47 minutes until midnight
May 4, 2003
The day the night sky fell; A special report

The Jackson Sun
May 11 2003
Words don't come easy.
Pictures will never tell the whole story.

Pictures of downtown Jackson on Monday afternoon after the historic business was flattened in the path of a tornado on Sunday night For the second time in four years, the buckle of the Bible Belt was devastated under the darkness of a Sunday night. Lives were lost in an instant. Homes and businesses destroyed. A community and region changed forever.

To say Jackson-Madison County and other areas of West Tennessee look like "a war zone" is to misuse a tried and true cliche. War by definition requires opposing forces in battle, but what defense does man have against such natural fury?

The march of this F-4 tornado was certainly warlike, a 65-mile path of destruction cut through the heart of this region. Armed with 200-plus mph winds and turning the objects of man's creation into projectiles of his destruction, this storm struck Denmark, downtown, East Jackson and parts of Beech Bluff full force before relenting a bit prior to hitting Lexington and Henderson County.

The aftermath was worse than 1999, when two tornadoes hit Madison County, killing six here and three more in the region. There were 11 deaths this time, all in Madison County, but it was a miracle there weren't more. Dozens of injuries were reported regionwide. Thousands suffered frazzled psyches. A lifetime of memories and history became piles of rubble. The cost of the damage is in the millions of dollars, with the tally still incomplete.

And if this was war, the man-made soldiers weren't a match for Mother Nature. From Mother Liberty CME to St. Luke's Episcopal, from Aeneas to the U.S. Post Office. For these soldiers, the blows appear fatal.
But bricks and mortar can be replaced. The human spirit that made these structures is alive and well and the community spirit represented by Unity Park, the memorial to the '99 victims, has been resurrected.
From the president to the governor. From the Jackson Police Department to Jackson Energy Authority. From Red Cross workers to those now homeless. Volunteers have poured out all over West Tennessee to pick up the pieces, and public officials and agencies stand on the ready with dollars, manpower and moral support.

A lot has changed since Sunday. In this special section of The Jackson Sun, we look back on the day the night sky fell as we prepare to move forward.


Governor Bredesen visits Mother Liberty CME Church in Jackson, Tennessee.
Tornado hit Jackson Sunday night, May 4, 2003.
Photos by Jackson Sun.

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