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An F-3 tornado slammed into downtown Fort Smith, including the KPBI/KFDF studios, on April 21, 1996. A lot of that year was spent recuperating from the considerable damage (one of the production/promotion department’s two Video Toasters was a total loss) and adding new capabilities, such as the FoxAlert weather warning system. Though it was billed as “the last word on the first word in weather,” we were more often plagued by the downtown area’s tendency to lose electrical power during even small thunderstorms (thanks to the electric company’s slapdash repair job to the nearest substation).
