Little did I know when I left for work yesterday morning, what storm was brewing north west of Dallas. I knew we would get rain and thunderstorm but as soon as I parked my car outside the station I heard the severe weather warning in the community speakers. I didn’t even know Forney had that kind of system. But I realized that this weather may be worse than anyone anticipated. And it didn’t take long until I got that confirmed.
Me and my partner was standing outside looking at the sky when the temperature suddenly dropped significantly. We looked at each other and concluded that this was not a good sign. We decided to go inside when the wind picked up and the rain started. And it didn’t take long until the power went out and the massive generators we have kicked on. The rain was hitting the windows and the walls pretty bad. Water came in through cracks and under doors. We had to run around covering computers and putting trash cans out for the water that came through the sealing. Suddenly a loud boom… that was the garage bay door falling in on a truck in the garage!

This is actually my new truck that we hope to get in service at the end of the week. Thankfully it didn’t seem like it was any damages on it… the bay door… that’s worse…

The storm lasted for a good 45 minutes to an hour. We all hunkered down in our dispatch so we were somewhat at the same place. Then we took loops in the building making sure no actions needed to be taken. There was a window in the conference room that was about to break as it wasn’t sealed appropriately. To everyone’s surprise, it actually held up!
We heard that the station in Balch Springs lost power so we had problems reaching them. Powerlines and trees down started to be reported. One of our trucks had to stay at the hospital in Rowlett for a while before going back to Forney and they had to take several detours to get back.

Me and my partner started getting calls to respond to. People hunkering down in their bathroom and couldn’t get up… lesson learned ma’am, sit on the toilet, that will be fine! Thankfully Terrell PD had been able to get there before us and helped her up.
There was trees down everywhere, powerlines down, and privacy fences! It was trash tuesday in Terrell as well and that had flown all over the place in one neighborhood. Roofs and signs were also removed from where they should be. It was a complete mess!

We were sent to a traffic accident in Mesquite but never even made it there due to trees being down. We had to take a long detour to make it there but one of our SUV’s were able to get to them faster and they were okay.

Needless to say, it was a huge challenge. Kaufman County declared emergency so we could at least get one more truck up and running which helped with the workload.

During all this, to my surprise, I never lost power at my house. I was a little worried as I had left my back door open for the dogs. But when I checked on them in the cameras they were snuggling on the bed with no worries about what the weather did. I was so grateful for that.
Late in the afternoon I found out that the neighbor to the farm where my horses are had checked on their buildings and they were okay. From that report I could figure out that the girls were doing okay as well. So I knew my animals were good and no damage to deal with thankfully.

When I got home this morning, I got a message from a reporter with USA Today. He wanted to ask me how I experienced the storm yesterday. He had found my page on Facebook. So I spent almost an hour with him on the phone. No clue what will come out of that, if anything. But it was fun…

So very grateful that nothing was damaged and we all are okay here. It’s supposed to rain at some point today as well but so far the sun is shining.