KXAS, the NBC station in Dallas, Texas, has apologized to thousands of viewers in the area for failing to cut into the Cowboys game while a Tornado plowed through a densely populated part of the city.
“During Sunday night’s Dallas Cowboys game, we made a mistake by not immediately interrupting the football game with a Tornado Warning,” the station said in a statement.
“Although our meteorologists were tracking thunderstorms across the area when the National Weather Service issued a Tornado Warning for Dallas County, we delayed breaking into programming for six minutes. Our meteorologists were also streaming live weather coverage throughout the evening on our site, NBCDFW.com. We also alerted the football audience to our weather live stream throughout the game.”
According to the station, the tornado touched down right as the second half of the game was starting. KXAS waited six minutes to go into full-screen live coverage on the coverage.
“When it comes to dealing with severe weather, we know that seconds matter. We should have broken into football programming sooner. We apologize and want you to know that we’re doing everything in our power to make sure this does not happen again. We look forward to regaining your trust, and anyone who we may have disappointed,” the station said.
The F3 tornado touched down at 10:15 p.m. local time on Sunday. The move to not cut into programming got a lot of people talking on social media before the station issued a statement.
EF-3 tornado in Dallas.
Initial Tornado Warning included 1.36 million people.
The Dallas NBC affiliate (primarily)aired the Cowboys game over tornado coverage.
Oh to be a fly on the wall in that decision making process. https://t.co/e9JkETKaMj
— Matt Serwe KETV (@MattSerweKETV) October 21, 2019