Your Memories: The 1989 Airport Road Tornado - WHNT

This month, we will mark 20 years since an F-4 tornado hit Airport Road on November 15, 1989.

[Cynthia Fichter]

I was at work at Intergraph when the tornados started coming through that day.I lived out on Brindlee Mtn. it was a Wednesday.I always went to my moms house on Wed. after work so I would be on time for church.But, we didn't go to church that night, instead had to head home that night and had to cross over Airport Road.It was terrible.All you could see and hear were sirens and smell of death.It was one of the most devastating night ever.As you past cars on side of road and past by the apartments on south parkway at airport rd. you could see spray painted letters or numbers on them as the rescue people checked each car and apartment they would spray paint the already checked sign on them.Then the next day having to hear on tv and radio of the deaths and the names of people that were hurt and didnt survive. Some were people we knew.

[James Johnson]

I do not remember the actual tornado, when it hit us while driving north on parkway, I was knocked out upon impact with the twister. We were just south of Airport Road. The next thing I remember, I was in the Huntsville Hospital being asked if I was on any medications and telling them and then I was told to go back to sleep. My late wife Rosa was taken to Humana Hospital. She was found laying in a ditch on South Parkway. She died due to her injuries 63 days after the tornado on 17 January 1990.
I was moved to HEALTHSOUTH Rehab at the end of November and remained there until the 3rd week of January 1990. By mid February I returned to work on Redstone Arsenal and worked up to 4 years ago at which time I retired. With age creeping up on me, my injuries have placed me in a wheelchair most of the time.

This has been my life for the past 20 years.

[R Hunt]

I was in the Air Force stationed in northern Michigan. During my work shift, a co-worker, that new I was from Alabama, alerted me that something had happened in Huntsville, Al. I turned on a T.V. to find a national newscast that revealed what seemed to me to be total devestation.

[sonya brown]

i was in it me and my mother and i was very scary we are lucky to be here today that day changed my life forever.

[Deborah Redmond]

that is a day i will never forget. I had been in a automobile accident just 1 week before. I was at home with a broken arm not 5 miles from where it touched down i was waiting for my husband to get off work and bring home my prescriptions when the news broke that the tornado had touched down. My husband and other family members had just come thru that area before it hit. My family and i were very lucky that day where many others lost their lives or family members. That was a very devastating day in the lives of many.

[John Calvarese]

I was the principal of Challenger Middle School at the time of the tornado. The school had just opened in the fall of '89' and we were getting ourselves established. The afternoon of November 15, 1989 will be forever etched in my memory. We still had several students in the building involved in after school activities. When the sirens went off we got everyone to safe areas in the building. Fortunately for us the brunt of the storm was not coming our way, but was it headed across the arsenal and toward Airport Rd. After the storm passed parents began picking up students and taking them home. Little did we know about the damage that was done on Airport Rd! It wasn't until I received a call from Dr. Ralph Green who was the Deputy Superintendent of Hsv City Schools. He said, " John we've lost Jones Valley School." I said, "what do you mean?" He said, "the school was destroyed by the tornado!" Then he said, "John, you and Ellen Marks(Challenger Elementary Principal) need to come up with a plan to house the staff and students of Jones Valley School." After I got over the initial shock of our conversation, Ellen and I did just that! For the next year and a half, Jones Valley students, teachers and staff were housed in our buildings while their school was being built. It was a massive undertaking, but everyone worked together to see that the Jones Valley Students were well taken care of.

From a personal standpoint, at the time I was living in an apartment on Chateau Dr. I didn't know if my building was still standing or not or how I was going to get to it because of the devastation on Airport Rd. I was able to wind around through the neighborhood and finally arrive at my apartment building which was still standing. We didn't have power, but the building was otherwise okay. Yes, it was a night to remember, one I won't ever forget. Thank you for allowing me to share my memories with you!

[daniel]

I lived in Arab at the time, but my mother had taken me to Chucky Cheese that night. We left right before it hit. We missed it by a matter of minutes.

[jason]

i lived in huntsville when this happened. i actually had an appointment on airport road that afternoon but for some reason i called and canceled it. the building was destroyed where i would have been. i remember being with my brother-in- law and hearing about it on tv. all i could think was how lucky i was. i went to airport rd the next day and could not believe the destruction. every time i go down there i think of that day. its one of those things that will always be with you. it is amazing how the area has changed since then.

[John]

I was a National Guard soldier assigned to the Armory on Airport Road, we all went to the scene and immediately began to assist the Local emergency responders..searching rubble, preventing looting, and directing traffic....

