Flack Takes Flak From Tornado

Chris Homan, communications director for Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, was working late when a nasty tornado came calling on downtown Fort Worth.

"It was Tuesday night about 6:30," Homan recalled Thursday. "We knew there was some weather in the area, but everybody thought it was going to be hail or heavy rain. I had heard some noise from the windows, so I went to see how bad it was. I looked down and didn't see any hail Â… but I looked up and saw this tornado - about twice the size of our building - and I thought there was going to be trouble."

Going on what gets drilled into the heads of all who live in the path of possible tornadoes, Homan headed for the safest place he could think of on short notice:

"I got under my desk and seconds later, the windows just exploded," he said. "There was some serious scrap metal flying around."

For what seemed like an eternity, Homan wondered if he would live to tell the tale. When he emerged from under the desk, he was greeted by a scene of devastation.

"All of our office equipment is destroyed or gone," he said.

Homan is lucky he did not hide under his boss's desk.

"Kay's desk, which was a huge oak desk, is gone," Homan said. "It just got sucked out the window. We don't know where it is. It's somewhere in Oklahoma."

Granger was in Washington when the tornado struck.

Amid the destruction in Fort Worth, officials are trying to determine whether the Cash America building, a nine-story structure where the congresswoman kept her home office, is structurally sound enough to be renovated.

"We are looking for other office space," Homan said. "Our floor [on the seventh story of the building] looked like bombs went off."

Luckily, nobody in the building was killed, though some folks needed medical attention. A lot of people had already left for the day when the storm struck.

"There was a lot of glass Â… when it exploded in, shards went everywhere. I've been picking little glass pieces out of my neck and hands for a couple days, but really nothing serious."

Though he does interviews for a living, Homan said it's the last time he hopes to do one about being slammed by a tornado.