F3 Tornado — Davidson, Tennessee

1998-04-16 · near Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee

Event narrative

This Nashville tornado on April 16, 1998 took a very similar path to another F3 tornado that occurred on March 14, 1933, which killed 11 people in Nashville. The tornado touched down at 330 PM one mile west of Charlotte Pike and I-440. A tree fell on an ROTC student at Centennial Park. He was attending an ROTC picnic. He died later on May 4 from his injuries. The tornado went through downtown Nashville at 340 PM and on toward East Nashville, Donelson and Hermitage. The tornado blew out many windows on office buildings. The Nations Bank Office Towers were one of the hardest hit buildings in Nashville. Tennessee Performance Arts Center (TPAC) and the Tennessee Towers sustained damage. TPAC had over 100 windows blown out. NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts from the Tennessee Towers and was off the air for about 24 hours. 30 private airplanes were damaged at Cornelia Fort Airport. Estimated damage to the airplanes was 3 million dollars. 35 buildings in downtown Nashville were "red tagged", meaning these buildings were structurally unsound. Many signs in Davidson county were blown down or severely damaged. The tornado blew down 3 out of 10 construction cranes on the construction site of the Tennessee Oiler's Football Stadium near the Cumberland River. The tornado continued east and hit the residential section of East Nashville. At least 300 homes were damaged in East Nashville. Many homes lost a good part of their roofs, trees were uprooted, telephone poles were knocked down. St. Ann's Episcopal Church, which is well over 100 years old, received major damage. Uprooted trees, damaged roofs to many homes was the story across Donelson and Hermitage. Numerous windows were blown out from the Gaylord Building in Donelson. About half the trees, that is over a thousand trees, were blown down at Andrew Jackson's home, The Hermitage. The Hermitage is a 600 acre estate of the former President. Some of those trees were well over 200 years old, and a few of those trees that were destroyed were planted by Andrew Jackson himself. Mayor Phil Bredesen closed downtown Nashville of Friday, April 17. Many workers had an unscheduled holiday. The downtown area was reopened Monday, April 20. This gave time for cleanup crews to remove broken glass and repair downed power lines. Nashville Electric Service said 75,000 customers were without power.

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Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5641024. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.