Currently a filmmaker (\u201cThe Last Whistle,\u201d a 2019 sports drama) and author (\u201cPower to the Players,\u201d a book about the stock market and GameStop), Smat said he was always intrigued by disaster movies and how they told their stories.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up in the shadow of a real-life disaster really inspired me from an early age, and really just never left me,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over time Smat learned more about the devastation he had seen wrought on Fort Worth through his television screen, and also came to understand more about its long-term effects.<\/p>\n
He recalled the 2011 opening of Fort Worth\u2019s first In-N-Out Burger at 2900 W. 7th St. and how people said it was a rebirth of the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember the rebuilding,\u201d he said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t here to see what was here before. But I saw the change that was happening. It gave me a kind of outsider\u2019s point of view.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, of course, he remembered The Tower, the city\u2019s fourth-tallest building, and how it became the symbol of the tornado\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n
Then called the Bank One Tower, about 90% of its 3,540 windows were shattered. Dangling panels and shards of glass rained onto downtown\u2019s streets for days, Smat said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard some of the stories about that day from people I knew, and as we neared that 25th anniversary of the storm, I realized \u2026 a lot of these stories were going to get lost to time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was fear of losing that history that inspired him to put pen to paper.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smat interviewed tornado survivors and combed through newspaper archives and television newscasts of the disaster, hoping to one day write a standard history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then he met Jim Eagle, a longtime Fort Worth real estate executive, now with JLL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJim\u2019s very much the Forrest Gump of the Fort Worth tornado,\u201d Smat said. \u201cHe\u2019s in the skyscraper, dining at the Reata Restaurant on the 35th floor, when it strikes, and then he\u2019s the one that has to pick up the pieces for years to come in one way or another, on the real estate side.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The meeting led Smat to shift his storytelling plan for the book. Instead of a straight narrative or a standard history, the book is propelled by three main characters, much like a feature film.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to get as close as possible to what happened, and any gaps or falsehoods are not intentional, they\u2019re really the result of a lack of memory,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was inspired by the 2013 book \u201cFive Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital\u201d and its 2022 Apple TV adaption \u201cFive Days at Memorial,\u201d both revolving around a hospital in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.<\/p>\n
Smat is already working on a script, titled \u201cThe Birdhouse,\u201d based on his book. He would like to see it adapted for television.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s plenty of drama for something similar to \u2018Five Days at Memorial,\u2019\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eagle\u2019s story is central to the book. The story of the tornado hitting The Tower reads like a real-life disaster movie, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eagle spends the latter half of the book rebuilding his home as well as the iconic downtown building that came very close to being destroyed by both the tornado and the fact that no one seemed to know what to do with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one wanted to touch it. Jim and others did some incredibly complex work to save and rehabilitate what is now a successful downtown high-end residential property,\u201d said Smat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IngramPrintCover3-1024x741.jpg\")
“Tornado at the Tower,” by Rob Smat, tells the story of the March 28, 2000, tornado in Fort Worth. (Courtesy | Rob Smat)<\/p>\n
But for several years after the tornado, the former Bank One building was something of a laughing-stock, boarded up wooden panels that replaced the broken glass. The Wall Street Journal published a story<\/a> about the building, referring to it as an \u201ceyesore.\u201d City residents referred to it as \u201cPlank One\u201d or \u201cThe Birdhouse,\u201d for all the birds that made a home there.<\/p>\n Eventually, the former Bank One Tower reopened with a new name and a new purpose. The Tower debuted in 2005. With 36 floors and 276 units, it is Fort Worth\u2019s largest residential high-rise.<\/p>\n \u201cJim was really central to it (reopening) and really key to the success of that building,\u201d Smat said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The other stories in the book feature well-known figures in the city: Rusty Reid, CEO and president of Higginbotham, and Carolyn Bauman Cruz, senior staff photographer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at the time of the tornado.\u00a0<\/p>\n Smat is proud of the result.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEverything in the story that is the most gripping, fantastic, interesting, unbelievable moments \u2014 those are the ones that truly happened,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the stories are there. They won\u2019t be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n People new to Fort Worth will have some answers about the tornado as well, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Smat also sees the book as a lens through which it\u2019s possible to view both the Fort Worth of the past and the current city.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think we were just starting to come out of the shadow of Dallas then and after this tornado, all the pieces started coming together to become this modern city we are now,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe that\u2019s a big part of this overall story I\u2019m telling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Email him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.\u00a0<\/p>\n