25 years later: Remembering the tornado of Jan. 22, 1999

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It was just over a month ago that we saw tornado damage in many of our communities including Clarksville. As that area recovers from this most recent storm, many are taking today to think back on another major weather event. It was a defining moment for Montgomery County, and a lot of it was caught on camera. See the damage from the sky in our video above.

"That's the courthouse," Eleanor Williams told NewsChannel 5 as she watched her TV in 1999. "It looks like a bomb has exploded inside. My first thought this morning was to rush down there as if going to a friend who was sick and injured. Of course, I cried. What I grew up and treasured is gone."

The day of this interview was January 22, 1999. Eleanor was watching tornado damage in downtown Clarksville. At this time, Eleanor was the Montgomery County Historian.

"Many of these that were destroyed this morning were on the National Register of Historic Places," she said.

In reflecting on that day, we again went to people who work with history— archivist for Montgomery County Sarah Fry and deputy county historian Shana Thornton.

Shana was a student at Austin Peay State University on the morning of that tornado.

"It sounded like a helicopter was going to land on the house that morning when the tornado came through," she remembered. "I thought something had gone wrong and something was crashing. We were trying to assess what was happening in town."

"The courthouse, it was absolutely devastated," Sarah added.

On that day, it was uncertain what was going to happen to the courthouse and so much of downtown Clarksville. Shana watched as the city began immediately working, like a clean-up effort on APSU's campus.

"The clock tower had been blown off the Browning Building on campus," Shana said. "It was playing Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head pretty close to the tornado coming through. I just saw everybody cooperating and working together."

In that 1999 interview with Eleanor, she left us with this:

"We manage to survive, and we'll come back from this, of course," she said, concluding that 1999 story.

Eleanor was so very right. Downtown Clarksville rebuilt and has grown so much over 25 years. The courthouse took four years of work and reopened.

After 30 years of serving as county historian, Eleanor Williams died last year.

"This is a very small bit of Eleanor Williams' collection," Sarah said, walking down an aisle. "She has a wonderful collection of old photographs."

Part of of Eleanor's work was telling the history of Clarksville before and after that 1999 tornado. Shana and Sarah today continue Eleanor's mission.

"It's pretty incredible to see how resilient the community has been," said Sarah.