Dallas Tornado Damage

I suppose everyone has heard about our tornado outbreak on Tuesday. They aren't through doing the surveys yet, but currently is looks to have been 5 separate tornados ranging from EF2 to EF3 in strength that spawned over the metroplex during the 2 or 3 hour ordeal. Hundreds and hundreds of homes have been damaged, with several hundred completely destroyed. We had no damage at all at our house. Just a couple of inches of rain and a little hail. We were lucky, this time. If you live in an area that doesn't have tornados, and think they are just "high winds", that doesn't even begin to cover it....

Tornados are giant meat grinders.

That's what's left of the house of someone I know who lives in Forney, Texas, a suburb on the east side of Dallas. He works in Richardson, and was at work when the twisters came through. His Daughter and her Boyfriend were at the house when this happened, though. Surprisingly, they escaped injury in spite of the destruction of the house. They even managed to hang on to all of their pets.

The tornado cell that did this, passed just to the east the town where I live. The tornado cell that spawned some of the other twisters passed just to the west of my home - directly over the town where I work. My house/town threaded the needle and missed the destruction. We got really friggin' lucky.

FEMA has plans available for a variety of "safe rooms" that can be built both within someone's house as well as outdoors. I'm seriously considering building one of these before next tornado season. Tarrant County, which lies just to the southwest of here, has had more tornados on the ground in the past decade than any other county in the US.

Lots of destruction like this all over Lancaster, Arlington, Forney, and elsewhere in the DFW Metroplex. No deaths, and a surprisingly small number of injuries. The Red Cross could use your help, though, if you have the ability. You can text REDCROSS to 90999 and dontate $10 via your cell phone bill should you wish to.