WYLIE, Texas — January 2023 marked the one-year anniversary of the new Wylie 911 Communications Center, which was destroyed by the 2016 hail storm.
On April 11, 2016, a historic hail storm tore through Wylie. According to the National Weather Service, 80% of homes were affected and over $300 million in damage occurred.
Tristian Porter and Sara Zerger were 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,” said Porter.
“I'd never been in that situation. Obviously worried about my daughter in my house at home (alone),” Zerger said. “But I knew I couldn't just leave.”
Between the hail over the phone and the hail hitting the roof of the 911 center, dispatchers had trouble hearing 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 duty 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 city of Wylie has rebuilt itself and made adjustments for future weather events.
“Backup plans to the backup plans,” Blythe said. “Redundancies are huge.”
The new 911 call center has a storm shelter. In addition, there's a backup communications center in Fire Station 4.
“We definitely take the threat of hail very seriously,” Porter said.