F3 Tornado — Montgomery, Tennessee

1999-01-22 · near Clarksville, Montgomery, Tennessee

Event narrative

An F3 tornado struck Clarksville at 415 AM, travelled through the downtown area and dissipated near St. Bethlehem. There were 5 injuries, 2 of them were for broken bones. Clarksville has a population of 89,000 people is Tennessee's fifth largest city. 25,000 people were without power. The Tornado Warning was issued by the NWS at 354 AM CST. The NOAA Weather Radio alerted the sleepy resident s of Clarksville and urge them to take cover immediately. The tornado ripped apart a 5 block area of downtown Clarksville and teared up buildings in Austin Peay State University. Once the tornado ravaged the city, downtown Clarksville resembled bombed-out London during World War 2. Bricks and glass were strewn everywhere. The photo editor of the Leaf-Chronicle newspaper s, Fred Dye, said "It looked like somebody walked through with a broom and knocked over whatever was loose enough to knock down." The Montgomery county court house was in ruins. The City Fathers planned on rebuilding the court house. It was last rebuilt after a fire in 1878. The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper office was severely damaged. The newspaper had to set up a temporary office in Hopkinsville, KY. 22 buildings were heavily damaged at Austin Peay State University. Also, several old churches were heavily damaged in Clarksville. The Madison Street United Methodist Church lost its spires and roof. It will take about 2 years to rebuild the church. The Trinity Episcopal Church lost its roof. Police closed off downtown Clarksville from 6 PM-6 AM in order to prevent looting. The National Guard was on duty as well. On January 23, FEMA Director James Lee Whitt toured the devastation. He exclaimed, "Wow!" "It's like someone dropped a bomb on it. That's just what it look like." There was a total of 124 buildings destroyed and 562 buildings damaged. These figures included residential, commercial, government, public and buildings at Austin Peay.

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Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5685677. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.