The tornado that damaged or destroyed about 530 structures in Rowlett-- hardly anyone expected it, so late in the year.
On that day the town’s Assistant Emergency Manager, Ed Balderas was, however, watching the weather and expecting a storm.
'Twas fully expecting a need for some kind of response the day of, at the very least, Balderas said. Just didn’t think it would be this big?
Correct, Balderas said. He didn’t think it would be this big. But, in a way, Balderas had predicted the scope of the damage.
Three months before the tornado, as part of ongoing emergency training, he drew up a table-top exercise and walked the city’s managers through it.
In his 26-page briefing, the path and ferocity of his mock tornado were nearly identical to what happened in reality. I have destroyed several homes in the exercise, I’ve damaged public infrastructure to limit our ability to respond and a scenario where our resources are constrained to the point that we cannot respond by ourselves, Balderas said.
In his exercise Balderas even destroyed the same water tower which was destroyed in the storm and would become the iconic image of the storm.
In the end, his premonition helped the city prepare for the worst.
They are hesitant to allow me to create exercises from this point on, he joked.
Bad omen, or good luck? You decide.