DALLAS (AP) — The tornado that caused widespread damage in north Dallas passed closed to the home of former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush but caused no damage.
Bush spokesman Freddy Ford said in a statement that “the Bushes are safe and praying for their neighbors around DFW who weren’t as fortunate.”
The Bushes stuck to their obligations despite the storm.
Former first lady Laura Bush hosted young leaders from Myanmar on Monday at a Bush Institute event in South Texas. The institute based at Southern Methodist University in Dallas has sponsored a leadership training program for four years with a focus on Myanmar, a Southeast Asian country struggling with extreme inequities and ethnic cleansing.
Meanwhile, as cleanup efforts continued throughout the region, Fort Worth’s NBC television affiliiate KXAS (Channel 5) tried to clean up a public relations fiasco caused by its decision not to interrupt network coverage of the Dallas Cowboys’ Sunday night football game against the Philadelphia Eagles with timely weather reports.
While other network-affiliated stations went wall-to-wall with weather coverage about the tornadoes, Channel 5 stayed with the football game.
The station apologized in a statement issued Monday, saying it “made a mistake by not immediately interrupting the football game with a tornado warning.” Instead, it waited six minutes before breaking into the broadcast.
The station noted that it streamed live weather coverage on its website and gave updates with on-screen texts. But on reflection, realizing “that seconds matter,” station officials now believe it “should have broken into football programming sooner.” Station officials promised to do everything in their power “to make sure this does not happen again.”