Overnight storms kept Fort Worth crews busy into Saturday.
The Fort Worth Fire Department responded to around 800 calls between midnight and Saturday afternoon.
A spokesperson said crews responded to 136 power line down calls, 57 fires, 20 high-water investigations, 12 high-water rescues, 10 car accidents, and one structural collapse (a tree on a house).
In one South Fort Worth neighborhood off of Schieffer and New York avenues, damaged trees dotted the streets, one of them trapping a car underneath.
“It was terrible night,” said Thomas Gilyard, who lives in the area.
“You hear just whistling and, you know, just real bad. You hear stuff blowing around,” he said. “The furniture on my porch blew off, you know, fence blew down. You could just hear it, you know, real loud. And that was really scary.”
At one point, Oncor reported over 20,000 people without power in Tarrant County.
Gilyard said his power went out around 9:30 p.m. on Friday and was still not restored when speaking to NBC 5, about 10 hours later.
He said he was grateful he had a generator and didn’t have as much damage as some neighbors. Tin roofs could be seen on the ground and tangled in power lines.
Garry Rhodes is retired and lives full-time in his RV. He was staying overnight in a parking lot in South Fort Worth.
“Then the next thing I know, man, this big gust of wind. And it started rocking my RV. It was throwing me from one side to the other,” Rhodes said.
He’s been through tornadoes and said Friday night sounded like one.
“When I heard the big roar and I go, ‘That’s not straight-line wind,'” Rhodes said.
The storms rolled through the Art Worth Festival at The Shops at Clearfork at the close of its first day.
“I work for about a year and so the rain last night was a little overwhelming, especially I was like, ‘You know, it’s been a whole year,’ I was crying, too,” said executive director Greg Belz.
He said over 80 artists from across the country are at the weekend festival, which runs through Sunday at 6:00 p.m.
“It was a little challenging this morning to dig out from under—what slid under tents and things because of the water and what was moved because of the wind,” he said.
Belz said the bulk of the art was not damaged, although one artist with glass pieces lost much of her work. He said four tents were completely destroyed and three others damaged, but salvageable.
Photographer Greg Davis‘ wife, Amy, had her jewelry tent set up next to his.
“The tent happened to collapse right over everything,” he said.
Luckily, Amy had cleared her jewelry, but they rushed over on Friday night.
“We got in the car and came here and were in about six inches of water down here and my wife’s space was right here, and it’s no longer—her booth is no longer here,” Davis said.
They pitched up another tent for her to get through the show.
“You just get to roll with the punches, you know, and we got punched. But it’s okay,” he said.
“The show must go on,” Belz said.