It was November 15, 1989, I was a 6th grade student at Whitesburg Middle School. I was in the after school care program, but because the weather was getting bad and I lived less than a 2 minute walk from the school, they let me walk home. French horn in one hand that toggled my 5 ft frame making me lean to the right. I noticed it wasn't raining or lightening but the sky was eery unlike anything I had seen before. A mixture of orange, red, purple, green and in the distance dark. My sister and I were latch key kids with a mom that worked full time. I got home turned on the TV somewhat annoyed that the weatherman kept talking about storms. Our aunt who had been released from Redstone Arsenal early showed up at our door. She seemed alarmed and soon we were in the closet. Moments later we heard a big boom. We lived 1/4 mile from Airport Road.
The destruction right down the road from where we lived was unimaginable.
Meteorologist Bob Baron remembers that day vividly and it sparked his mission to do more to help people be weather aware. One of the most moving parts of the aftermath was talking to children. "In the wake of the destruction Dr. Roger Rinn had asked me to speak to a large number of traumatized children. There were so many latch key kids who were home with no parent and their parents had no way to get in touch with them for hours because so many roads were impassible," says former meteorologist and founder of the Baron Weather Institute. "I heard so many children's stories, one of a child who knew to get to the lower level inside a closet, but when everything was over he opened the door and there was no house," Baron continues, "These stories really touched me and I felt like as a meteorologist I had failed. It was really those stories that lead me to figure out better ways to track storms because we had to do better."
"We knew it was going to be a severe weather day, but the tornado formed without warning," says Baron. "There was a flipped over police car at our police training facility and they actually sent a message to the National Weather Service. No warning came in time for the tornado hitting Airport Road, but the very first ever live warning over weather radio happened and that's how the teachers and children at Jones Valley Elementary School were able to take cover."
Baron recalls, "Defense contractors let people out early to get them home before the storm, but with it hitting suddenly all those people were on the road."
One of the most touching stories Baron heard was a Gulf Station owner who still did full service gas pumping a gas for a woman. "He saw cars flipping over down Airport Road and told her 'Get out of your car!' She could not get out of her seat belt, so he opened the door, helped her out of the seat belt, carried her inside, and they laid on the ground together as it passed, the station's glass windows shattering all around them."
Former Young Life Leader Ralph Keel was working at the Young Life Center once located at the old Huntsville Drive In. He remembers his sister called and told him to take cover. "There wasn't really any warning, and it was my sister who owned a HAMM radio that heard there was a tornado on Airport Road who called me," Ralph continues, "I remember I just started praying and my prayer was, 'Dear Lord, don't let me panic." Ralph knew it was best to find a low lying area, so he hopped in his truck and started driving across the field of the Drive In. He quickly discerned there was no ditch and saw the sky getting darker and darker. "I saw these huge cedar trees against Walton's Mountain and drove there. I knew to get as close to the ground as possible, so I laid on the ground hugging that tree as tight as I could." Moments later he heard the train sound, "i hear the train sound and then complete, deafening silence."
Former Mayor Steve Hettinger remembers that day, "I was in the middle of interviewing a lady to be the first EEO Officer when my Assistant told me that we had been hit by a tornado, no warnings like we do today. We immediately declared an Emergency, headed down the Parkway on the wrong side to get to the scene. On the way I called the Governor who committed whatever help we needed. The temperature dropped from the 70s to the point that it was snowing when Ted Kopel and other National media began covering the event. We were concerned for the welfare of the rescue teams most of whom came dressed when the temperature was in the 70s. The night was long."
The tornado hit at 4:37pm in November that means it was dark by 5:00pm and people were trying to search through destruction in the pitch black night with no electricity. For many it wasn't until the next morning when the sun rose that the level of devastation was realized.
Miles and miles of rubble from leveled houses and buildings, roofs picked up, twisted, and put back down on houses, cars wrapped around poles, piles of automobiles that looked like they had been smashed at a junkyard, metal debris that sliced through cars and buildings, the destruction this storm left in its wake was incomprehensible.
