The citizens of the Franklin County town of Denning got together October 14, 2023, to celebrate the opening of a new pavilion. Burgers and hot dogs were on the grill, and kids jumped and shouted in the bounce house next to the town’s small playground.
That day may have been about the pavilion, but the town has much more to celebrate.
On May 24-25 of 2011, an EF-4 tornado ripped through Franklin and Johnson counties just after midnight. It killed three people, including a Denning resident. It destroyed homes and buildings, including Denning’s city hall and other infrastructure.
It has taken time, but Denning is back, and better than before, said Mayor Paul Lee.
“We’ve rebuilt our city hall. We’ve rebuilt our water department. We’ve got a new tornado shelter now. We just finished this new pavilion to have this outside cookout.”
With a mix of federal and state grants, the town has been able to rebuild the infrastructure without accruing any long-term debt, Lee said.
Aside from being the town’s meeting space, town hall also acts as a museum with photos and memorabilia. The population is now just 200, but around the turn of the 20th century Denning was a thriving coal mining community and a hub of activity.
“Denning had over 4,000 people at one time,” Lee said. “Plus they had theaters, dance halls, all that stuff.”
The new community center and tornado shelter is attached to town hall, and it features a kitchen, restrooms and showers in the event residents need to shelter for a longer period of time. That decision was based on lessons learned after the 2011 disaster.
“We had a vision of making this a complex that you could possibly live in, because during a tornado, you never know how severe it can get for somebody. We had families that didn’t have homes, they didn’t have a house to go back to. So we made this like a small house but yet a facility you could use for shelter.”
While October’s community celebration was a one-time event, there is interest in making it an annual event, the mayor said. “It’s something that gets all the community out and everybody gets involved.”
