11 years ago today (Fort Worth tornado)

[Lone Frog]

I was in Ireland. In fact, I was sitting in a pub in Cork. I remember looking up at the TV, which was set to Sky News, and seeing 'Fort Worth, Texas' scrolling across the bottom of the screen. Next thing I knew, I'd dropped my cigarette and was yelling at the bartender to turn up the volume.

I spent the rest of the day trying to explain to the Irish what a tornado was like.

 

[Horned Toad]

I was at my home at the time on W 6th St. Having just picked up my daughter from Calvary Cathedral child care and had just watched Finfrock on channel 5 say that a tornado was touching down north of Loop 820 near Saginaw which was way North of where I lived. Ran outside and looked north to see if I could see the storm cloud. All the sudden I saw this thing shoot straight up in the air like a missile about 3 blocks away. I realized it was a tree. I'd seen tornados before but never one that dropped out of the sky just a few blocks from my house and it struck me as funny that small tornados are clear until they pick up some debris. My neighbor was running around in his yard like one of the Three Stooges yelling at me "what do I do?" (he was a Yankee experiencing his first tornado and pretty freaked out). I looked at the tornado and watched it pick up more debris and some color at this point and it was wobbling like a spinning top running out of steam and not really moving in any direction. It suddenly appeared to start moving straight toward us and at that point I joined my neighbor in his Three Stooges imitation. I gathered myself enough to yell at him to get into an inside closet in his house and ran inside my own and grabbed my wife, daughter, and two dogs and crammed into the farthest closet from the storm in my house. A tornado going by your house does sound like a freight train by the way. We heard it go by and waited about a minute and then I left everyone in the closet and I got out and went back outside.

Unfortunately I was so freaked out left my video camera sitting next to the front door. I went outside and watched the tornado bounce down about 2 blocks east on my street toward downtown. It ripped a roof off a house and then the tornado picked itself up and then hopped over about a block onto W7th and kept going east bouncing here and there as it went. I lived on top of a hill and I could see it going almost all the way into downtown. This tornado dispelled the myth that they don't hit major urban centers. I went back inside and our power had already gone out so I dug out my portable TV. My wife and I were horrified to find out that the tornado had struck my daughter's child care at Calvary and it truly was a miracle that it struck about 6:30ish PM after everyone had picked all the kids up. The whole church and child care took a direct hit and when I drove by a few days later it looked like ground zero. It was completely destroyed. We were without power for about a week as our neighborhood in Monticello took a pretty good but random hit. I remember hearing the helicopters flying overhead and all the utility trucks in the neighborhood day and night. It was as close as I have ever been to being inside a disaster zone.

 

[LVfrog]

I was going with my daughter over to my mothers' house and thinking the green sky looked ominous.

BTW, my som goes to school by the Midtown church. Good school and Pastor Bob is a very nice guy. The school has a great atmosphere.

 

[Dr. Coach Haus]

In Pennsylvania, wishing I was back in Texas

 

[maximilian]

6th grader in Richardson. Watched the footage on NBC 5.

 

[weklfrog]

The tornado saved my butt on a speeding ticket. Had been stopped going north on McCart one afternoon in a 35pmh zone. Looked at my speedometer when I saw the cop and I was in the low 40's so I thought I was borderline. He pulled me over anyway and told me he clocked my at 63 which was way way off. Couldn't take defensive driving to get out of it without court permission and figured Jim Mallory would likely get me probation which means that any other ticket in the next six months would bring that one right back. Decided to go to court to argue my case as an innocent man but had no idea how.

Court date was set for about March 30 but then was postponed due to damage downtown from the tornado. Finally went a month or so later and still had no idea about strategy. [Craig James]'t prosecutor came over and offered me six months probation, defensive driving school and around $200 court costs. Would have accepted the offer if it would have been three months probation but six months was too long to worry about getting stopped again so I turned the offer down. After about two people were called before the judge, he calls out my name and says the case is dismissed and I am free to go. Guess the cop didn't show up. He probably would have showed up on the first scheduled date.

 

[BABYFACE]

Inside at the bar at Blue Mesa on University Dr drinking margaritas with the future Mrs. Babyface like there was no tommorow. We noticed the tornado coverage on the TV in the bar and they start showing DT FTW. We all of sudden turned around from the bar and looked outside the windows facing towards DT, looking in disbelief that we were oblivious to this storm that just happened about 2 miles from us. The bartender said he didn't want to disturb us when the sirens went off since it appeared we were you having a good time.

 

[82Frog]

I was at work at KTVT, channel 11. We were in the 6pm newscast I believe and I was in the control room. I do graphics for the news dept there. Anyway, someone came into the control room and said there was a tornado on the ground at Summit and Lancaster. Now most of the people in the control room were from some other part of the country and were not from Fort Worth. I was and I knew exactly where it was and told them that's downtown. We stayed on the air until well after 10pm that night.