"The scene was unbelievable. Leveled buildings, cars that were unrecognizable (one on a pile and one in a tree), and trash everywhere," Mayor Hettinger continues, " It was important that our Search and Rescue personnel had all the support they could get. Not only did our Fire Department and Police excel but Redstone Arsenal was a great help. Most importantly, a caring community took care of each other."
BeeZr owner Ron Jewell lost a friend that day, Scott Kraselky. "It was my last day of work at Lockheed, I had my three boxes from my office packed up and in my car," Jewell continues, "We had friends that lived off Airport Road in Westbury Apartments so my friend Bob Monrow and I said, 'Let's go help.' It was dark, so dark, and there were power cables everywhere that kept snapping. There were piles of cars everywhere."
Mayor Hettinger's leadership and the leadership across the city in all departments was remarkable. "The medical profession and healthcare workers were superior. We truly discovered the resiliency of our citizenry and their readiness to help each other."
Baron helped cut trees which, of course, were everywhere. "We had to keep going to get the blades sharpened because there was so much metal from debris and chain length fences embedded in all the trees."
Huntsville has been no stranger to destructive tornadoes. Prior to 1989, there were devastating storms in 1972 and 1974. But the 1989 storm was unacceptable to Baron and he began working on better systems. "You must be able to detect, disseminate, and respond immediately," Baron asserts. In February 1990 Baron received a grant to begin work with NASA's Steve Goodman are radar imagery. "We had always been two minutes behind, and in '92 came up with a process where we click on a dangerous storm and drag a ribbon across its path to pinpoint the exact communities where the path is going."
Today we have state of the art technology to detect tornados largely due to Baron's work. "Instead of just looking at velocity, we can look into individual movements inside the storm to detect how deep the circulation is."
In 2011 when the Super Cells hit across Alabama, Huntsville experienced both an EF-4 and EF-5, it was this technology that allowed information to flow and saved lives. Baron recalls, "Even when the storms knocked out power, we could still communicate through our Alabama Safety Weather App."
In May of this year, Twickenham, Old Town, Blossomwood, and other parts of our city experienced an EF-1 tornado. "We knew well in advance that all the parameters were in. place for that storm. Our various news stations did an excellent job of helping people be prepared and pinpointing where it was going."
Although it did not touch down in Twickenham, it did uproot hundred year old trees that the next day lay like dinosaurs across the historic streets of our city, and left substantial destruction while just a few blocks away our downtown square was left unharmed and never lost power.
As my own family hunkered in our safe place, my closet, we were cutting up and laughing when we heard the train sound. In a matter of seconds the power flashed off, we heard loud crashing sounds, and then eery, deafening silence, just like what Ralph Keel heard on that day in1989.
Old Town resident and lawyer Derek Simpson says, "I had often heard that a tornado sounds like a runaway train. I can now confirm those rumors: it does." Simpson says, "We discovered huge trees down, one had landed on my daughter's vehicle and crushed it. Although we sustained significant damage, we were all relieved that we were safe and uninjured."
It is our positioning on the globe that makes us (and the Southeast in general) more susceptible to tornados. Baron states, "The moisture that comes in from The Gulf, paired with cold fronts that emerge in early spring and late fall that breeds these storms."
"I was asked to do a presentation for a group coming in from California, to help prepare them for our climate and its storms. In my research I discovered that you have a higher chance of being injured in an earthquake in California than in a tornado in Alabama."
Mayor Hettinger's advice to those new to the area who aren't used to tornados, "Take warnings seriously, follow orders and requests, and volunteer to help when it happens."
In the words of Bob Baron, "Be weather aware."
As we approach the 35th Anniversary of the 1989 tornado, a permanent exhibit is opening at the Space and Rocket Center entitled How We Know The Weather in November 2024. "Because of our storms in '74, '89' and 2011, there is tremendous interest in weather. And so much of our world's innovation in weather has come right out of our own Tennessee Valley," remarks Baron.
These storms are a part of our city and its history. They can cause pain, shock, fatalities, and unbelievable destruction. But with each one our city comes together, helps their neighbor in need, and rises stronger. In the wake of the storm, you observe the best of humanity: resilience, courage, caring, love, and gratitude for this community.
We truly discovered the resiliency of our citizenry and their readiness to help each other. - Mayor Steve Hettinger