A Texas fire chief said training and relationships helped emergency crews respond to a tornado that damaged over 1,000 structures in his community the day after Christmas.
The deadly EF4 tornado ripped through Garland before moving northwest to Rowlett. It was on the ground for more than three miles with about half-mile wide path through the southwest quadrant of Rowlett, damaging over 1,100 homes and 30 businesses. About two dozen were injured.
Rowlett Fire Rescue Chief Neil Howard said three months earlier his department, along with local police and public works agencies, had a table-top exercise that simulated a tornado.
The twister took the same path as practiced in the drill.
“That is what is really eerie about this whole thing,” Howard, also the city’s emergency management director, recalled. “In our drill, the tornado took out a fire station and that station was less than a quarter-mile from the damaged area.”
One of his stations had already been dispatched with Garland fire crews to a grim scene on I-30 where winds picked up cars and threw them about. Several people died.
Rowlett Fire Rescue has four stations with four engines and three ambulances staffed.