I remember the steel I beams in the GoldBro jewelry store...twisted in a corkscrew fashion and then bent back on themselves....we found a woman in the office area, apparently dead from a blow to the head...the violence of the storm had stripped her of her dress and one shoe...

Reading about these storms, or watching them on television does not accurately convey their power...

[Jim Blanton]

I lived in Hurricane Valley about 17 miles northeast of downtown Huntsville. I was in my truck at the corner of my property at almost dark when I heard on the radio that a tornado had touched down at the old Huntsville airport. Even where I was, the wind suddenly picked up, and lightning became continuous, with a purple color in the hard rain. Knowing that tornadoes usually move in a northeasterly direction and that a vehicle is dangerous in a tornado, I became uneasy and hurried home. Electricity was already out at the house. We turned on a battery powered radio and found out what had happened, even though the full impact was not known at that time. My brother and his wife lived in Huntsville much closer to the tornado, and we were unable to reach them. However I knew that if they were home they were OK, as they were still a couple of miles from the Tornadoes path.

[Southern GRITS]

Wow! Has it been 20 years?

My husband worked in Huntsville then (does now) and at the time I was attending Athens State College (now University). I had been in Huntsville shopping that afternoon after classes and this particular day was one where we had driven separately into Huntsville. Our usual routine was for me to take my husband to work, attend classes all day, drive back to Huntsville, then wait for him at work until he left. Many times, I would go into the break room at his place of employment and work on my homework until time for him to leave. Then we would drive home together for the hour trip. We live in the same place we've lived for going on 30 years, in Morgan County, just a couple of miles from the Cullman County line. We rode in together to save gas, and wear-and-tear on the vehicles.

On November 15, 1989, I had chosen to drive in separately because I had some errands I wanted to run after my classes at ASC and then get home early so I could actually cook a home-made meal! The weather had been yucky all day. I was heading south on the Parkway, having run all but one of my errands--trying to decide very quickly whether to run it or just go on home. My remaining errand was at a business on Airport Road. As I was getting closer to Airport Road, the sky was getting darker and darker and I thought maybe I could beat the approaching thunderstorm and still do my errands. In the space of mere seconds the storm turned black and I decided that the best thing I could do would be to get across the Lily Flagg area river bridge as quickly as possible, so I decided to go on home. I remember watching, in fleeting glimpses, in my rearview mirror how much darker the sky kept getting and how fast this entire cloud had formed.

I arrived home to discover that I had been less than two minutes from being caught in the tornado; most likely, I would still have been in my car. We lived next-door to my parents-in-law, and this was before widespread use of any cell phones or satellite phones, they walked over when they heard my car arrive and told me that a twister had hit South Huntsville in the Airport Road area. This sent chills down my spine! They asked me about my husband and I told them that I was certain that as soon as the alarms had been sounded, that they had been ordered to go to the basement of the company building and that he was probably all right. Plus, the company for which he worked was on the west side of town in the Research Park area.

I told them how close it had been for me to have been caught in it. I walked back to their house with them and watched the coverage on TV. I cried when reports of the injured and the deaths were broadcasted. They had no warning--not due to lack of effort of the weather forecasters--but due to the fact that there are still storms that form so very quickly that the radars don't always catch them until the storms have already caused their devastation. I watched that cloud build in mere minutes and 20 years ago, the technology was nowhere close to the level that it is today.

Southern Girl Raised In The South

[Southern GRITS]

I am amazed by the incredible stories posted here already. Some who were injured during the storm or others, like me, who were diverted in some way from an appointment or last errand and missed being in it by mere minutes. Over the decades, every time I've driven by there, I still say prayers for all the people who were impacted by the storm that afternoon.

One post mentioned GoldBro--I had almost forgotten about that store, and I shouldn't have. My husband and I bought my engagement ring and our wedding rings there almost 30 years ago.

[JohnHunt]

I was in school at UAH at the time. During a break in a two hour class, we stood in the hall and watched the big windows move with the wind about the time the tornado hit Airport. It was not till I got out of class that there was any mention of a tornado or a touchdown. A friend and I took a trailer mounted generator with huge floodlights down to Airport to try and help with the search for survivors. The destruction was hard to comprehend at the time as was finding a fatality.

[Jim Merrell]

I was stationed at Fort Hood Texas a little over a month when this happened. I was watching the news and saw them reporting on the Tornado in Huntsville. I remember seeing the mayor Steve Hettinger talking to the news crews and watching it starting to snow. The military from Redstone was assisting getting people out of the wreckage.

