On April 11, 2016, a historic hail storm tore via Wylie. The NWS says 80% of houses have been affected and over $300 million in injury occurred.
WYLIE, Texas — January 2023 marked the one-year anniversary of the brand new Wylie 911 Communications Center, which was destroyed by the 2016 hail storm.
On April 11, 2016, a historic hail storm tore via Wylie. According to the National Weather Service, 80% of houses have been affected and over $300 million in injury occurred.
Tristian Porter and Sara Zerger have been working as 911 dispatchers on that day.
“Then we started getting frantic phone calls from citizens about their windows being broken while they were driving,” stated Porter.
“I’d never been in that situation. Obviously worried about my daughter in my house at home (alone),” Zerger stated. “But I knew I couldn’t just leave.”
Between the hail over the cellphone and the hail hitting the roof of the 911 center, dispatchers had hassle listening to callers.
“Our ceiling started to bow and you could see like water dripping in. We had to put trash cans down (to catch the water),” recalled Porter.
Fire Chief Brandon Blythe was on obligation that day, too.
“Very quickly we ran out of units to respond (to calls),” Blythe admitted. “Obviously we required a lot of help on that day because we were overwhelmed for our department size.”
Since then, the town of Wylie has rebuilt itself and made changes for future climate occasions.
“Backup plans to the backup plans,” Blythe stated. “Redundancies are huge.”
The new 911 call center has a storm shelter. In addition, there is a backup communications center in Fire Station 4.
“We definitely take the threat of hail very seriously,” Porter stated.
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