The Fort Worth Legal Community: Dealing with Disaster
By Nancy C. McLaughlin, CLAS

5:00 p.m. After monitoring their instruments and the skies all day, Fort Worth emergency management personnel go on standby.*

It’s Tuesday afternoon, March 28, 2000 and many of the downtown workers are leaving their jobs for the day. However, as we all know, many law office personnel—paralegals, secretaries, clerks and attorneys—don’t leave their offices at 5:00 p.m. That just doesn’t happen.

5:35 p.m. Ham radio operators go on alert and storm watchers head out. Their reports would be passed on to the National Weather Service as well as the emergency management office.*

Many of those still working observed a nasty looking storm moving in from the west. Some get on the InterNet to check the radar.

5:42 p.m. Reports coming into the NWS and the emergency management office stated that the storm appeared to be moving northwest. Weather service reports confirmed the storm’s path.*

Rush hour traffic in Fort Worth is in full swing and weather events are rapidly escalating.

6:09 p.m. A wall cloud with large hail and a green sky is reported by a spotter. By this time it is over the Benbrook Traffic Circle in west Fort Worth.*

Julie Rodgers works on the west side of Fort Worth in the 10-story glass tower known as the CashAmerica building. CashAmerica, for whom Julie works as the Regulatory and Compliance manager, is an international pawn shop chain with over 400 stores, both domestically and internationally. The whole law department, with the exception of two people, were still working on the 3rd and 9th floors of the building. Julie reminds everyone within hearing distance that they "might want to save whatever they are working on in case they lost power in the storm."

6:11 p.m. After receiving the report from the area of the Traffic Circle, the emergency sirens sound for the first time. Almost immediately, there are spotter reports of a slow rotation and lowering in the clouds.*

Julie and her co-workers knew a storm was coming. Although their offices faced east, one of the attorneys with whom she was working came into her office and noted that "It’s getting pretty dark out there."

6:14 p.m. There is a reported rotation on the city’s north side near 23rd street.*

One of the attorneys checks the radar on the InterNet and states that "it appears as though the storms are moving north of downtown."

6:18 p.m. Rotating clouds on the city’s west side are reported for the first time by amateur radio operators. The NWS confirmed that a tornado struck the 5500 block of Cahill Oval in River Oaks.*

At about this time, Julie noted seeing a few pieces of softball size hail begin to hit the windows. They noticed a bright flash and thought that lightening had struck nearby. The lights went out and, of course, the computers went down. They would later find that it was a transformer that blew in the high winds. Almost immediately the building’s back up generator kicked in and the lights came back on.

6:21 p.m. There is a reported lowering of the clouds in the Rivercrest and Monticello areas and of a tornado on the ground at Seventh and Arch Adams streets.*

Julie said that she and attorney, Greg Higgen, seemed to have the same "6th sense feeling" that told them to MOVE! Although the tornado was coming from the west and their office faced west, the windows began to bulge out. As they began to move towards the middle of the building another attorney joined them. Higgen shouted, "What is that!" Looking out the window all three could see debris flying past and could feel the tornado passing overhead. With their hair standing on end, they began to move. Julie described it as being like the "Twilight Zone". No sirens, no locomotive sound.

6:23 p.m. The sirens are given another loud blast as a minute later there are reports of flying debris in downtown.*

The tornado first hit the west side of the CashAmerica building blowing out the windows on that side allowing the wind to tear through. The west side was definitely not a safe place to be. Next, Julie and company tried to obtain entrance to the interior stair way. However, that was no good either. Pieces of sheetrock and a multitude of dust was flying around and falling down
into the stair well. Finally, they reached an interior office. Julie dived under a small conference table, Greg under a desk. They realized they were missing the third in their party, attorney Curtis Linscott. He was trying in vain to close the door to the office in which they had sought safety. Finally, Curtis realized he couldn’t hold it; he let go of the door and lunged for the floor.

6:26 p.m. Hail and rain had begun to fall and there were reports of a wall cloud near downtown. For a third time, the sirens are activated.*

After what seemed like an hour, although it was only 3-5 minutes, the tornado had passed over and Julie and the attorneys were pretty sure that the building was not going to come down around them. After realizing that none of them were seriously injured and wanting to take no chances, they decided that they had better make their way down to the basement of the building. As they were leaving, they thought they heard someone call out; however, they could not determine where the voice was coming from. Remember, the wind is still howling and the rain continued to pour—it was not exactly quiet.

6:31 p.m. Although the clouds have begun to disperse, there is still concern that the storm might reform.*

As she made her way out of their office, Julie saw that there were filing cabinets turned over on their sides; ceiling tiles and interior walls were down; loose electrical conduit was hanging from what was left of the ceiling; and, the sprinkler system had come on. Not only did the debris make for difficult walking, the standing water combined with the live electric wires made it also extremely dangerous.

