Dallas Fort Worth Tornadoes Touch Down Near Simpli.fi Headquarters

Yesterday, (April 3, 2012) a series of as many as twelve twisters touched down in the Dallas Fort Worth area. While Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton made Twisters in the disaster drama from the mid 90’s look glamorous – there was nothing glamorous about these tunnels of destruction. Countless pictures tell the story of Mother Nature’s awesome power and tug at viewer’s heartstrings.

Thousands were left without power, hail the size of tennis balls was reported, and homes were thrashed, left looking like something out of a horror story. The tornado whipped up homes, cars and semis as if they were toys. One of the most touching stories came from Forney, Texas where a grandmother who was babysitting her 2 grandchildren is being hailed as a hero. The grandmother gathered 2-year-old Abigail and eighteen-month-old Lane and got into the bathtub. What happened next is truly horrifying, “She held onto his feet — just by his feet — and the  wind kept taking him, but she hung onto him, and he’s fine… he’s here,” the mother of the 2 children, Lindsey Enochs said. The father of the children, Andy Jones, said this about arriving on the scene, “I took off running across the field, and got to the house.” “And when I turned to the corner, I looked, and the house wasn’t there.” “I thought everybody would be dead,” he said. “There was only a couple rows of bricks and a foundation left. The whole house was gone.”

Yards are draped in blankets of debris, the twisted remains of memories left to lie amidst the devastation.  It’s been reported that 650 homes were damaged, as many as 450 flights were cancelled at the DFW airport, and although some injuries occurred so far the death toll remains at zero. Some attribute the lack of loss of life to social media – Twitter mainly, for continuous and timely updates. Whether the lack of loss of life is due to early warning or social media the event’s true impact will be felt for some time.

In the midst of calculating the true effects today, we at Simpli.fi are grateful not to have endured the damage and our thoughts go out to those left picking up the pieces.