Downtown Fort Worth Devastated, 4 Dead More Than 100 Injured 03/29/00

FORT WORTH - With dawns first light residents and rescue workers in Fort Worth are getting a true picture of the devastation from last night deadly storms.

Two tornadoes tore through downtown, tearing walls from buildings, tossing cars like toys and shattering glass. As it stands, four people are confirmed dead from the storms. Two killed from a building collapse and two died in a car swept away by high water in the flash flood that followed the tornado.

The storm injured more than 100 people, and right now about 7,500 people are still without power in Fort Worth and Arlington. Initially, 30,000 people were without power but TXU crews have been working through the night to restore power.

The central business district in downtown Fort Worth is closed today. People who work in the area are being urged to stay home. The twisters shattered thousands of windows in dozens of office towers, sending glass and debris crashing into the streets and leaving many buildings structurally weakened.

Today rescuers are continuing their floor-by-floor damage assessment of buildings in the downtown area. Local officials are being assisted by a team of 100 specialists from the Texas Urban Search Rescue Team, a group the Texas Legislature created after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing to respond to catastrophes.

“Our biggest concern is getting the glass out of these tall buildings. That stuff, if it starts falling and we get winds here, it becomes flying objects, and experts tell us they could fly for several blocks. So we’ve got to keep people out of here and not have people in danger,” Svacina said.

Two people died in the tornado itself, said Lt. Kent Worley, a spokesman for the Fort Worth Fire Department. One person was crushed inside a collapsed industrial building, and another was hit by flying debris. Their names are not available.

Strong winds blew two other people from their car into the Trinity River. Their bodies had not been found, Worley said, and a search and rescue team was expected to resume searching at daybreak.
Based on reports from tornado spotters, Fire Chief Larry McMillen said the storm spawned two tornadoes. One took a northerly route, while the second moved southeast through the downtown area. The storm arced in an east-southeasterly direction into Arlington and Grand Prairie, he said.