The Washington Post - 05.03.2020

The tornado outbreak killed

at least 24 people and injured

dozens more, making it the

deadliest in Te nnessee since at

least 2011. A state of emergency

was declared as tens of thou-

sands of residents grappled

with the lack of electricity,

disrupted gas and water lines

and impassable roads.

storms struck after midnight

Tuesday and dropped roaring

tornadoes across four counties

in Te nnessee. An eF4 tornado

with winds up to 175 mph tore

across the nashville area, kill-

ing two people downtown, ac-

see tornAdoes on A

where delivered to his door on

the wind’s cruel whims.

Johnson and his family are

survivors among the wreckage

of many lives. He has nine

staples in his head. Faith has

three broken ribs. And they are

reliving the howls of anguish,

the struggle to free a dying

neighbor pinned by rubble, and

watching rescue workers comb

through a swampy area across

the street where other bodies

may have found a dank and

lonely resting place.

“It wasn’t my time,” Johnson

said. “We are walking miracles,

me and my wife.”

Tuesday’s devastating tornado

crouched in a bathtub, with

Johnson holding his wife and

kids down until the tornado

grabbed him and flung him,

praying to the Lord, 50 yards

onto a mound of debris. He had

wrapped a shirt around his

bleeding head and found his

wife, Faith, now perched on the

broken tub, clasping their two

toddlers tightly to her side. The

18-month-old still held his sip-

py cup in his mouth.

The bodies of two strangers

had landed in their garage,

Johnson later learned. A moth-

er and a child from who knows

BY FRANCES STEAD

SELLERS,

BRANDON GEE

AND ANNIE GOWEN

COOKEVILLE, TENN. — eric

Johnson didn’t understand the

red letters on his garage wall

when he arrived back at the

foundation where his house

once stood, long after the tor-

nado had gone and the screams

were just faint echoes in his

ears.

“DoAx2” spray-painted in

bright red. Two people. Dead on

arrival.

His own family had survived

A reckoning for sanders: A lackluster showing on super tuesday

could show the limits of the democratic socialist’s campaign. A

ABCDE

Prices may vary in areas outside metropolitan Washington. sU V1 V2 V3 V

Partly sunny 56/40 • Tomorrow: Rain 53/37 B8 Democracy Dies in Darkness THURSDAy, MARCH 5 , 2020. $

A crucial shift By ending his support, Iraqi

cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has fractured an anti-

government movement reliant on unity. A

A ‘betrayal of trust’ A new bill would end the

practice of using detained migrant children’s

therapy notes against them in court. A

locAl lIVIng

the Kitchen Issue

great ideas for adding

character and color into

the hardest-working

room in your home — and

for taming the mess.

style

‘prince of pain’

comedian richard lewis

makes his friend and

“curb Your enthusiasm”

co-star larry David seem

downright content. c

In the News

the nAtIon

employees of the

Molson Coors brewery

in Milwaukee alleged a

deep racist culture there

that included a noose

placed on the locker of

the gunman who killed

five co-workers last

week. A

the deA said it will re-

turn a man’s $82,

life savings that it seized

at an airport last year

but gave scant explana-

tion. A

the world

A u.s. airstrike target-

ed Taliban fighters in

Afghanistan hours after

President Trump spoke

by phone to one of the

group’s leaders. A

A judge has ordered

lawyers for families su-

ing Saudi Arabia alleg-

ing its involvement in

9/11 to detail alleged

threats a gainst witness-

es they may depose. A

the e.u. plans to rein-

force security at the

Greek border to stop

migrants, and Turkey

warned that Europe was

violating its professed

values. A

the russian and Turk-

ish presidents are set to

hold talks Thursday

amid an escalating

showdown between the

countries in Syria’s Idlib

province. A

the economy

All three stock indexes

were up about 4 percent

after Joe Biden’s Super

Tuesday run calmed

worries about rival Ber-

nie Sanders’s economi-

cally disruptive propos-

als. A

president trump is

“cherry-picking” immu-

nity claims in defama-

tion cases even as he

files personal suits

against others, argued

attorneys for a writer

who has said he raped

her years ago. A

A worker-safety expert

faced pressure to with-

draw from an American

Bar Association confer-

ence panel after releas-

ing a report critical of

Amazon, a sponsor. A

the regIon

since launching a

comeback after resign-

ing in disgrace, former

D.C. Council member

Jack Evans has met

broad rejection. B

national cherry Blos-

som Festival organizers

are monitoring the coro-

navirus as closely as the

blooms, which should

peak March 27-30. B

d.c. police seek a pos-

sible link between the

fatal shooting of a 13-

year-old in Shaw and

nonfatal one nearby a

few days earlier. B

A man charged in a

Springfield, Va., killing

is a NASA executive and

former police officer

who fatally shot two

others on duty. B

Inside

emIlIenne mAlfAtto for tHe WAsHIngton Post

BusIness news ....................... A

comIcs ....................................... c

opInIon pAges ........................ A

lotterIes...................................B

oBItuArIes.................................B

teleVIsIon ................................. c

world news............................A

CONTENT © 2020

The Washington Post / Year 143, No. 91

ÿ

BY BEN GUARINO,

SARAH PULLIAM BAILEY

AND PAUL SCHWARTZMAN

NEW YORK — First, a lawyer who
commutes between the suburbs
and his midtown Manhattan of-
fice was diagnosed with the coro-
navirus. Then, his wife and two
children tested positive, along
with a neighbor who drove him
to the hospital.
By Wednesday afternoon, an-
other friend, his wife and three o f
their children were also infected.
In the span of 48 hours, what
began as one family’s medical
crisis had spiraled well beyond
their Westchester County home,
shuttering Jewish schools and
synagogues and crystallizing the
virus’s power to propel anxiety
across a region that is among the
nation’s most densely populated.
While Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo
(D) urged calm, news of the
virus’s latest victims spread
through close-knit orthodox
communities in the family’s
hometown of new Rochelle and
across new Yo rk City, where
pockets of Jews frequent the
same kosher restaurants and at-
see new YorK on A

