United then, and now: Downtown Clarksville tornado remembered 25 years later
As Clarksville residents recover and rebuild their lives left from the destructive Dec. 9 tornado, the community is also reflecting on the 25th anniversary of the tornado that hit the city Jan. 22, 1999.
Around 3:54 a.m. on Jan. 22, 1999, The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning and the NOAA Weather Radio urged residents to get up and take cover immediately.
At 4:15 a.m., about 20 minutes later, an EF-3 tornado tore its way through downtown.
The tornado, about 4 miles wide and 880 feet in length, traveled a path northeast, including a five-block area of downtown and part of Austin Peay State University.
It destroyed 124 buildings, damaged 562, and left five people injured, but unlike the Dec. 9 2023 tornado, no one died.
Clarksville's oldest churches, including Madison Street United Methodist and Trinity Episcopal, had its roofs and spires torn off.
The historic Montgomery County Courthouse and home of Tennessee's oldest newspaper, The Leaf-Chronicle were left in ruins.
Austin Peay's campus was filled with uprooted trees and damaged buildings, such as the iconic and allegedly haunted Harned Hall.
Built back better than ever
In total, the tornado left behind $72.2 million in damages.
“Downtown Clarksville did rebuild, in some ways better than ever," said Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts in a press release. "It wasn’t an easy process. But now, the heart of Clarksville has had much of its earlier prominence restored through a combination of public and private investment.”
Downtown has expanded with the Downtown Commons, the recent F&M Bank Arena, surrounded by new and unique shops and restaurants, with the Clarksville Performing Arts Center, tying downtown into the ever-expanding campus of Austin Peay, added Pitts.
"Then, as now, we know Clarksville to be generous in spirit,” Pitts said. “The outpouring of volunteers, supplies and money to help those in need was great in 1999, and is greater this time.
“The major differences in the two events are the four people who died as a result of the December storm, and the number of residents who have had their lives disrupted in this latest storm. As we have said, there is no task too hard, no challenge too great, and no burden too difficult for us to overcome.
"We will be with our neighbors until the end."
Kenya Anderson is a reporter for The Leaf-Chronicle. She can be contacted at kanderson@gannett.com or on X at kenyaanderson32. Sign up for the Leaf-Chronicle to support local journalism at www.theleafchronicle.com.
This article originally appeared on Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: United then, and now: Downtown Clarksville tornado remembered
