Taylor Swift Donates $1 Million to Tennessee Emergency Response Fund After Deadly Tornadoes

Taylor Swift reacts during a game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., on Oct. 22, 2023. Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Singer Taylor Swift has donated $1 million to charity to help residents of Tennessee affected by the recent deadly tornadoes that killed at least six people, including two children, according to a spokesperson for the nonprofit organization that received the sizable donation.

The singer-songwriter, 34, made the donation to the Tennessee Emergency Response Fund at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, the organization’s CEO Hal Cato confirmed in a statement to CBS News.

While Ms. Swift was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, she has ties to the area ravaged by the weekend’s intense weather, having moved to Hendersonville, a suburb of Nashville, as a teenager and lived there for several years while attending Hendersonville High School, Billboard reported.

“The Swifts found their original Tennessee home nearly 20 years ago in Hendersonville and Sumner County, one of the areas hardest hit by this tornado,” Mr. Cato told the publication. “Taylor’s generosity has put a new spotlight on the devastation as well as the urgent need for help. It has also served as a powerful message to every survivor that she deeply cares about their recovery.”

In a separate statement to multiple media, Mr. Cato said Ms. Swift’s donation would “support the immediate and long-term recovery needs” in Sumner County.

According to its website, the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee is currently assisting Tennessee tornado survivors via direct financial assistance, food, temporary housing, debris clean-up, and animal sheltering.

The non-profit also plans to help those living in affected areas with long-term recovery needs such as counseling and mental health services, FEMA registration guidance, insurance mediation, legal aid, and the repairing and rebuilding of homes, provided funding remains in place.

Ms. Swift’s donation comes after six tornadoes tore through areas such as Montgomery County’s Clarksville, Madison, Gallatin, and Hendersonville in Tennessee on Dec. 9, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

Officials Confirm Deaths

In a post on X, NWS said one of the tornadoes that landed in Clarksville saw winds peaking at 150 mph. Clarksville is one of the areas that reported three deaths from the tornado.

A child and two adults were killed in the city, authorities said.

In a statement on X, Nashville’s Emergency Operations Center said at least three people were also killed in Madison.

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department identified the victims killed north of downtown as Joseph Dalton, 37, Floridema Gabriel Pérez, 31, and her son, Anthony Elmer Mendez, 2.

The tornadoes also caused buildings to collapse and caused widespread damage to homes and businesses resulting in multiple injuries, according to reports.

More than 17,000 homes and businesses were without power on Monday morning in the state, CNN reported, although that had since dropped to 2,551 as of Dec. 13, according to PowerOutage.us.

In the wake of the tornadoes, Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell declared a state of emergency on Monday, as did Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts, who also enforced a temporary curfew citing extensive damage in the area.

“Tonight, Nashville joins other communities across Middle Tennessee grieving loss of life from deadly tornadoes,” Mr. O’Connell wrote on X.  “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.”

This is not the first time that Ms. Swift has made a sizable donation to the Middle Tennessee Emergency Response Fund.

In 2020, the singer donated $1 million to the fund after devastating tornadoes struck Tennessee, killing at least 24 people, Billboard reported.