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Morning News

2 Dead, 2 Missing After Texas Tornadoes

Aired March 29, 2000 - 9:02 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We want to go -- get to the situation in Texas and a very severe weather situation that took place in Fort Worth, Texas, yesterday evening.

And for the latest, I want to bring in Tony Clark -- Tony.

TONY CLARK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, since the sun has come up, we've had a chance to get a better idea of the damage of the tornado that came through Fort Worth last night just after rush hour.

And in fact, you can see in one of the buildings just behind me, it is perhaps one of the tallest buildings in downtown, it's called the UPR Plaza. At the top is a restaurant, the Petroleum Club. And all the way down the mirrored-glass building, you can see where windows have been blown out, curtains and other debris hanging outside. And, in fact, throughout the morning, we've seen large shards of glass falling from that.

And it's because of the danger of falling glass and falling debris that the police have cordoned off downtown. And employers have been told to have their employees stay at home until efforts can be made to go through and assess the damage, reduce the risk of further injury from falling glass and other debris.

The damage itself, though, was not confined to downtown Fort Worth. In neighboring Arlington -- and those of you not familiar with Texas, this is the area -- this is the community where the Texas Rangers play, Six Flags -- it is just to the east of Fort Worth. Their residential areas got hit hard by the tornadoes. Houses were flattened, trees uprooted, cars overturned. There was also heavy rain that followed the storm.

Two people were killed because of the tornado in the Fort Worth area. Two other people are missing and presumed killed because of flooding in the area.

Fort Worth, downtown Fort Worth is unlike many downtowns. It is a town that doesn't go to sleep at 5:00 in the evening. It is a town with in-town housing. There are a lot of people downtown. So even though rush hour was over with, there were still a lot of people downtown when the tornadoes hit.

This is what it was like for them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the scariest thing I ever experienced in my life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Total mass destruction of a tornado coming toward us ripped the whole back of the building out. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) falling in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Following the class down the hallway, it had just made it. It was like a carnival ride. It was shaking in here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The windows started popping in on the 35th floor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sirens were going off and the emergency lights started flashing. This is real. This was not play.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was scary -- "Wizard of Oz" -- really scary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A bomb looks like it went off in there. I went up there to salvage some of my items.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLARK: There is one other area that Fort Worth Police are going to be concentrating on today. It is to the west of downtown. It is a light industrial area, where, they tell us, there are some collapsed buildings. There is a, I think, a Wards Distribution Center that, I'm told, has some 18-wheelers that were knocked into the building. And so some of the urban search-and-rescue teams are going in there to check and see, not only structural damage, but to see if anyone else was injured. At this point, no indication that anyone else has been injured in the tornadoes that whipped through this area.

Tony Clark, CNN, Fort Worth, Texas.

KAGAN: Tony, thank you very much.

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