![\"\"](\"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/futurevoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/08\/Colin-Hatzman-1-150x150.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe Event: <\/strong>In late October 2019, a series of tornados \u2014 10 all together \u2014 hit the city of Dallas, Texas. The strongest one battered suburban north Dallas with 140 mph winds, and tore a path across the Earth about 15 miles long. The tornados destroyed more than 700 structures in the Dallas area.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The alarm system went off<\/strong> at 9:05 p.m. on a Sunday night. \u201cI was on my computer playing video games,\u201d says Colin Hatzman, a local entrepreneur. \u201cIt peeped, and the panel read: Take shelter immediately. We did. My wife Isabelle and our two dogs hid immediately in our bedroom closet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n As the tornado approached Hatzman\u2019s house, there was an odd, hard-to-describe sound \u2014 like a rumble \u2014 outside. After that, everything went silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur ears popped like in an airplane, but the effect was 10 times stronger,\u201d Hatzman says. \u201cEverything around us went dead silent. After five seconds or so, my wife and I looked at each other. Is it gone? I decided to step out of the closet and saw that my home was in shambles. But, you know, I was happy to be alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hatzman, a 31 year old who grew up in the Dallas area, has always been fascinated by tornados. After all, they come with the territory. Literally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis was not my first go-around with the tornadoes,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is a very tornado-prone area and I\u2019ve studied them a lot. To be honest, they are quite amazing things. I\u2019ve learned that the air pressure inside the vortex of the tornado drops and changes, and that\u2019s why our ears popped too. But, you always think it won\u2019t happen to you, but to the other people. Would I take another tornado and still stay in the area? My answer is a definite \u2018no.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hatzman\u2019s house was one of 286 in the Dallas area that suffered major damage from the tornado. His closest neighbors lost their houses, too. Still, he reminds himself daily how lucky he was. Had he not sought shelter in that downstairs closet, Hatzman and his wife could have been directly hit by the tornado and died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere was no way we would have survived in the lower part of the house where the tornado ripped through,\u201d he says. \u201cThis has made me change my thinking. I mean, I think about the future differently. I never thought about dying \u2014 never. The first thing I want to do is to put a will together and have my estate valued, in case I pass away. I own a valuable business, and I don\u2019t want it up in the air when one dies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moreover, Hatzman believes there is a serious issue with weather patterns that will cause more tornados in his hometown in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve researched the tornadoes over time,\u201d he says. \u201cThe tornados have become more frequent in the greater Dallas area. I believe this is caused by global warming, which is causing more extreme weather patterns. But shame on me that I haven\u2019t made any changes in my life. I\u2019m not so educated that I\u2019d know what to do. I guess I could cut meat? We do recycle, but that\u2019s not enough, right? I need to do more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 Kirsi M. Hayrinen-Beschloss<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Voices from the Future | Colin Hatzman The Dallas Tornado The Event: In late October 2019, a series of tornados \u2014 10 all together \u2014 hit the city of Dallas,","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,18,20,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-fragility","category-north-america","category-tornadoes","category-voices"],"uds_featured_image":{"id":244,"alt_text":"tornado-damage","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":1024,"height":309,"file":"2022\/01\/tornado-damage.jpg","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"tornado-damage-300x91.jpg","width":300,"height":91,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/futurevoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/01\/tornado-damage-300x91.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"tornado-damage-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/futurevoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/01\/tornado-damage-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"tornado-damage-768x232.jpg","width":768,"height":232,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/futurevoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/01\/tornado-damage-768x232.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1","keywords":[]}},"post":152,"source_url":"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/futurevoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/01\/tornado-damage.jpg"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n