The Big One

Here in North Texas we are subject to severe Spring storms, from heavy rains to gusty wind to hail and tornadoes. The past couple of days we have had lots and lots of rain, lots of wind and we are currently under a tornado watch. Earlier this afternoon, tornadoes hit south of us. To the north, more so than at my house, roads are flooded, cars have been swept away and they have had high water rescues.

As we sit here, luckily not in the dark, I am reminded of the huge storm and F3 tornado that hit downtown Ft Worth on March 28, 2000.

Jenny and I and our two month old baby had just moved out of our apartment in North Arlington. Our house wasn’t ready to move into yet so we were staying at a hotel on the West side of Ft Worth. We met each other at the apartment to do the final cleaning in hopes of getting our deposit back. We hadn’t seen the weather that day nor did we know that we were in danger. As we were wrapping things up the rain and wind started up. We didn’t know what to do. The electricity was already off at the apartment. I didn’t know that we were under a tornado warning so I decided that we should just head toward our hotel to the West. In separate vehicles, with me leading, we headed out.

The roads were barely passable. Rain was falling sideways due to the heavy wind. Visibility was less than 1/8 of a mile. I had the radio on listening to the news / weather channel. That’s when I first heard about the tornado! We were already on our way and my theory was, what are the odds of us getting into the tornado? The odds were in our favor. When we came to a couple of overpasses, I thought about pulling under them for safety, but the ones that we passed were always full of other cars seeking shelter. So we trudged on.

It took us over an hour to go the 12 miles or so to the hotel. On the back side of the storm we saw lots of damage to trees and roofs, etc. Once back to the safety of our room, we turned on the television and saw the aftermath of the tornado that took out at least three buildings downtown and then jumped over to South Arlington and took out a few houses and
businesses.

I still don’t know whether we went through downtown before or after the tornado went through, that’s how close we were to the action. And to this day, Jenny doesn’t let me forget about it.

And That’s What I Think.