The Tornado of '89

An F-4 tornado tore through south Huntsville and parts of Madison County on November 15, 1989. Just days later, WHNT News 19 produced an hour-long special covering the destruction from that deadly day.

[@nancyfried7239]

My childhood babysitter was killed. RIP miss Ola Wilbanks.

[@markquiswest6607]

They also had send in the National Guard out too!

[@itsnotthesamething]

🙏I'm sorry for your loss.

[@mspinky1968]

I will never forget that evening.

[@itsnotthesamething]

This was an amazing presentation of this tragedy. Heartbreaking and inspiring. What a great community.

[@moesmoontv8270]

Myrtle….. 22:30 …..BEST part of this video!!😍♥️👐🏼

[@Bootmahoy88]

Debra McKay at about 15:00 is remarkably articulate in her description of the havoc she and her kids personally endured.

[@jenniferjohnson5683]

I was fourteen when this tornado hit Huntsville. I watched it form from the front window of my house. We ran into the center hallway and could hear the rumbling and shaking. Airport drive looked like a leveled war zone. I’m glad to see this posted because I never thought it got enough attention. No cell phones to document much at the time. It was very devastating!

[@bettygrable2698]

The young kids and teens are in the 30's and 40's. That must have been scary for a small child. I saw a small Tornado hit ground at 11 and that was super scary.

[@jonathanbecker8935]

A horrible tornado in the middle of November? Wow. Was this one after dark too? There's nothing more terrifying than a destructive tornado hitting after nightfall. How do you even prepare for something you can't see? Those folks living in apartment buildings or homes without basements had nowhere to hide. I don't imagine there were very many tornado shelters in this area. Thank God those people living in the mobile home had a storm cellar to take refuge in. This must be a really close knit community after all the tornados that have come thru over the years.

[@janblackman6204]

There were 23 people killed. Some died a few days later

[@dwynepen7626]

I miss 1989...

[@unitedwestand5100]

The look of love, and hope on those womens face, @ around the 46:00 min, as the neighbors all pitched in to help is priceless.

[@whirlaway7352]

God bless everyone who survived that terrible tornado, and also those who didn't! RIP Thomas Fry and all the other beloved dear ones who passed away. Those who knew you will never forget you, and will be reunited in heaven one day. Sending love out to everyone whose lives changed forever on that day

[@mturner2584]

I’ll never forget this. My family lived on Drake Ave & I was about 16. The sky was green & traffic bumper to bumper for hours of those who were stuck in their cars when it touched down just a few streets over. A young girl from my friends church was killed at Waterford Square apartments. My parents said the 74’ tornado practically came through our backyard. So sad & scary.

[@mturner2584]

I didn’t watch the entire video after my post. Vanessa Hastings was the name of the 22 year old killed at Waterford Square.

[@Mithrillion]

@11:11 - my father worked at that Chevron service station and was flipped over in a wrecker in the church parking lot. This happened literally 10 months before I was born.

[@k.ohalloran8758]

I remember this...wow. Can’t believe that was 30 years ago. Wow

[@psychodelicrock12]

I remember it too like it was yesterday.

[@coryanntopanga]

I wish I could properly describe the feeling of even being in the vicinity of a tornado. The word FEAR just doesn't seem strong enough. It levels your soul to realize a tornado is headed your way. How can I get you to understand the total absolute helplessness, arm in arm with a sense of hopelessness that's enveloped in a titanium case of pure fear... along with the abject confusion of trying to choose between fight or flight? Which one do I choose? Which will save me? Then your mind switches to everyone else in the house and fear for yourself morphes into terror and doom for everyone you love. You feel the house shift. Where is everybody I've got to get to them! You're hollering for everyone. Adrenaline is in full swing as you herd everyone to a safety you aren't even sure is really safety. You just know you can't sit there that's for sure. So you do whatever comes to mind no matter how ridiculous it's going to seem when this is all over with. You just hope that you and your family live to laugh about how ridiculous that choice was later on down the road. Just please let us make it thru, Lord. Please...

[@spiralrose]

You can try by cutting out the purple prose and speaking to us like we’re empathetic, imaginative human beings and not rejects from an emo-Victorian student-film project.

[@coryanntopanga]

@@spiralrose Sure 🤪🙄

[@coryanntopanga]

@@spiralrose... or I can just do whatever tf I want to do because you basically can't do a damn thing about it. Yea! That's it! 😘🤣

[@scotabot7826]

Wow, what a totally terrifying, and exceptional description of real life!!!