[Donna]

I was working on Wynn Dr on Nov. 15, 1989. It had been unusually hot and sunny all day; the temperature was in the mid 80s I think, which is unusual for that time of year even in Alabama. I returned from a late lunch around 2:30 and the air seemed stagnate, but when I looked up the sky was in turmoil. It was as if the clouds were boiling, I have never seen anything like that since then and I hope I never do again. I told some of my co-workers that we are probably going to be in for some bad storms. Sure enough, I had not been back from lunch for long when the call came for every one to move into the hall ways because Madison County was under a tornado warning. One of the offices had a radio and we listened intensely as the reports started coming in about damage in the Airport Road area. My husband and I had only been married for about a year and I didn’t have anyway to get in touch with him, this was before wide spread cell phone use. He was on the road a lot for the company he worked for and I knew he made many trips during the week to the Airport Road area. He finally was able to contact me and let me know that he was OK. He said he was coming back from Decatur when the wall cloud that produced the tornado passed right over him. The winds even before the touch down were so strong that it pushed the van he was driving off the road. Thank goodness he wasn’t hurt.
I wish that could have been said about everyone on that day. I remember watching the news that night about how hundreds of injured people were walking or finding any way they could to get to Crestwood Hospital. The hospital had sustained damage but the Doctors and Nurses were still trying to take care of as many people as they could.
The next day as the city was trying to dig out and make sure everyone had been accounted for, when it started snowing. In the span of less than 12 hours the temperature went from the mid 80s to the low 30s with snow falling.
When it was OK to do so, I drove down Airport Road, and saw the devastation first hand. I was amazed to see huge TVA towers one after another bent completely to the ground. There were still many cars scattered in a field in the area that used to be the old Drive-In.
Over the years, Huntsville and the surrounding areas have endured many devastating tornados. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who has ever lost a loved one.

[susie parker]

I was working at The Huntsville Times, they would not let us
leave until we had an all clear from TV News 19

[Toby Ivey]

I was at work on West Ferry Way which faced south and seen the storm cell approach from the front porch.I was with a couple other guys there and we all decided about the same time that a tornado was coming toward us. We worked in a metal building built up high and at the end of the street and the tornado appeared to be coming directly toward us.I jumped into my truck and took off.I got to Leeman Ferry road and looked to the right and could still see the cell when lightning would strike and so I turned left to try and get away from it. It was extremely difficult driving because of the debris flying around due to the turbulance caused by the storm. At that time Leeman Ferry road was under construction and was a mess with folding signs tumbling around in the high winds.I felt the tornado was coming toward me, but it had turned and went east down airport road. I pulled up next to the Hardees building for cover.My small truck felt as if it was going to lift off the ground at any moment,for a couple minutes there or so.I still to this day think, by far, that I was the most scared then that I have ever been in my entire life.I thanked God then for sparing me and have many other times since then.I did not go back toward that direction that night after the storm.I remember all power and traffic lights out and I remember feeling very lonely and scared.Back in those days most people didn't have cell phones.My family was sure glad when I pulled in the driveway and was crying and told me all about how bad it was and all that destruction was within one half mile of where I worked.

[Yaya Mil]

We were stationed at Fort Hood but had friends who lived here. We remember the news hitting the national networks. All we could do was watch in disbelief and pray for the area. Little did we realize years later we would chose Huntsville as our home. As I drive down airport 3 days a week to pick up my grandson from Faith Presbyterian I remember that awful night and pray my adopted home never has to experience such devestation again.

[Phillip]

I remember being a third grader staying in the basement of my uncle's house in Rosalie thinking that we were going to get hit by the storms we were hearing about on the radio that hit Huntsville. The news was so bad, and I remember being so shccked at the number of people who were affected by the tornado. So much rain came through our area that the basement actually started to flood. That same year (if not the same day...my memory fails me there) we experienced a tornado overhead our school that luckily never touched down, but it was sighted swirling gravel and other debris. It was quite scary for us as kids. I couldn't imagine what it would have been like in Huntsville that night.

[Charlie Gillespie]

I was 200 yards south of Airport Rd going north when the tornado hit....Killed 2 people in front of me & the guy behind me...I was one of the few cars that stayed on the Pkwy, the rest were blown off to the east or wrapped around light poles to the west...
Didn't see it coming or heard it...My car was beaten up pretty bad. It was Hell the few seconds .. then the aftermath getting out of my car ii the middle of the pkwy alone & looking east as it went over the mountain... and saw all those cars ....
Ch 19 has video of me helping someone in the ditch there...lDavis shot it.. he had the only light ... I'm not much a writer... sorry...it's painful