Upon finally reaching the basement, Greg said, "Julie, you’re bleeding." "I hadn’t even noticed," Julie told me. "There was a gash on my elbow. Someone had a first aid kit so we slapped on a band aid. Later I had to get stitches, but at the time, I was so thrilled to be alive, I barely noticed."

6:37 p.m. Emergency officials again activate the horns. Although the strong winds and heavy rain continued, there were no more reports of tornadic activity in the Fort Worth area.*

By this time, Julie, Greg and Curtis were pretty sure that the building was structurally stable. At this point, there were no emergency assistance teams on the scene and any help to be provided to anyone would have to come from those still in the building. Knowing that they had heard a voice before leaving the 3rd floor and being concerned that there might be more folks trapped in the building, they decided to investigate. Julie and Greg returned to the 3rd floor while Curtis and another refugee from the building went on to the 9th floor.

When they reached the 3rd floor office where they thought they heard the voice, they found the office locked. Not having a key and having no idea where to find a security guard or building manager, they had to try a different route. They went back through the suite and began to crawl across the debris and over the downed file cabinets. Now picture Julie scaling these mountains of rubble in her dress and heels. Fearing that she would fall and hurt herself or perhaps become trapped, Greg told her to stay where she was. Julie knew that she would not be able to sleep until they found their trapped co-worker and, besides, she really didn’t want Greg stumbling around in that maze alone, so she declined and continued her trek. The wind continued to shriek through the office and the rain continued to blow, but they continued to call out. Finally, they heard a voice, "Yes! Yes, I’m here!" Julie recognized the voice of a co-worker from the Reports Department. They yelled for her to keep calm, they were going to get her out. Julie and Greg began to pull away the sheet rock that covered the trapped woman and finally were able to open a space about the size of a three foot triangle.

The first thing through the opening was the woman’s purse. The second, her taxes! I personally didn’t find either of these things strange. After all, a woman carries most of her important, need- to-have possessions in her purse and tax time was just around the corner. Finally, she emerged. Julie and Greg knew that the woman was injured, but they didn’t know how badly. Fortunately, she could walk and after being warned of the debris and the electrical hazards, they helped her down the stairs into the basement. There were still no emergency vehicles in the area, so Julie went upstairs through the lobby to retrieve her Ford F-150 so she could take her injured co-worker to the hospital. When she first saw her truck, Julie’s first thought was "Gee, Julie, you knew a storm was coming. Why did you leave your windows down?" In the next instant she realized that they were not down, they were out! Upon closer inspection, she saw that not only were the windows gone, but there was a large tree limb on the hood and a steel girder underneath. The truck and all the vehicles in that particular area had been picked up and moved over about six spaces from where they were originally parked before being dropped and slammed into other vehicles. All of the cars in that lot were totaled. For quite a while afterwards, no one could recognize anyone by the car they were driving as they were all driving rentals! Now, most everyone has a new one. Julie did manage to retrieve some items from the truck—her cell phone, make up, the really important stuff! On her way back into the building, Julie noticed a police officer in his car in front of the building. She asked if he could take someone to the hospital; however, he declined. Julie realized from talking to the officer, that the storm had caused damage to a more extensive area than just her building. It had also become very apparent that there would be no emergency assistance in the near future. Fortunately, a friend of Curtis’ heard the news on the radio and headed for the CashAmerica building to see if anyone required help. Julie found him and his Suburban, with her injured co-worker already inside, ready to leave for the hospital. Although Harris Methodist hospital could normally be reached in about five minutes, it took them considerably longer. Julie described the trip to the hospital as "being like a trip through Beirut." There were cars overturned, glass windows shattered everywhere, power lines were down, and debris was still falling from the damaged buildings.

Upon arrival at the hospital, one of the first things that Julie noticed was that the staff seemed to be very well prepared for this crisis. Although they were some of the first with casualties to reach the hospital, soon buses began to arrive carrying folks from a local nursing home for evaluation. When she first arrived at the hospital, not only would her cell phone not work, Julie could find no working phones in the building. The latter was probably due to the number of people attempting to call friends and family all at once. They simply jammed the lines. When Julie was able to get a line, her first call was to the husband of her injured friend. Next, she called her home. Fortunately, Julie’s husband had been watching a movie and had not heard about the severe weather until approximately three minutes before she reached him. A friend had called and spoken with Julie’s ten year old daughter, Jayde. She has asked the child, "Is everything O.K.?" Jayde said it was and then the friend asked to speak to Julie. "Mom’s at work," said Jayde. She then asked to speak to Jayde’s dad. When the child called for him to come to the phone, Julie’s husband, Burnie, called back, "Just call her at work. She’s there." Upon hearing this, the friend gently, but firmly, said, "Put your dad on." She then related to Julie’s husband that "the four walls of Cash America have been blown out!" Fortunately, it was shortly thereafter that Julie reached her family. She felt it was much worse for them than for her as she knew she was all right and they did not. Although Burnie and Jayde were about to come downtown to find her, knowing the condition of the city’s streets, Julie advised them to stay home; she would get a ride. After a thorough examination of their injured friend, it was determined that she had sustained a bruised lung and some soft tissue damage. The woman recalled that she had been holding onto a door at one point and it had blown out of her hand, thus causing the injuries to her shoulder. Julie thought later that it was a blessing that everyone was able to walk out of the CashAmerica building under their own power.