In N.Y. Jewish

communities,

the outbreak

propels worry

‘shifting landscape’: new cases
in calif., n.Y. ; travel drops off. A

Iran’s virus data: Hospitals report
a spread beyond official word. A

BY ROBERT BARNES

AND COLBY ITKOWITZ

Chief Justice John G. Roberts

Jr. issued a rare rebuke of a sitting

member of Congress on Wednes-

day, chastising the senate’s top

Democrat, Minority Leader

Charles e. schumer, f or saying at a

rally outside the supreme Court

that President Trump’s two nomi-

nees to the court would “pay the

price” for a vote against abortion

rights.

In a highly unusual statement

issued by the court, the chief jus-

tice recounted comments schum-

er (n.Y.) had directed at neil M.

Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh

and said: “Justices know that criti-

cism comes with the territory, but

threatening statements of this

sort from the highest levels of

government are not only inappro-

priate, they are dangerous. All

members of the court will contin-

ue to do their job, without fear or

favor, from whatever quarter.”

schumer, speaking to abortion

rights supporters Wednesday

morning as the supreme Court

heard arguments in an important

abortion case from Louisiana,

called o ut the two by name.

“I want to tell you, Gorsuch; I

want to tell you, Kavanaugh: You

have released the whirlwind, and

you will pay the price,” schumer

said. “You won’t know what hit

you if you go forward with these

awful decisions.”

The whirlwind was just begin-

ning. Pugilistic Republicans and

Democrats raced from their re-

spective corners, led by the presi-

see scHumer on A

Schumer’s

comments

elicit a rare

reproach

Roberts decries attack o n

conservative justices as

court hears abortion case

Joe Biden

433

+380 DelegAtes

Bernie sanders

388

+328 DelegAtes

elizabeth warren

36

+28 DelegAtes

Tennesseans rise to help

The state rallies around its victims after tornadoes wreak destruction, kill at least 24

mAtt mcclAIn/tHe WAsHIngton Post

diana Kennedy salvages possessions wednesday from what is left of the home of Billy and linda leath in cookeville, tenn.

the leaths survived tuesday’s tornado in the bedroom, seen through the open door — the only room with walls still standing.

electIon 2020

Bloomberg exit further lifts Biden

BY MATT VISER AND AMY B WANG

Mike Bloomberg, the former new York mayor

who poured half a billion dollars into his

presidential campaign, dropped out of the race

on Wednesday and endorsed the surging candi-

dacy of Joe Biden, whose string of victories on

super Tuesday has upended the nominating

contest.

sen. Bernie sanders (I-Vt.), who lost 10 of 14

state primaries to Biden on Tuesday, adopted a

more aggressive tone with the former vice

president Wednesday as sen. elizabeth Warren

(D-Mass.) flew home to Boston to reassess her

campaign, weighing whether to end her bid and

allow liberals in the party to unite behind

sanders the way moderates quickly coalesced for

Biden.

After a head-spinning four days, a primary

race that began with a historically large and

see cAmpAIgn on A

Warren weighs quitting to let

liberals line up for Sanders

BY TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA,

CHELSEA JANES

AND GREGORY S. SCHNEIDER

As Joe Biden racked up a string of unexpected

victories in super Tuesday primaries, he began to

stitch together the kind of political coalition that

had eluded his candidacy for months: a broad

assembly of voters with the collective power to

potentially d efeat President Trump i n november.

Biden’s strong showing among African Ameri-

cans, suburbanites and moderate white voters —

spanning geographical r egions and drawing from

a surge in turnout — boosted confidence among

Democrats that the former vice president could

soon win a Democratic race that voters have

turned i nto a contest over w hich candidate is best

positioned to beat Trump.

Biden, who won primaries in Texas, Virginia

and eight other states Tuesday, alluded to his

see BIden on A

In Super Tuesday victories,

signs of a broad coalition build

delegate counts through 9 p.m.

BY CHRISTOPHER ROWLAND

AND PETER WHORISKEY

The growing coronavirus out-
break in the United states is re-
vealing serious gaps in the health
system’s ability to respond to a
major epidemic, forcing hospitals
and doctors to improvise emer-
gency plans daily, even as they
remain uncertain how bad the
crisis will g et.
As California announced its
first coronavirus-linked fatality
on Wednesday, bringing the U.s.
death toll to 11, nursing homes
were emerging as especially vul-
nerable to the virus, with more
than a million residents, many of
them frail. Many of the f acilities
have a history of struggling to
contain even mundane infections.
But the g aps are spread out
across the c ountry a nd affect med-
ical facilities of all types.
In R hode Island, where t wo cas-
es have been detected, doctors in
protective gear were testing pa-
tients with mild symptoms in a
hospital parking lot rather than
allowing them to enter the emer-
gency room. officials said the
see HospItAls on A

Care gaps

emerging

a s virus

spreads

NuRsING homEs

EsPEcIAlly At RIsK

Health facilities across

U.S. racing to prepare

election alarm: long, slow v oter lines in the Houston area fed talk of

voter suppression, but the truth was more complicated. A

the trump effect: the president’s attack tweet on Jeff sessions

stands in contrast t o his endorsements in republican primaries. A

louisiana abortion case: r oberts

emerges as the key vote. A