Aids Tornado Relief

On Tuesday, March 28, 2000, the clouds gathered at sundown, and two square miles of downtown Fort Worth, Texas, changed instantly from a glittering business district to twisted rubble. Welcome to spring weather in North Central Texas.

The storms continued eastbound and cut a path through residential areas in Arlington and Grand Prairie, Texas, two of the suburban cities between Fort Worth and Dallas. At least 100 homes were destroyed in those two communities, and more than 30,000 in the three affected cities were left without power. Then the skies lifted, sparing Dallas, leaving the area with only heavy rain.

For all practical purposes, Fort Worth remained closed through the weekend following the destruction of eight commercial buildings and severe damage to 52 others. Some caught in the high-rise office towers that Tuesday night were unable to escape for hours. The danger was not from the weather, but from falling glass 10 to 20 floors up the sides of buildings. News photos showed automobiles with their roofs sheared open by jagged sheets of plate glass weighing 200 pounds or more.

Five people were killed, two when floodwaters swept their automobiles into the Trinity River, and more than 100 were injured. Preliminary estimates put the damage toll at $450 million from property damage alone. Anita Foster, a spokesperson for the Red Cross in Fort Worth, says that more than 1,500 homes were damaged.

By late evening, the American Red Cross opened four shelters for people driven from their homes. The following day, emergency crews began clearing the rubble and trying to eliminate the danger from falling glass. In the cleanup, a plaque from the wall of Fort Worth City Councilwoman Kay Granger was found 50 miles away in Dallas.

Businesses throughout the area responded to calls for assistance. W & B Service Company, the Dallas-based Carrier Transicold refrigeration dealer, provided two daily rental refrigerated trailers from its Fort Worth branch for food storage at the Red Cross command center that was set up just south of downtown Fort Worth. Lisa Motor lines, a subsidiary of Frozen Food Express Industries as is W & B, provided tractors to move the trailers to the command center.

Wal-Mart also supplied trailers for dry food storage. Albertson's donated a large supply of bottled water, and Nabisco provided food.

"As soon as the Red Cross had their command center established, we called to offer whatever assistance we could," says John Chisolm, president of W & B. "We've been active in these communities for 52 years; our employees live here, and we have a duty to help when we can."

The Red Cross has had 430 workers in Fort Worth from its national disaster relief teams as well as 275 local volunteers. The group prepared more than 10,000 meals in the week following the storm. The main shelter set up in

Will Rogers Coliseum remained open for four days. W & B Service Company, the Dallas-based Carrier Transicold dealer, donated the use of two refrigerated trailers to the Red Cross command center in Fort Worth for food storage during the relief and cleanup effort. The trailers were moved to the command center from the W & B Fort Worth branch by Lisa Motor Lines, a subsidiary of Frozen Food Express Industries as is W & B. Lisa is based in Fort Worth and managed by Russell Stubbs.

The March 28 tornado in Fort Worth TX severely damaged 52 commercial buildings in the city's downtown business district and destroyed eight others. Although many of the buildings appear to be a complete loss, city officials say that most of the damaged property can be repaired. Downtown Fort Worth remained a danger area for more than a week as glass continued to fall from high-rise buildings.