WAFF.com: North Alabama News, Radar, Weather, Sports and Jobs-Memorials held 20 years after Huntsville's deadliest tornado
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HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - Many people took time out of their day to pay tribute to the 21 lives lost on the 20th anniversary of the F-4 tornado that devastated south Huntsville.
Two memorial services were held Sunday, one at the tornado remembrance site on the corner of Airport Road and Whitesburg Drive, and another at an Airport Road church.
It was an emotional day for those who lost loved ones as well as those who survived.
Survivors, loved ones of those killed, and first responders joined together at the city's tornado remembrance site to observe a moment of silence.
Twenty years have now passed, but the shock over the destruction on November 15, 1989 still lingers.
It was a day that completely changed Kathleen Sharp's life.
Her apartment took a direct hit.
"I remember being in the air and it was gray. And I was screaming and I got hit real hard of my left side. And I believe it was a car," she said.
Sharp's husband Johnny was at work when he heard their apartment complex had been hit.
He searched for his wife for hours.
"It was terrible, not knowing, there for so long," he said.
"The hit bruised my left side. I had nine broken ribs on this side, a collapsed lung and it broke my back in two," Kathleen Sharp said.
She has no memory of who found her and brought her to Huntsville Hospital's ICU.
She's now paralyzed from the waist down but is thankful to be alive.
"We don't know who, but I'm very, very thankful that she was found very soon after because she also had a collapsed lung, and she probably would not have lived very long out there, trying to breathe on her own," Johnny Sharp said.
Fay Orlich also came to remember.
She and her car were sent airborne by the tornado.
Her car was totaled, but she walked away with just a scratch.
"It was like a war zone through there, and everybody was running around helping everybody," she said.
Many gave thanks, for the support shown that day continues.
In addition to the 21 people killed, two more died later from tornado-related injuries. More than 450 people were injured.
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