Although she did not want to, Julie returned to the building four or five times after the storm. Each time it got easier. The FBI, who had offices in the building, were restricting access and were only letting a very limited number of people back into the building. A couple of the attorneys were able to retrieve the computers and some of the other important items out of the building. As the elevators were still inoperable, they had to carry it all down the stairs.

Julie reports that they were fortunate that the damage to the legal department was limited mostly to the east side of the building. She estimates that they lost about 10% of their records; however, as they were networked with the other CashAmerica offices and many of the computers were located in the interior portion of their offices, all of the information was retrieved. The major damage was caused by water and, of course, the numerous broken windows. However, the General Counsel’s office located on the southwest side of the 9th floor was not so lucky. They had lost a number of items when they were literally sucked out of the building. When she received her file materials which had been stored in a warehouse while the offices were being repaired, Julie found that they were damp, moldy and full of glass. However, most of the files, although water damaged, were readable and copies could be made. Julie also discovered through necessity, that there are companies who will take your wet documents and dry them out.

What did Julie learn from her experience? "How important it was that we found we could depend on one another."

At about the time that Julie and Greg had their "6th sense"feeling, Leslie Flores and her co- workers on the 29th floor of the 40-story UPR Plaza, in the heart of downtown Fort Worth, were also becoming concerned about the approaching storm. Around 6:20 p.m. they heard reports that there were bad storms in the area with large hail and that the emergency sirens were being sounded. They, like those in the CashAmerica building located about 1/2 mile further west, did not hear them. A secretary who was preparing to leave had offered to take an important Fed-Ex package downstairs to the drop box for Leslie. It had gotten really dark, and Julie cautioned the secretary to be especially careful due to the weather, to which the secretary replied, "I just spoke to my husband in Arlington and he said everything’s all right. The weather reports don’t indicate that anything is wrong." This gives you an idea of how fast things can happen as approximately five minutes later, the tornado hit the UPR Plaza.

There were three attorneys, one legal secretary and Leslie in the office at this time. They heard what they believed to be really powerful winds and large hail striking the northwest side of the building. Within an instant, the building began to take a tremendous pounding. Debris from outside and the force of the wind caused the windows to smash inward. There was plaster and particle board flying through the air. The blinds were ripped from the windows. The wind was blowing all of this through the office. Leslie and her four co-workers huddled in a circle in the elevator lobby. Thinking back, she says that was probably not the best place to be as there were glass doors at either end. It was at that point they realized it was not just a bad storm with hail, it was a tornado. They all remained very quiet praying that they would not be sucked out of the building through the broken windows. Everything happened so quickly. The winds were terrific and the dust was so thick it looked like smoke. As it was for Julie and the others in the CashAmerica building, the experience for Leslie and her group in the UPR Plaza lasted about three to five minutes. Although they could see the windows being smashed and one of their group had to jump out of the way of flying glass, miraculously, no one was injured. Leslie described it as being "very frightening and very intense." Afterwards, other tenants said they felt the building sway; however, Leslie did not notice this.

Immediately after the tornado passed over the building, the public address system came on and a voice announced that there was a tornado sighted in the vicinity and they should all take the interior stairs down to the basement. Although the warning came just a little late, Leslie and her co-workers thought it was probably a good idea. After grabbing her purse, Leslie did not waste any time going down the 29 floors to safety.

When Leslie finally made it to the basement, she was relieved to see the secretary to whom she had given the Fed-Ex. She also met another employee who had been leaving work when the tornado touched down. She had driven straight into its path. The woman described her car being spun around and the flying debris breaking her windows. She took a U-turn and, driving against traffic, headed for the building’s underground parking garage.

One of the great concerns for Leslie’s firm was a meeting which was to take place the following day with regard to a company merger. The meeting had been set for some time and many of the attendees were coming in from out-of-state. There were several outside counsel in the Union Pacific offices at the time the tornado struck and there was great concern that their laptops and highly sensitive documents were going to be sucked out through the broken windows. Due to the time-sensitive nature of the business at hand, it was decided that they would go ahead with the meeting. Leslie reports that even with all the confusion, the executives and their assistants were able to arrange for meeting rooms at the Mira Vista Golf Club for the next day.

