‘The skies literally turned green.’ Author gathers stories from 2000 Fort Worth tornado

Just as it did many others, the tornado that struck downtown Fort Worth in 2000 greatly affected the life of a young Rob Smat.

Though only a few years old, it left an impression that continues to impact him to this day — so much so that now, at 29, he’s ready to relive the moment through the memories of himself and others in his upcoming book “The Birdhouse.”

Smat said the book will feature some of the most harrowing stories of those who survived the tornado strike.

“There will be no shortage of bathtub shelters, office building sprints, and ultimately, the view from hundreds of feet above Throckmorton and Fifth, where a hundred diners at Reata were forced to take shelter,” he said.

Smat, who now lives in Phoenix and has a degree from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, said “The Birdhouse” will be more than just the moment the Fort Worth tornado struck. First, the March 2000 storm was not just one tornado, but also a tornado swarm with a second twister striking Arlington.

Moreover, while the book covers the moment of impact in detail, Smat said there must be a human element in any story, and that’s what stretches hours before the event and into the months that followed.

Smat has long had a fascination with calamity, and natural disasters in particular. Reading as a child about Mount Vesuvius and the Titanic, experiencing 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina from elementary school classrooms, then finally going to film school and learning the art behind classics like “The Towering Inferno” and “Independence Day,” there’s been no shortage of cataclysm in his creative learning.

Then, in 2022, he landed a publishing deal for not one, but two books, the first about financial collapse titled “Power to the Players” and the other about the COVID crisis titled “The Wedding March.”

He also has a longtime working relationship with the Fort Worth Film Commission, to whom he said he is grateful for helping with his debut feature film, “The Last Whistle,” which was filmed in Fort Worth and released in 2019. Based on a real incident involving a basketball player, it is the fictional story of a high school football player collapsing during practice and a coach intent on keeping the school’s winning streak alive rather than caring for his player.

The movie stars Brad Leland, who was memorable in the film “Friday Night Lights” and had a standout recurring role in the TV series of the same name as the coach.

“Becoming an author broadened my horizons beyond screenwriting for the first time, and with that newfound freedom I embarked on a number of stories that didn’t fit the mold of a teleplay,” he said.

Idea for the book

Smat said the Fort Worth tornado book, when it was originally titled “Where the West Began Again,” was supposed to be an oral history of that week, a paint-by-numbers approach to a citywide event that showed bravery and triumph.

“That would have made an easy 25th anniversary publication that North Texans might read,” he said. “A book hadn’t been done about the tornado since the ‘Star-Telegram’ published an assortment of articles in ‘Shattered,’ and I thought this approach would do the story justice.

“But then came a number of interviews I couldn’t have expected — sensational stories, years-long corporate battles, and stories that Fort Worth didn’t know about the buildings, people, and companies at its core.

“That’s when ‘Where the West Began Again’ became ‘The Birdhouse.’ That’s when I knew my creative vision would need to expand drastically.”

Why the change of title?

“When it comes to titles, simplicity is king. You have so little time to catch the attention of potential readers or viewers nowadays that even an overly elegiac title can ruin your chances with them,” Smat said. “‘The Birdhouse’ was muttered in Fort Worth circles as soon as the plywood boards went up around Bank One, but first appeared in a May 2002 article from the ‘Wall Street Journal,’” he said.

Personal experience

Born in Louisiana, but raised in Cityview and Benbrook, Smat and his family would visit downtown quite a bit. Among his favorite memories are taking the now defunct subway the short distance to what was once the Tandy Center.

Then came the shock of a downtown Cowtown with blown-out windows, plywood boards, and garbage chutes leeching onto the skyline facades.

He was, though, no stranger to the impacts of natural disaster.

“Hurricane Katrina struck my mom’s side of the family in Southeastern Louisiana, affecting us in North and East Texas in the weeks that followed,” he said. “I vividly remember visiting Amite and New Orleans afterward.