[@johnschumacher5629]

Remember this like yesterday what a nightmare

[@themanfromcabowabo1559]

There was, and still is, only 2 roads that directly connect south and north Huntsville. Whitesburg Drive and Memorial Parkway. Barely 1/4 mile apart and both impassable on this date.

[@janetoconnor3636]

I don't remember ever hearing about this tornado at all when it happened or since. This video is the first I ever heard about it by accident.

[@kristiwilliams9590]

I was just thinking the same thing. I lived in Bham at the time & would have been 19 years old, so it looks like I would have some memory of it happening.

[@entertainme7523]

Y'all are outsiders

[@rowhsv]

@@kristiwilliams9590 It was on the Birmingham news stations, the Huntsville stations were temporarily knocked out, so I remember pointing the antenna south, and barely picking up WBRC where they were talking about the aftermath of the tornados.

[@marmel4086]

Remember this day very well….

[@fitfogey]

Cars were actually thrown in the Winn Dixie. Everyone knows exactly where this hit. The apartments that were set up on that hill on the corner of airport road and whitesburg drive were completely destroyed.

[@SaturnDreamingofMercury]

I was scarcely a few years old. My mom was shopping at the stores along Airport Rd. and I was with her. I only remember the utterly black skies and brilliant flashes of lightning. As the weather conditions continued to grow increasingly ominous, my mom decided to return to our house which was near Five Points. By the time we reached home, the tornado had already obliterated those very stores we were just at.

[@charlenepagan]

I will never forget that tornado.

[@kdggs]

I moved to Maine after this. I was baptized at faith Presbyterian church and how my dad made it home to Crestfield drive that day, was a miracle. He came from north huntsville and only missed it because he had to run back to his office on Redstone arsenal. North huntsville. Soooo sad

[@matthewthompson89]

Wow jerry looks unrecognizable

[@darnellanders8768]

Oh yeah I remember hearing about this in 89 as I was much younger and my mom was from union town Alabama I was around 28..its seems times were better with the interaction of folks..black and white people and other races coming together in there time of need.. Natural disasters have a way of doing that. It reminds U that God is in control.. We as people struggling to just survive from day to day need to rid themselves of prejudice and the hared that goes along with it and realize we R more alike than different and by now we should be use to the difference in other races and embrace it. Life is to short to live it in fear of our neighbors to spite there race. We already live in the fear of the unknown such as natural disasters. None of us R special or privileged unless they can live forever without fear and that's not going to happen for any of us..we will all have the chance to come before the creator with some explaining to do as to what our intent and purpose was in life.. No one escapes that...

[@lucyterrier7905]

I the early 70's my father was building houses. His crew had left for the evening, but he stayed to finish a few things then prepare for the next day. He wasn't paying attention to the weather except noticed it was getting dark. He said suddenly it started to rain very heavily & a tornado was coming. He had nowhete to hid since the house he was building was only roughly standing. He did his best to crouch in a corner because thete was no basement. A wall fell on him breaking his arm. Thankfully, it was all that happened. He said the most difficult thing to do was changing my brother's diaper with 1 hand! Lol

[@gregakinson2800]

No actual tornado footage here....

[@entertainme7523]

1989

[@funtimefreddy3272]

My mom was a survivor of this tornado and her classmate got interviewed about it

[@goodpupbakery6955]

My dad said he was about 13 and he lived in a trailer. Him and his mom had to lay under a thing and they could hear the tornado going past the house

[@johnbrentford5513]

I was there it was longer than half a hour.

[@bbrown333]

Errol Davis was FINE.

[@markquiswest6607]

I got a cousin used to work CSX at the time, when he headed back to both Atlanta & Augusta,GA. His Locomotive Cab Door, had blowned off.

[@entertainme7523]

no

[@robinstewart6510]

The state of Alabama should have done far more. They collect millions in taxes every single year, yet were only willing to offer chicken feed ($150k in loans) in assistance. We're Alabama residents and expect more from our state government - more than them just trying to dump it all off on the federal government.

[@mikeholmstrom1899]

Quite sobering.

[@kompst_tu]

18:45 I just randomly went to this part in the video. Betty White died this New Years of natural causes at the age of 99. She would have been 100 if she would have held out for a few more weeks. Hopefully, she's reunited with her husband.

[@scotabot7826]

Shes so young in the video. Her story is so heartbreaking. Listening to her just rips at my heart -strings!! I'm sure she was a saved soul.

[@reincarnsproductions]

Hes keep smacking every 1 min 😂😂😂

[@kristoferchemerika4796]

I wouldn't be born for 6 months yet

[@adammedley7148]

pinge