The Union Pacific offices were closed for a month. The employees either telecommuted from home or worked from the temporary facilities which were set up in the company’s Rock Lab situated about 10 miles east of downtown. The executives set up in an airplane hangar at Meecham International Airport.

Leslie stated that although some documents were lost, for the most part, all of the files were intact. However, the offices themselves were trashed. In the Union Pacific building alone, 3000 windows were broken and the structure sustained $20,000,000 in damage in just three minutes.

When she got home, Leslie immediately wrote to her family in California telling them that "Yes, I was in the tornado. And, yes, I am fine!" Her sister shot back: Dear Dorothy, there is no place like home. Leslie says that "Californians say they would take an earthquake over a tornado any day.

When they were allowed back in the building it was for only 30 minutes at a time and everyone had to be escorted by security personnel. Leslie said she was required to wear a hard hat, steeled- toed shoes, long sleeves and gloves. She described the floors as "being covered in powdered glass".

After one month, Leslie’s company was back in their building. The merger talks were successful and, best of all, a company-wide pay increase that was to have gone through on April 1, actually did!

Leslie’s advice if you are ever in the same type of situation: Take cover immediately—don’t wait for the PA system, the emergency sirens, radio or television to report that there is trouble. Make every effort to get into an interior room without windows. If you have time, grab your purse and keys. You may not be allowed back into your office to retrieve them. Don’t rely on cell phones. Many with cell phones were unable to contact family or friends to assure them that they were all right or to find out if there was any other weather activity in the area.

However, the Fort Worth Paralegal Association (FWPA)was not so lucky. Their membership vice-president, who is responsible for maintaining their membership and financial information, works in the BankOne Tower, which also sustained severe damage. The computer system in her office was severely damaged and although the firm was able to retrieve the majority of the information lost from back ups, the FWPA files were way down on the priority list. In order to avoid problems such as these in the future, it is now the policy of the Board of Directors to save updated information prior to each monthly board meeting. They then exchange disks with others on the Board so that if such an event occurs in the future, one person will not be in sole possession of the Association’s vital records.

Melissa Sherman, President of FWPA, also reports that the Tarrant County District and County Clerks’ offices were extremely helpful during the time of crisis. Some of the clerks’ staff members, without waiting to be contacted, called many of the firms who were displaced to see if they could be of any assistance.

Donations to the Tarrant County Bar Association Bar Foundation of $1,000 were received from the Legal Assistants Division of the State Bar of Texas and the Fort Worth Paralegal Association. Smaller amounts were contributed by the American Corporate Legal Assistants Association, the Capital Area Paralegal Association (Austin), and the North East Texas Association of Legal Assistants (Longview). These funds will be used to defray the cost for office rental and supplies which are desperately needed by those firms affected by the storm.

*Source: the City of Ft. Worth

JULIE RODGERS

Julie is the Regulatory and Compliance manager for CashAmerica International Inc., an international pawn shop chain. As pawn shops are heavily regulated, it is her job to make sure that anything they do with regard to the shops is in compliance with local, state and federal laws. Prior to becoming manager, Julie had been performing regulatory work with the shop managers. She has been with CashAmerica for seven years and a paralegal for 12 years. Realizing that she enjoyed the business law courses much more that the ones she was taking for her major, it was then that she decided to revise her career goals. Julie received a degree from the University of Texas at Arlington and then her paralegal certificate in 1987. But, Julie also admits, having an aunt who is a judge in North Carolina, was certainly a catalyst for her career change. Julie is a Board Certified Legal Assistant in Civil Trial Law through the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and has attained her CLA certification through NALA. Julie was named Paralegal of the Year for 1996 by the Fort Worth Paralegal Association.

LESLIE FLORES

Before her current job with Union Pacific Resources Group Inc. as an Assistant Corporate Secretary, Leslie was a Spanish major who taught college and university level Spanish for nine years. It was her goal to be a professor. She received her Masters in Spanish and completed her course work for her Ph.D. in the language with a minor in linguistics. Leslie’s husband is a professor also teaching Spanish. They decided that it was pointless for them to be competing for the same jobs—that was when Leslie decided to change careers. Knowing that it was a growing field, Leslie enrolled in the paralegal program at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She received her post-baccalaureate certificate in Legal Assistant ship in 1985. Four years later, she sat for the CLA exam. While at UCSB, Leslie worked for the Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara. They provided public assistance for the indigent and the elderly and she found that her Spanish came in quite handy. Leslie worked as a litigation paralegal for over 10 years before taking her current position. Although she was asked to move to Houston and continue her work with the new company, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Leslie and her husband have decided to remain in Fort Worth. Leslie is currently seeking a new position in the legal field, preferably in Corporate or International Law. However, she also has a great deal of experience in Civil Litigation. If you have any leads that you would like to pass along, Leslie may be reached at LeslieFlores@upr.com