page_title: Jackson, Tennessee
section_title: 1999 to present
hierarchical_section_title: Jackson, Tennessee / History / 1999 to present
caption_attribution_description: English: One of the dorms at Union University, Jackson, Tennessee, that was destroyed by the February 5, 2008 tornado.
context_page_description: Jackson is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Tennessee. Located 70 miles east of Memphis, it is a regional center of trade for West Tennessee. Its total population was 65,211 at the 2010 census and 67,191 in the 2019 Census estimate.
  Jackson is the primary city of the Jackson, Tennessee metropolitan area, which is included in the Jackson-Humboldt, Tennessee combined statistical area. Jackson is Madison County's largest city, and the second-largest city in West Tennessee next to Memphis. It is home to the Tennessee Supreme Court's courthouse for West Tennessee, as Jackson was the major city in the west when the court was established in 1834.
  In the antebellum era, Jackson was the market city for an agricultural area based on cultivation of cotton, the major commodity crop. Beginning in 1851, the city became a hub of railroad systems ultimately connecting to major markets in the north and south, as well as east and west. This was key to its development, attracting trade and many workers on the railroads in the late 19th century with the construction of railroads after the American Civil War.
context_section_description: In 2005 Bodine Aluminum, a 100% Toyota-owned high-volume, die-casting plant, opened in Jackson, providing high-quality industrial jobs.
  The city had already begun investing in a large fiber network in 2003. In January 2015 Jackson was named a "Gig City" for the upgrades to its fiber network, which offer Internet speeds up to 1 gigabit per second to private residences.
  Between 1999 and 2008, several violent tornadoes struck large portions of the city. The McKellar-Sipes Regional Airport was severely damaged in January 1999, a storm that resulted in eleven fatalities. The 1999 tornado also damaged the 30-acre (120,000 m²) Riverside Cemetery, where 40 known Confederate soldiers, 140 unknowns, and many families of the founders of Jackson are buried. The cemetery's acres of old trees and many of the statues, monuments, and graves were damaged during the tornado.
  Parts of the Union University campus were damaged in November 2002. The downtown area was devastated in May 2003 by an F4 tornado, and there were eight deaths. Many dormitories at the Union campus were demolished in a storm in February 2008.
  On May 1, 2010 a severe thunderstorm hit Jackson, dropping 13 inches of rain in a short period of time.  Flash floods destroyed many homes and streets.
caption: Destroyed dormitory building in February 2008.
exif: {"Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D50", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2008:02:10 19:52:50", "Image ExifOffset": "216", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:02:10 16:15:12", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:02:10 16:15:12", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "18/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTime": "80", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "80", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "80", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5665", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2754", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Soft", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}