it also hosts a swim team, the Holly Hills Sharks.

Members of the club have started a GoFundMe page to raise money. They’ve also produced a video featuring members of the club.

A rash of tornadoes tore through a 600-mile swath of the South on April 12, Easter Sunday. It led to 36 deaths, including three in Hamilton County, Tennessee. In total, seven tornadoes touched down in the greater Chattanooga area. The one that destroyed the Holly Hills Pool was an EF3 tornado some 1,500 yards wide that cut a 14.5-mile path of devastation over 14 minutes with sustained wind speeds of 145 miles per hour. This outbreak of tornadoes was the deadliest in the United States since 2014.

In the Chattanooga area alone, municipal sources estimated $170 million in damage and 150 damaged structures. Hamilton County had 344 homes destroyed by the tornadoes.

Among the businesses destroyed by the storms is Holly Hills, a pillar of the community and a fixture in the summer calendar for many.

“It’s been a huge part of this neighborhood’s identity, the pool is here, the swim team,” former swimmer and coach and current Holly Hills parent David Turner told the local NBC affiliate, WRCB. “It’s kept the families grounded and together.”

To donate to the GoFundMe campaign and read more about Holly Hills Pool’s story, click here.

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