Home Depot employees who lost their store on Forest Lane when a tornado hit Sunday were out helping others this week.
The store’s staff of 160 had a lot to be thankful for.
Assistant store manager Jordan Jasper decided to send employees home early Sunday night, probably saving their lives. A tornado ripped through the roof and left the store a total loss, except for the U.S. flag and a display pergola off to the side.
This store, which is just east of North Central Expressway in Dallas, normally closed at 8 p.m. Sundays, and employees stay until 9 or 9:15 p.m.
But storm alerts started coming quickly on Jasper’s Galaxy 9 phone Sunday. “I usually just swipe left," he said.
A few employees who live in Lancaster and in Dallas near Wheatland Road had a long drive ahead of them, he said.
It wasn’t closing time, and there were a few customers still in the store. Jasper and eight other workers spread through the aisles to help them finish their shopping. After everyone was out, Jasper says he remembers that when he set the store alarm, the clock read 8:42 p.m. Everyone made it home safely, including Jasper, who was worried about his wife and three children, ages 5 and younger.
“I didn’t jump in front of a car or anything,” said Jasper, who’s 31. “I just told our associates to go home early so they wouldn’t be caught up in the bad weather.”
On Monday, the regional office requested the flag that had made it through the storm. It’s Home Depot tradition for memorabilia to be forwarded to the home office museum in Atlanta to be displayed.
Jasper, store manager Jonathan Shields and employee A.J. Kobena replaced it with a new one.
At the same time, 160 employees needed direction. Jasper’s phone had lots of their contact info and he started using it, exchanging 13,000 text messages since Sunday night alone.
“We didn’t want people to miss work. We know they need those hours, and it’s good to get back into a routine instead of sitting around feeling sad,” he said.
Employees were told to report to three other stores. There, they were told they could keep the same jobs and the same schedules at those locations or at a store closer to where they live.
By Thursday, the Forest Lane associates were assigned and could begin another Home Depot tradition.
Jasper was among the wave of orange shirts that descended on the neighborhoods along Marsh Lane and Walnut Hill on Thursday. About 300 employees from the damaged Dallas store, surrounding stores and the district office volunteered to clean up debris and trees along streets and in yards.
But first, they all gathered Thursday morning at the site of the damaged store. About 500 Home Depot employees were there to hear their district and regional managers talk about their loss. Then there was one thing left to do.
Jasper, an eight-year employee of the company, was called to the front. He was honored with the flag that he thought was heading to Atlanta.
“Tears, tears, I was crying,” he said. “It was emotional for me. I’d been running around taking care of our associates, trying to be my manager’s right-hand man and get our kindergartner off to school. Here I was standing in front of 500 associates.”
Employees are planning to volunteer again, maybe this time doing home repairs, said Evan Schroer, manager of the Home Depot in Irving, who also serves as the local captain for the Home Depot Foundation.
“Anytime something like this happens, Home Depot likes to give back to the community,” he said.
A store in Joplin, Mo., was the last total loss for Home Depot due to weather. That 2011 tornado took 161 lives. Seven people died in the store, including one Home Depot employee.
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