Above: Bank One Tower (now “The Tower”) in the foreground and 777 Main in the background with severe window and interior damage. Bank One narrowly escaped being condemned and subsequently demolished but was later converted into the gleaming blue condominiums we know today. It remains the tallest residential building in the city at 488ft.

Less than 10 minutes later, the adrenaline spiking, ear splitting wail from downtown’s warning sirens echoed across the city. This was not a drill. A tornado was on the ground and tracking directly towards the dense urban core of one of the largest cities in the country. Moments later, the violent tornado barreled through the West 7th Street area, crossed the Trinity River, and then shredded the Central Business District. Left is a picture from the Fort Worth Star Telegram of the tornado right around when it was at its most destructive.

In the above picture, the towers of First United Methodist Church can be seen on the left. Center, with the massive, 250-yard-wide funnel looming over it, the Cash America building is taking a direct hit which would result in some of the most prominent severe damage from the tornado’s rampage. The structure had every one of its windows blown out allowing wind and rain to wreak havoc on the building’s interior

The Cash America building was not alone. Practically every skyscraper in downtown had its glass façade shattered by the shear force of the winds or by flying debris, causing shards to blanket the streets below.

After only a few minutes of ravaging the city, an eerie silence descended across the land as the tornado dissipated around 6:30pm leaving 2 fatalities and $450 million in property damage in its wake. Parts of downtown were closed for over a week while damage was repaired and the streets made safe again.

There were no direct anemometer measurements of the tornado’s windspeeds, so damage surveys and calculations had to be performed to ascertain them. Highlighting the importance of engineers in forensic damage analysis, a team of Engineers from the Wind Science and Engineering Program at Texas Tech University conducted a tour of the damage path and with guidelines found in ASCE 7-98, Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures, they calculated the maximum wind speeds at around 100mph. The tornado was officially declared an F-3 on the damage-based Fujita Scale (The Enhanced Fujita Scale in use today had not been implemented yet).
There is no doubt that thousands of Fort Worth locals gained a greater respect for the raw power of nature that day. Right around 24 years on from this event, the scars on the city have long since healed but this event serves as a reminder that anything can happen!