News DetailA story from a Greensburg tornado survivor...
Posted At: May 20, 2007 @ 12:56 PM
Posted By: Reed Timmer
Related Categories: Tornadoes
Here is an insane story from a truck driver who survived the Greensburg tornado! He gave me permission to post it on the blog:
I was in Greensburg, ks on may the 4th, and untill I seen this website it is the first time I got to look at the tornado that took out greensburg. I am a truck driver. I was passing through Greensburg when my student woke me up and told me he heard there was a tornado watch in the area. I told him to pull over and we will see what happens explaining to him that I am from southern Oklahoma and we have tornado watches about every 5 mins, and it was nothing to worry about. That I would be worried when we heard the tornado sirens go off, he then rolled down the window and I could hear them. We got out of the truck and took shelter in a gas station across the street. well we stood outside watching the hail start comming down. The attendant left and locked the door behind him. Leaving about 10 of us outside of the station. Someone tried the door anyway and it opend. We went inside to get out of the rain/hail. We started looking for a safe place to be at if the tornado hit the store. We decided on the cooler would be the best place not thinking of the pressure that would build up inside it and all the glass that was around us inside there. Then it was time to react as the lights went out. We noticed the windows start moving and the noise I could feel my ears as if they wanted to pop. We ran into the cooler and got down on our knees where my student and I started praying as the tornado ripped though the area. Then it was quiet and my student who was from FL. started to get up when I pushed him back down and told him to stay there it wasn't over yet and it was about it hit again, he looked at me and said "what?" and then we passed though the eye of the tornado. It was hitting us again this time taking off the roof, and taking out the wall next to us. I thank all the storm chasers out there for what they do. To give us a early warning, yall do a great job thanks. The entire ordel prolly only lasted 30 seconds inside that cooler but it must have been the longest 30 seconds of my life as I was sure it was about to end. Thanks again guys and gals :) I wanted to post this on your website but couldn't find a place to do it.
Brad
Greensburg, ks tornado survivor
Greensburg, ks tornado survivor
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Thank God they were able to get inside the station!
Joel and Reed, you guys are great. You've got more guts than I ever will.
Keep safe out there!
Incredible story Brad, I can't imagine what this must have been like to go through. Amazing that you knew you were in the "eye", and that things would get intense yet again. Your student was very lucky to have you around!
Hey Reed,
Is there any way to contact this guy? We talked to a truck driver in Greensburg who asked us if we had seen his rig. He told us he couldn't find it. It's nothing short of a miracle that so many people survived.
Wow Brad...that is one amazing story. I'm so glad you guys are ok and that you pushed down your student in time...whoa. That had to be a terrifying 30 seconds!! Thanks for posting this here on the blog, Reed!
Glad you made it though that. Did your student come back to work the next day?(
Wow, that is a amazing story...It makes me wonder how big the eye of a tornado is...In circumfrance and in Vertical height...I know it deff depends on the size...but does anyone have a idea? Reed?
And Owen...after the devestation that took place, i'm sure there rigg was destroyed...or close to it...and that they may have been stuck in the Greensburg area for a day or two...If i were that student i wouldnt let a tornado scare me from my job.
There is the "rest of the story" that we so infrequently get to hear. So many times, we see tornado videos where structures are being damaged or destroyed, and it isn't often that we get to hear from those who were in "that house" or whatever, and in turn get to know more about what it's really like to go through something like this.
All I can say is WOW. And that's incredible, too.
I had just got home from the movies and then
I wached TWC then greensburg was right in the
the path of a tornado and i thought I hope those
poor people are in shelter. about 20 sec later
TWC said that greensburg is taking a direct hit
looking at that hook echo that was right on greensburg
I almost cryed. then TWC said we are sorry but 9 people
died. then the next day I wached CNN thay found 1
more body. and the damage was unbelievable. 3 days
later I found out that the tornado was an EF5. with 205
mph winds. looking at my F scale it was an F3. tragic
story.
