911 Dispatchers Share Experience Of December 26th Tornadoes
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ROWLETT (CBS11) - Hundreds of calls for help flooded 911 centers in Rowlett and Garland when an F-4 tornado struck those cities on December 26, 2015.
"All of a sudden, I think we had 50 plus calls come in at one time," said Jessica Forsyth, one of three call takers at Garland 911. "The first call I took was a house that collapsed on a lot of people....You could hear the baby crying. It was pretty bad."
In Rowlett, Tasha McCord and Rhonda Wilson were answering the phones.
"We were trying to prioritize as much as we could," said McCord.
She remembers talking to a pregnant woman.
"She said she was going into labor and she was trapped under the rubble."
In call after call, operators stayed calm.
"You have to just push through," said Forsyth.
It was only afterward, the sounds and stories they'd heard sank in.
"That's when we're allowed to let it hit us. When we go home. I know I went home and bawled. I'm not gonna lie," said Wilson.
"You question yourself. Did I do everything I could?" said McCord.
"You visualize it, so it makes you sad," said Forsyth.
Forsyth worked a 16-hour shift that night and another one the very next day.
She took a moment in between to drive past the damage.
"The apartment complex that came down with the people I was talking to… I wanted to see it," she said.
It wasn't what she imagined.
"It was worse. It was horrible," she said.
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