Fort Worth resident reflects on downtown tornado, 25 years later: "A really horrible, ugly scene"

Brian Luenser is somewhat of a local legend in Fort Worth. The amateur photographer has a fan base of over 34,000 on social media, all flocking to his page to see the amazing weather photos he captures from his 28th-floor balcony of "The Tower" in Downtown Fort Worth.

Luenser has lived in "The Tower" for the past 20 years. For anyone not familiar with the building, its previous name was the Bank One Tower, and on March 28, 2000, it was hit by an F3-rated tornado. Eighty percent of the building's windows were blown out and the facade was covered in plywood for years to come.

"It was really a horrible, ugly scene with no glass in the building. It had maybe like 15% of the glass left, and really just all of downtown… the trees were horrible and other buildings were smashed," Luenser said.

After extensive renovation, the building reopened to the public in 2005 as condominiums and retail space.

"A developer bought it and added some city money to it and turned it into some condos, and I always wanted to live downtown, I always wanted to live up high, and so it all came together for me," Luenser said.

Many people have asked Luenser "Why would you want to live in a building that was hit by an F3 tornado?" and he said he has a great response.

"Mostly, I'm thinking if an F3 tornado hit directly on my house, I think I would not have survived. People here did survive, so it was better for us than living in a house," Luenser said.

On the 25th anniversary of the tornado, Luenser shared several before and after photos of the damage left behind.

Two people died in the storm as the tornado passed over the Montgomery Ward distribution center along West 7th Street.