Demolition Company Apologizes for Tearing Down Wrong Tornado-Damaged Home in Rowlett, Texas | The Weather Channel
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Tornado Central

A demolition company tore down the wrong house in Rowlett, Texas. Here's what they had to say.

BySean BreslinMarch 29, 2016




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A potent, deadly round of severe weather struck Texas the day after Christmas, damaging more than 1,000 homes and businesses when several tornadoes were spawned. Two of those homes belonged to Lindsay Diaz and Alan Cutter – that is, until their duplex was mistakenly demolished nearly three months later.

The Rowlett, Texas, duplex was damaged by the EF4 tornado that hit the town on Dec. 26, and Diaz said both she and Cutter were waiting to repair their homes until they heard back from FEMA about receiving funds, according to the Dallas Morning News. When she came home Tuesday afternoon, she found her home had been reduced to a pile of rubble, but this time, Mother Nature wasn't to blame for the damages. Billy L. Nabors Demolition went to the wrong house – their duplex – and tore it down.

“There’s nothing left,” she told USA Today. Diaz and her son rode out the tornado in a bathtub and had been staying in hotels and a rented home since then, USA Today also reported.

(MORE: Severe Storms Leave Damage in the South)


Lindsay Diaz, pictured here, owns half of the mistakenly-demolished duplex.

(Screenshot via CBS DFW video)


Nabors was permitted to bring down the home at 7601 Cousteau Drive, but the crew instead went to 7601 and 7603 Calypso Drive, one street away, WFAA.com reported. According to Engadget, the demolition company blamed Google Maps for the mixup, and Nabors CEO George Gomez told WFAA.com the mistake was "not a big deal."

But the company called Diaz to apologize on Friday, according to a separate WFAA.com report. Diaz said the apology was sincere, and Gomez told WFAA.com that the small company was unsure of how to respond to the situation since they had nobody with public relations experience.

Still, Diaz was incredulous that such a mistake could be made by a professional demolition company.

“How do you make a mistake like this?" Diaz asked USA Today prior to speaking with Gomez. " I mean, this is just the worst."

Diaz filed a police report after the duplex was leveled, and hopes to file an insurance claim soon, WFAA.com also reported. Still, she's understandably disheartened by the whole ordeal, and it's likely to be months before the two families will get back to a sense of normalcy at home.

"I feel farther away from moving into a home today than I did after the tornado hit," Diaz told WFAA.com.

MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Missouri Floods and Texas Tornadoes, Dec. 2015


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The photo above shows the Bonnet Carre spillway in Louisiana.