And this wasn't some amateur yahoo with an iPhone. The Storm Prediction Center said scientific storm chasing is performed as safely as possible, with trained researchers using appropriate technology. It didn't handle high winds.". The EF5 storm that hit Moore decimated neighborhoods. As unknowable as the chain of random events that give rise to tornadoes is, so too was the series of decisions that ended three lives. Videos and Final Tweets From Storm Chasers Killed in Oklahoma No chaser could claim as many intercepts. The risks, for him, were worth it. Early aerial images of the storm's damage showed groups of homes with porches ripped away, roofs torn off and piles of splintered wood scattered across the ground for blocks. and
For more videos, please go to the Long Center Austin. They sounded confused, disoriented. Police urged motorists to leave the crosstown Interstate 40 and seek a safe place. Officials in St. Charles County also reported that local schools suffered some damage. Jim Cantore, a Weather Channel meteorologist, tweetedSundaythat meteorologists were in mourning. When the storm passed between El Reno and Yukon, it barreled right down Interstate 40 for more than two miles, ripping billboards down to twisted metal frames. By Jennifer Preston. Yet he'd never witnessed the strongest: For all their talent for finding tornadoes, neither Young nor Samaras had ever encountered an EF-5. As he began his search, he found the Cobalt's motor half a mile away. Carl Young, a California native, joined Samaras in the field in 2003. But it only told part of the story. What neither Robinson nor Samaras could have known was that in seconds it had grown from 1 mile to 2.6 miles wide, making it the largest tornado ever documented. Robinson, a website designer and chaser from St. Louis, jumped into his compact Toyota and sped east. As they'd seen in Moore, the roads tended to clot with panicked people and the growing ranks of amateur storm chasers.