Buildings fall, lives spared
Southeast Fort Worth
residents shaken, but thankful to be alive
By Brandon Ortiz
Staff Reporter

The sheet metal roof of James Wilborn’s bait and tackle shop is gone. The air conditioner that once stood atop the building lays in the swampy field behind the bait shop. Glass is shattered and the heavy door is unhinged.

Wilborn, 59, began cleaning up the mess left by Tuesday’s tornado as blackish-green clouds moved away in the distance.

Wilborn and a co-worker loaded fishing poles into a truck at his damaged store on 2631 E. Loop 820 near Ramey Avenue in southeast Fort Worth. They were a few of the thousands who survived the tornado that swept through the surrounding area late Tuesday afternoon.

Fort Worth police said three people were injured with minor cuts and bruises. Though the roofs of houses were ripped off and large signs were uprooted, police said no one died.

Wilborn and two co-workers were boxing worms when they heard a loud noise. James Foreman, who works for Wilborn, tried to look outside.

He couldn’t open the door.

“It felt like a vacuum,” said Foreman, 29.

Then it happened.

“There was brick falling everywhere,” Wilborn said. “I tell you what, you talk about praying and begging, that’s exactly what I was doing. I kept looking up and seeing parts of the roof and big bricks fly by.”

Wilborn and Foreman and his girlfriend hid in the back corner of the building for the remainder of the storm.

Less than 20 yards from where they huddled together and prayed for their lives, the tornado knocked over a concrete building.

“God was looking out for us,” Wilborn said.

The storms left a swath of destruction in the Fort Worth neighborhood. Parts of roofs laid in the streets. Trees and power lines slouched over. The living rooms of homes were caved in.

Hundreds of people stood in the streets with blank stares. Some cried. A family hugged in their front yard.

A woman runs past the house.

“I’ve got to find my mom,” she says.

Another woman, 77-year old Eliza Cook, stands outside of the home she has owned since 1957 on the corner of Ramey, her eyes red.

Inside, broken glass and the shredded foam padding of her sofas blanket the carpet. A relative tries in vain to sweep glass off a couch with a pillow. The sun shines into her bathroom through the hole the tornado left in her roof.

When she realized the tornado was coming, Cook said she jumped on top of her bed and covered herself with the comforter. It is covered in glass but she only had a minor cut on her foot.

“I was just lying here, ducking and dodging and praying,” Cook said, pointing to her bed as sunlight crept through her shattered window.

Cook said she wasn’t sure if she had insurance to help rebuild the home she has owned for more than 40 years.

“I haven’t even thought of that yet,” she said.

Near the bait shop, a stray dog stands in front of the Fast N Go, its head down and tail between its legs.

Tommy Dao, 30, and his wife, hid behind the counter of their convenience store as the tornado swept through. He said wind picked up debris and threw it about the store, but he did not receive a single scratch. Glass beer bottles were stored in a refrigerator only a few feet from where he hid. The bottles didn’t move.

“We were afraid for our life,” Dao said. “It was terrifying.”

Wilborn stands and looks at his store with his hands on his waist.

The sun shines on his back as he faces the storm clouds that destroyed so much.

Brandon Ortiz
b.p.ortiz@student.tcu.edu

credits

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