We are all aware of the risks chasing tornadoes. The surprising thing to us was that none of us had been killed yet, and even more surprising was that when it finally happened it happened to Tim Samaras, his son Paul and Carl Young. Earlier that day the Storm Prediction Center gave the public a "Loaded Gun" warning for Oklahoma City and surrounding area. Unfortunately this also tells everyone in OKC where there's an excellent chance of seeing a destructive tornado. The streets and back roads were packed with cars and trucks, half evacuating, half racing in. People were hollering, cursing, crashing into each other, panicking, and blocking passage. Horns, sirens, thunder and the gushing sound of a tornado barreling down. At first the storm was moving relatively slow in an Easterly direction. 2 or 3 miles to the South was the Canadian River where most of the backroads / escape routes ended. Straight ahead were several easterly roads heading to OKC. When the tornado materialized i was driving next to it with several other chasers about 25 mph as it inched closer and closer. When it was close enough i hit the gas planning to outrun it. The tornado's radius was growing, accelerating and getting closer.... I could only go so fast due to the traffic in front of me and the tornado was gaining ground. I slammed on the breaks flipped the car around, blasted west and had to drive closer to an EF-5 than i ever want to again... looking at my maps i could see the chasers might be outrun. Then the tornado made a hard left turn to the Northeast and grew to 2.6 miles wide in diameter. If i had to speculate I'd say something random happened to Tim. Somebody ran him off the road or crashed into his vehicle... or some kind of vehicle failure... Tire blow out or windshield gave way... He knew tornadoes tendency to deviate. We may never know, but i'm convinced something else went wrong. Regardless, They died doing what they loved doing and if it happens to me... if i start choking on a peanut while running from a tornado know this... it was worth every second. I love chasing tornadoes and i love cracker jack. My condolences to Tim, Paul and Carl's family and all the other victims of this day. |
Labels: Not cool, Tornados, Worst Ever
