After the TORNADO

This photo was taken the afternoon soon after the Tornado.

During tornado season the HARC/RACES crew in Hurst stays a little nervous. There was one particular day that proved to be disastrous for one of our neighboring cities. Wichita Falls was hit by a Class 4 tornado.
I really can’t remember how we got the call, but we were informed that their two meter repeater had been knocked out by loss of electricity.
Knowing that their primary source of communications in an emergency was going to be our active Hurst RACES members, Jack Pickle and I set out for that city intending to re-establish the electric supply of their repeater.
I had my motor home set up as a portable EOC and we fired up all the radios and headed north.
As we approached the city we knew what we saw was worse than you could imagine. I remember that we saw six eighteen wheelers lying on their right sides, all in a line. We crossed the tornado’s path.
This perfectly reinforced the teaching that you should never stay in a car in a tornado, trying to ride the tornado out. Get out and lay down in a ditch!
We went to the National Guard camp and borrowed a portable generator and stayed on the site for two days. Somehow the repeater staid on the air.
We learned just how much destruction a tornado can cause.
Randy Foster