“A big inspiration during this process has been Sheri Fink’s phenomenal ‘Five Days at Memorial,’ which was adapted into a superb AppleTV series. Her work detailing Katrina’s impact on Baptist Memorial Hospital, and the investigations that followed, has been a great paradigm.”

Gathering the stories

Smat said the majority of the stories he’s been told have a similar theme.

“Because the tornado struck just after 6 p.m. on March 28, it missed rush hour traffic by a half hour. Had the storm struck slightly earlier, it could have killed and injured many more than it did,” Smat said. “For those in the Monticello neighborhood, Montgomery Ward, and Cash America and Bank One towers, the tornado was one of the worst experiences of their lives. At the same time, concertgoers at Bass Hall emerged almost unaware.”

At the time, Smat was in elementary school. Over the years he came to know many people who had been affected by the tornado.

“I didn’t get as many stories in the early 2000s though. My elementary school classmates boasted dubious tales about their parents, aunts, and uncles staring down the tornado from the top of the Cash America building as it barreled toward them,” he said. “Adults avoided scaring kids with their stories and soon turned to their memories of 9/11 in the year that followed.

“It took years of conversation for me to find folks who had that first-hand experience of March 28, 2000,” he said.

One of those is Rusty Reid, now CEO of Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services, who recalled where he was when the tornado hit, the second floor of the former Higginbotham building at 260 Bailey Ave., now the home of the National Cutting Horse Association.

“I was in my office and the skies literally turned green,” Reid said. “I put my hands on the window and they began to bow. Then, there was a big explosion. It made a vortex, then slammed the Bank One building.

“I got in my car - a Suburban - and drove home very carefully. There were trees in yards.”

Impactful moment

In 2007, while a student at Fort Worth All Saints, Smat made his film festival debut at Fort Worth’s Teen VideoFest with the short film “Tornado Safety.” He said that while the judging committee felt the topic wasn’t directly relevant to the festival theme, they screened it as an exception.

“When the judges received an entry on storm safety from a bunch of 12-year-olds, they probably pitied our innocence and admired our technical ability,” he said.

On the night of the awards ceremony, hundreds of attendees were forced into the basement of the Scott Theatre due to a severe storm warning, he recalled.

“When we re-emerged, ‘Tornado Safety’ suddenly mattered,” he said with a smile. “Rusty’s son Charlie was on that film-making team, coincidentally.”

Angle of the book

Smat said “The Birdhouse” will be a narrative non-fiction work, a story that is based in fact as much as possible. Certain names, places, and dates will be altered for reasons of privacy, pacing, or as a result of people simply forgetting details after a quarter-century.

“John Ford’s ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ captures this sentiment best in its final moments: ‘This is the West…. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend,’” he said.

Kimberly Peticolas, Smat’s literary agent with RudyAgency.com, said the combination of his literary and filmmaking skills should provide his best work yet.

“Rob has a masterful sense of narrative and the ability to tell a true story in a way that is engaging, thought-provoking, and inherently readable,” she said. “His experience as a filmmaker gives him a unique eye for setting the scene as well as for finding stories that need to be told. I am confident his latest endeavor will be no different.”

Looking for more

While he has plenty, Smat is still welcoming stories. If you have a tale from that fateful day, submit it on his website smatfilms.com/Birdhouse.

The book’s rights are available, and there’s always self-publishing, a route that has become popular, even with some well-established authors.

“While I could have taken a traditional approach to the story, starting with a publication proposal and shopping that around, I decided instead to write the manuscript in full and land this release date as close to March 2025 as possible, which will be the storm’s 25th anniversary,” he said. “We’ll see how that timetable holds up. Any delays will be the result of more details emerging in interviews that can make the book that much better.

“Additionally, I’m counting on a big debut for this summer’s sequel, ‘Twisters,’ which will leave the entertainment industry scrambling for similar content to option.”