Nashville Tornado

[Noneck_08]

Was looking at Tornado Week on the wearhter channel. Has anyone here went threw the april 16, 1998 twister.

[Dukeis#1]

I didn't experience it, but I remember hearing about it on TV. I think it went right through the middle of downtown.

[cheeriokid61]

I didn't go through the tornado, but my mom did. She works in the AmSouth building in downtown. She told me that the whole building was evacuated into the stairwell and while they were in there, they could here windows popping and wind throughout the building, even though it is supposed to be completely closed off from outside. Several buildings, especially the James K Polk office tower, were damaged. It took years to completely fix everything. By the way, the tornado ( that did go right through downtown) was rated F3 on the Fujita scale.

Also, don't forget that that wasn't the only tornado during that storm. In Franklin, we had a tornado warning that lasted pretty much all day. It was like a seven hour tornado drill in school. But hey, now it's just one of those fun little memories in our pasts.

If you have any questions, ask someone like Dave or Heckles who might remember it a little more.

[GaTechGuy]

I lived in Nashville back when that happened. I wasn't downtown but I still remember it being all over the news that day. The F3 that hit downtown did about 100 million in damages and injured over 100 people but luckily only killed one person. There were 9 other tornadoes that touched down that day all over middle TN. One of the tornadoes that touched down was an F5 but luckily it was in southern middle TN where no one lives. The pics from that day are pretty interesting.

[satalac]

i was at school when it happened. i remember we got out of classes early that day because of the storms coming in. then i remember them reporting that a tornado had just hit downtown. i was freaking out because my dad works at city center. it took a direct hit. luckily they all ran to the center of the building before the windows blew out. it ripped the revolving door out of the lobby and threw it for a block. i remember going downtown after it happened and seeing all the damage. it was incredible. i'm so glad there weren't that many deaths. i beleive there was one person killed when a tree feel on him at centennial park.

[Noneck_08]

i was at school when it happened. i remember we got out of classes early that day because of the storms coming in. then i remember them reporting that a tornado had just hit downtown. i was freaking out because my dad works at city center. it took a direct hit. luckily they all ran to the center of the building before the windows blew out. it ripped the revolving door out of the lobby and threw it for a block. i remember going downtown after it happened and seeing all the damage. it was incredible. i'm so glad there weren't that many deaths. i beleive there was one person killed when a tree feel on him at centennial park.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yea thanks for your replies guys. On the weather channel last night they showed a lot of fotage from it. They ran a story on how one news station had an direct hit and it knocked out there communtcation system. So they drove 8 miles to there main radio tower and brodcasted there. Yea, they mention that one death also. It looked like the older, western section of Downtown was hit hard. A weather camara was ontop the Amsouth Building. It was knocked right off.

[it's just dave]

It's a hard day to forget. I was at work watching the track of the storm heading to my house, or so it appeared. It missed by a couple of miles luckily, but unfortunately much of what was familiar to me became unfamiliar, the damages were extraordinary, the helplessness around the neighborhood pronounced. What we East Nashvillians learned from all this is that the city may pretend to ignore us, but when disaster strikes the entire city shows up to help. Amazing followup participation from all sectors of the city and beyond and believe me , it was needed. The pictures GaTech posted told no lies and looked very familiar to me. This was a day that truly, truly sucked. We made it through, and the positives that only such a disaster can bring are being seen and felt every day east of the river. The silver lining lives. But let's not do it again. And it was not only the immediate East Side of town, it came from the west, through downtown, east nashville and continued its path through Hermitage and Mt. Juliet far east of town.

[cheeriokid61]

That picture you have there of the tornado is incredible. It really shows how massive those things can be. This is one fact that scares me about tornadoes in Tennessee:

Tennessee has the highest percent of killer tornadoes.

In other words, if you live in TN, and a tornado comes, that tornado has the highest chance out of any state that it will kill someone.

[doormanpoet]

I remember it well! I had just gotten off work around 3pm. The storm went over my house in Bellevue! No funnel yet but by the time I got in too turn on the news, it was on tv. Not much is said about the smaller tornado that went over union street at 5pm.

[showtime21]

May 16 1998, I was driving a cab in downtown nashville. I seen the twister from my rear view mirror and panic!!! I drove my cab straight in to a light pole on 8th ave near the greyhound bus station. I got out of my cab and haul tail down 8ave to the bus station and took cover in the bathroom

[GaTechGuy]

Two more pics I came across...I find the one of the state capital funny. If you look at the Tennessee State Flag thats flying, the center (where the tri-star circle usually is) is riped out.

[DallasTexan]

Nashville really got spared, especially compared to the Fort Worth tornado in 2000.