PHOTOS: Fort Worth tornado in 2000 that devastated West 7th, downtown & Arlington
Matt Leclercq
It was just after 6 p.m. on a Tuesday — March 28, 2000 — when the darkened storm clouds started to rotate over River Oaks and west Fort Worth.
A nasty F2 tornado touched the ground along the largely industrial West Seventh Street corridor, pulverizing brick factories and warehouses before hopping the Trinity River and battering downtown skyscrapers. Shards of glass rained down on sidewalks below as people leaving work ran for their lives.
The lead story in the next day’s Star-Telegram:
“A rampaging tornado, the first deadly twister in the city’s history, blasted downtown Fort Worth yesterday evening, killing two people, injuring dozens and shattering skyscraper windows.”
A second tornado hit south Arlington neighborhoods about 30 minutes later, leveling six homes and damaging as many as 100 others.
The front page of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on March 29, 2000, the day after deadly tornadoes hit Fort Worth and Arlington.
The overwhelming extent of damage wasn’t clear until sunrise the next morning. Cars and trucks tossed and crushed. A church steeple stripped of its brickwork down to the steel beams. Homes and businesses reduced to splintered, crumbled heaps.
One man was hit by a softball-size hailstone that shattered his skull.
These photos were taken by the Star-Telegram the night of the tornado and in the days to follow. Read more here about how the 2000 tornado changed Fort Worth forever.
It’s been 16 years since a tornado struck downtown Fort Worth on March 28, 2000.
Cars were tumbled in debris outside the Cash America building on West Seventh Street in Fort Worth on the day after the March 28, 2000, tornado.
A tornado on March 28, 2000, overturned car near the heavily damaged Calvary Cathedral International at 1600 W. Fifth St. on the east side of Trinity River. Two women who were in the prayer tower were untouched by the 100-mph winds that ripped away the tower’s walls. Today the site is The Braden on Fifth apartment building.
Damon Geer retrieves his stuff from his ’99 Ford F150 truck that was parked behind Metric Motors on Stayton Street just east on Montgomery Ward off West Seventh Street. The wall of Metric Motors collapsed onto his truck while he was ins the Scoreboard Bar under a pool table when a tornado hit on March 28, 2000.
Firefighters survey destruction of the Color Wheel paint store along West Seventh Street in Fort Worth after a tornado struck on March 28, 2000.
Employees of The Sweet Shop candy factory inspect the wreckage the day after a tornado on March 28, 2000, in Fort Worth. The F2 twister crushed homes in the Linwood neighborhood and pummeled a warehouse behind the Montgomery Ward building along West Seventh Street before hitting Sweet Shop and crossing Trinity River toward downtown. Today, the Sweet Shop site is the Left Bank next to Tom Thumb.
The Bank One tower shows damage the day after a tornado hit Fort Worth on March 28, 2000. Years later, the restored building would become The Tower condominiums.
A Fort Worth street sweeper picks up broken glass downtown following the March 2000 tornado. The City Council has approved “standby” contracts for natural disasters.
Jill Love of North Dallas helps carry debris from her parents’ home at 201 Manor Way in South Arlington after a tornado on March 28, 2000.
U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, with her district director Barbara A. Ragland, makes calls outside the Cash America International building where she had an office. A tornado on March 28, 2000, heavily damaged the building at 1600 W. Seventh St. near the Trinity River bridge. The building was later renovated and today is home to FirstCash.
A stuffed animal amid debris strewn along Mercedes Street in Fort Worth after a tornado on March 28, 2000.
A large garbage bin is wedged between a station wagon and the roof of a parking garage at West Weatherford and Lexington streets, a block west of Henderson Street, after a tornado struck Fort Worth on March 28, 2000.
Jason Jones helps a friend move furniture out of a destroyed home in the Linwood neighborhood of Fort Worth on March 30, 2000, two days after a tornado.
Neighbors and employees of Al’s Trim shop, near University and 7th streets, marvel at the damage caused by a tornado the day before on March 28, 2000.
Photos of Mallick Tower after a tornado swept through downtown Fort Worth on March 28, 2000.
The March 28, 2000, tornado cut through houses in the Linwood neighborhood between Mercedes and Merrimac streets on its way to the Montgomery Ward building.
Large trucks were tossed in the March 28, 2000 tornado at the Montgomery Ward loading docks. The loading docks and warehouse were torn down to make room for Super Target and other retail shops at what is now Montgomery Plaza. l
The March 28, 2000 tornado moved roughly along the north side of West 7th Street from the old Montgomery Ward building (now Montgomery Plaza) into downtown Fort Worth.
Damage on West Seventh Street in Fort Worth after a tornado hit the city on March 28, 2000.
Cash America International sits behind the Calvary Cathedral on March 29, 2000.
Dennis Wicks, owner and operator of the Color Wheel paint store at 3232 W. 7th St., looks over the damage to his store two days after a March 28, 2000, tornado. The site today is a block-long, four-story development that includes World of Beer.
The Bank One Tower, in the foreground looking west, was heavily damaged by the March 28, 2000, tornado. It was rehabilitated and is now The Tower condominiums. In the background are the Cash America International and Calvary Cathedral buildings, and at lower right, Firestone apartments.
Overhead view of the Bank One tower on March 29, 2000.
An office of the McDonald, Clay, Crow,& McGartland Law firm on the 14th floor of the Bank One tower shows the broken out glass and blinds of the windows to the office. Out the window you can see the Cash America Building and the Mallick Tower. which were also damaged in the March 28, 2000 tornado.
A 7th floor office inside the Bank One building the night the tornado hit on March 28, 2000 in downtown Fort Worth
The tornado ravaged a southeast Arlington neighborhood near Bardin and Matlock roads about 7 p.m. Several retail businesses and a gas station were heavily damaged, roofs were ripped off and buildings were flattened, the Star-Telegram reported the next day.
“It just felt like the oxygen got sucked out of the house and you could hear glass breaking and stuff flying around,” said J.D. Walker, who with his wife and 3-year-old twins, covered themselves with a mattress as winds swept through their neighborhood in the 300 block of Chasemore Lane, just south of Interstate 20.
These Arlington homes on West Embercrest Drive, a block west of Matlock Road, appeared to be the first to be hit by a tornado on March 28, 2000.
View of Arlington damage, showing Chasemore Lane with Bardin Road in the background. Streets shown are include Manor View.
A woman hugs a child while speaking on the phone in front of their house in South Arlington after the March 28, 2000, tornado.
This home in Grand Prairie, on Parkside Drive, had the roof completely sucked off by a tornado on March 28, 2000.
A tornado on March 28, 2000, destroyed this home on Manor Way in Arlington, including a garage that housed George Peneguy’s 1995 Corvette.
