Tornado that tore through Arlington left dozens of families homeless

Turkey dinner was the furthest thing from the minds of the dozens of families displaced after a tornado tore through Arlington late Tuesday, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have something to be thankful for.

Although three people were taken to hospitals, no deaths or serious injuries were reported.

The tornado spun up near State Highway 303 and Center Street just before 9 p.m. Tuesday as a line of storms swept through North Texas.

After surveying storm damage Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service confirmed an EF2 tornado, with winds up to 115 mph, was on the ground from 8:51 to 8:58 p.m. The tornado’s 150-yard-wide path extended a little more than five miles.

Though the twister was short-lived, it didn’t take long to wreck homes and businesses.

Seven buildings sustained serious damage in the storm, according to the Arlington Fire Department. The list included three apartment complexes — Waterdance Apartments, The Mirage Apartments and Garden Park Apartments — two commercial buildings, a church and a house.

The American Red Cross DFW said Wednesday evening that it was helping about 25 displaced families with meals and lodging. The residents of more than 80 apartments have been left homeless, and a leasing company helped many of them find somewhere to stay, according to the Red Cross.

Volunteers began working with apartment and city officials Tuesday night to help provide aid, including food and health care services, the Red Cross said in a written statement.

‘All this can be replaced’

At Waterdance Apartments, at least two buildings had their roofs torn off. Other buildings were missing roof tiles, and tree branches were scattered across the complex.

By 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, the damaged buildings had been taped off for authorities to survey the damage.

Alan Garcia, 24, dropped by the complex to take photos of his taped-off building. Garcia was inside his second-floor apartment with his girlfriend and her family last night when the tornado came through.

At first, Garcia thought the storm was just wind and rain, but then his building took a direct hit from the tornado.

“All of a sudden, the walls started shaking, and you just hear the rip of the roof,” he said.

Garcia said he grabbed his 3-year-old daughter and ran to the bathroom with the others to take cover. After the tornado passed, he walked out of the bathroom and found the apartment wet and his belongings scattered, he said.

Garcia said his car, which he had just paid off, was buried under the rubble from the roof.

“That hits me really hard,” he said. “I worked hard for that car and for all my stuff.”

Everyone in the building was told to evacuate after the tornado passed, Garcia said. He stayed at the home of his girlfriend’s mother for the night, but he’s not sure how long he has before he’ll need to find a new place.

“We all walked out alive, and all this can be replaced,” he said. “But it just sucks to have to start over again.”

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Across Arkansas Lane from Waterdance Apartments on Stonehenge Drive, several single-family homes were also battered by the tornado.

Jeffrey Frank, 33, was in his living room when he first heard the gusts, which he described as “a high-pitched, whistling noise that kept getting louder.”

After peering out his window and seeing swaying trees, he took cover in his kitchen. Moments later, one of those trees fell through his garage, with several of its branches crashing into the living room.

Neither Frank nor his roommate were injured. The house, which Frank bought about six weeks ago, will need repairs, but he said insurance will cover them.

“These are all my moving boxes right here,” Frank said, pointing to several empty containers on the floor of his garage, all coated with debris. “We had just finished getting everything unboxed.”

Late warnings

A sleepless David Crabtree looked around the Waterdance Apartments in disbelief early Wednesday. His apartment had not sustained any damage, but he said a tree that fell outside his apartment was only a few feet from trapping him inside — or worse.

“I just wish 2020 would hurry up. I want it over,” Crabtree said as he watched workers clearing debris and displaced families packing up some belongings. “This year has been so wrong.”

Crabtree said he was finishing up a Zoom call about 9 p.m. Tuesday when he heard a sudden loud noise.

“I had just barely said, ‘See you next week,’ and then kaboom,” Crabtree recalled. “I jumped out of my skin.”

The noise came from a tree that had snapped and fallen a few feet from his front door.

Crabtree said he hadn’t gotten any notifications about the tornado on his phone until after the storm had passed his apartment.

That’s because the tornado warning was issued at 8:59 p.m. — just as the tornado was dissipating.

The National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm warning at 8:56 p.m., followed by the tornado warning for portions of Arlington through Dallas based on weather radars that showed the storm was rotating and intensifying.

“A lot of these circulations are very hard to detect with enough lead time,” said Eric Martello, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth. “These things tend to develop quickly and these tend to dissipate quickly.”

As the storm tracked west toward Dallas, it weakened, and the weather service was able to cancel the tornado warning.

‘Imagine if this happened during the day’

As the sun was setting on Wednesday, business owners were furiously packing up their belongings around Economy Business Park and 1229 Colorado Lane — two properties owned and leased by American Synergy Management. Located on Colorado Lane, the commercial areas are home to more than a dozen small businesses, most of them auto repair and furniture shops.

The tornado ripped through the area Tuesday night, demolishing a few of the warehouse units entirely, while tearing roofs and doors off of several others.

Amar Fatah, 36, runs his upholstery shop, Saad Upholstery, from one of the units with his brother. Fatah was at home in South Arlington on Tuesday night when the tornado took the roof off his shop.

“That happened in a few minutes,” he said, looking over the damage to his shop.

As he and his employees loaded their shop into a U-Haul truck the following evening, Fatah said he wasn’t sure where they would set up shop next, but he couldn’t put work on hold while his rental space was repaired.

Nearby, Joanna Ulloa has run her auto repair shop, Ulloa Monster Place, from a nearby unit since 2015. On Tuesday night, she waited out the tornado inside her shop as debris fell around her.

“They’re expecting us to pay rent on the first of December,” Ulloa said of her landlord.

So, Fatah and Ulloa are packing up shop and looking for another place to help their customers.

At least it all happened at night, Fatah said.

“Imagine if this has happened during the day,” he said. “Every time I come here, I cannot even find a place to park.”

Staff writer Catherine Marfin contributed to this report.