 

[Zammers]

I was at the safest place possible................Bellaire Apartments :wacko:

 

[hometown frog]

Bobs Shooter Palace teaching my (now) wife how to shoot a pistol. Her first shot and the lights went out. Owners freak out, kicked us out of the solid haydot (sp?) block building, onto Lancaster and Hemphill to fend for ourselves. Put the Jeep at about 90 coming down Hemphill trying to get south of downtown as we could see the debris cloud and "shrapnel" coming down around us. Made it back around campus just in time to see the tv video of W 7th destruction.

One of the most vivid memories afterwards was going to a wedding reception at the YWCA bldg downtown later that month and seeing the wood splinters piercing the brick facade like it was made of sponge

 

[Frognosticator]

I was downtown!! We we watching the news before class and I says to myself, I says, "dang, isn't that tornado kinda close to here?"

Midway through Torts, all the students on the first floor were taken down to the basement. When we got out of class later that night, it looked like a bomb had hit the parking lot.

 

[Delmonico]

I left the Tandy Center about 10 minutes before the tornado took out the windows in my boss' office right across the hall from me. Went to 24 Hr Fitness in S. Arlington....where I watched the tornado go by from the parking lot and touch down about a mile away.

 

[2314@work]

I left the Tandy Center about 10 minutes before the tornado took out the windows in my boss' office right across the hall from me. Went to 24 Hr Fitness in S. Arlington....where I watched the tornado go by from the parking lot and touch down about a mile away.

Almost got you twice.
I was in Graham and had just got back home from the office and saw a news break on a D/FW channel (Graham gets D/FW and WF stations) about the tornado. At the time my parents lived in White Lake Hills, just a 5-mile drive from downtown FW (in Channel 11's neighborhood). Of course, I called right away, but no phone service. Was kind of frightened until further reports showed the path of the tornado (as described by Shack's above post) and felt a little better. Didn't feel totally releived until about 10 p.m. when phone service (ground line) was restored and I finally talked to my folks.

 

[jeremyjack22]

Was in Sex Ed class in the basement of the Rickell. We had no idea what was going on and were probably in one of the safest spot on campus. Surreal to walk out and see the green color of the sky after class.

 

[2314@work]

I was downtown!! We we watching the news before class and I says to myself, I says, "dang, isn't that tornado kinda close to here?"

Midway through Torts, all the students on the first floor were taken down to the basement. When we got out of class later that night, it looked like a bomb had hit the parking lot.

Class in downtown FW? TCJC? Or TWU law school?

 

[InterestedObserver]

Had an office in the mid-cities at that time. Was driving home and heard on the radio that a hail storm was moving across Fort Worth. I could see the green-colored cloud on the west side of town. I had a new car and didn't want hail damage, so I decide to go downtown and get in a parking garage.

Went to the Fort Worth Club to work out, which is men-only. Suddenly there are alot of women walking around in the athletic center because they are evacuating the building into the basement (where the athletic center is). Being the genius that I am, I don't believe the reports and take the stairs up to the ground floor. As I look out onto 7th Street, I see pieces of buildings go flying by. Needless to say, I rushed back downstairs.

I lived on the westside at the time, a few blocks from where the tornado had passed. I kept calling my house waiting for the answering machine to pickup to determine if I had electricty while sitting on the 11th floor of the FWC looking out the broken windows at all the wreckage downtown. When my answering machine finally picked up, I decided to drive home.

That drive home will stick out in my mind forever. Downtown was on complete lockdown, but the police let me drive out of there and down 7th Street back to my house. It truly looked like a war scene. The crunch of glass under my tires was one of the stranger parts of the ordeal. There was no damage at my house so I spent the entire night helping friends clean up their houses and keeping watch over possible looters.

Hard to believe that was 11 years ago.

 

[82Frog]

I believe it actually first touched down in the Monticello area near Greenwood Cemetery. It downed several large trees there. Then it passed over the large intersection at 7th and University where you can still see the twisted steel beams of a billboard sign that still stand in the north part of the intersection there. Traveling further east it touched down just east of the Montgomery Wards building. From there it went on into downtown.

 

[Johnnyhornedfrog]

I was driving on White Settlement Road, listening to music. I concluded later that it must have bounced right over my head on its way to Montgomery Ward.

 

[Frognosticator]

Class in downtown FW? TCJC? Or TWU law school?

TWU law school.

 

[corpuschristifrog]

I was in Ft Worth a lot that year because Mom was not doing well. About 2 I headed downtown to file something at the courthouse. Drove down University past Dad's former office near the 7th intersection, then took 7th downtown. Many changes since my days in town. Drove back the same way then went to visit Mom at assisted living on Bryant Irvin. We looked out the window at the storm coming in and she wanted me to check out her house in Wedgwood. Got there just in time to see the tornado live on tv as others have mentioned. I will never forget the sky and the color that afternoon, only saw it once before and that was during a bike ride home from Wedgwood Jr. that was curtailed by the worst hail storm I can remember. It was a strange day for me to travel old familiar streets and areas that had changed so and see them wiped out a couple hours later.