yea my student and I got put up in the hotel till monday where we drove to Denver, CO I got a new truck and went back driving. My student is about to graduate and get his own truck prolly this week. I did find my truck it was where I left it ! with the other trucks across from the Gas Station it wasn't really destoryed some outside damage though mud and what not up inside of it, Busted out windows. I am actully about to buy that truck after my company fixxes it up. My student said when we was in the eye of the tornado all he could see is the lighting flashes and how calm it was till I pushed his head back down. My student and I can remember when the second half of the tornado was going though me and him was holding arms praying. I looked down seen a six pack of bush light in his lap grabbed the beer and informed him he didn't need to be drinking right now LOL :)
Another great example of how valuable Reed's website is. Reed, you are da man, and that is no overstatement.
Thanks, Brad for sharing your tragic story. It just goes to show that a tornado doesn't just have a damage toll on what it hits, rather it shows the tragedies that unfold, and the personal stories of survival that develop after it. Once again, I thank you for your amazing story, and wish you good luck from now on.
Also, Reed, The Weather Network (Canada's version of The Weather Channel) has issued a severe weather threat, with an "Extra Caution" threat on it for us here in Southern Manitoba, including Winnipeg, for tomorrow. It's being caused by a storm system, which is also, as you probably know, responsiblle for a risk in the plains tomorrow of the US also. I will track these storms again, and update you as the situation unfolds tomorrow. Are you chasing this one? I hope you are, and catch footage of yet another storm!Please respond ASAP! Well, gotta go now everyone! See ya for now!
Hey Brad,
I live in Florida & have allways been intreaged by Tornado's since I was a young girl.( I am all to familiar
with hurricanes) I recently found this web site & have been very much intrested. Thanks for sharing your story .
Also thanks for sharing that you prayed!! Becuase when these tragedys happen I think the world has become complacent about the power of prayer & the one true God who continues to Answer them ! I am glad that you & your Student were safe & remember the same God that created that Tornado is the Same God that protected you!! Good Luck & I PRAY you are allways safe on the road as you travel !!
GOD BLESS , Sherri
Found this link recently, Brad might your truck be in any of these photos?
http://www.kansas.com/626/
Everyone, I'm really intreagued by the concept of the eye of a tornado. I just read the following on another website including one account from none other than Greensburg Kansas, in 1928. Does this sound accurate?
--
So what is it like in the eye of a tornado? Survivors who have experienced the center of a storm report complete silence in the eye, and a strange, blue glow. Looking up, the tornado looks like a hollow column, slick-surfaced and opaque, about ten feet thick, resembling the inside of a pipe. It extends upward for over a thousand feet, swaying gently. At the bottom, according to one testimony, the funnel was 150 yards across and was larger higher up, and was filled with a bright cloud, shimmering like a fluorescent light. The column appears to be a stack of huge rings, each independent of the next. These rings cause waves to ripple from top to bottom. As each wave reaches the bottom of the tornado, the funnel’s tip snaps like a whip.
A Kansas farmer looked straight up a tornado near Greensburg on June 22, 1928. He described a circular opening in the center of the funnel, about 50 or 100 feet wide. Extending up for half a mile, its walls were spinning clouds and full of lightning flashes. He saw smaller tornadoes constantly form and break away from the center with hissing sounds.
--
Wow. INCREDIBLE story, Brad. THat's why we all do what we do, and I thank God that so many people were able to survive. Thank you for sharing that story with us. Thankfully you and your student came out fine. You are very lucky, and I'm sure you had someone watchin out for you.
yea we are very lucky, to be honest I am not sure how we survived other than a higher power watching over us. To answer Jeff's question about the eye of the tornado I can give you what my student said about it. Me personaly I had my head stuck between my legs kissing my butt goodbye. I really did think my life was over. My student said the eye all he saw was bright flashes, but the image will be permantly in his mind forever. He has a video of the hail just before the tornado hit, to be honest I wished I had grabbed my camera and video taped it but had other things on my mind at the time. If any of you have pic. please send them to me Illexio@sbcglobal.net Thanks.
The only video I have seen with my truck is in it was on some news covarge and it showed it for about .0001 seconds and it was a aerial view. For the people that was there in greenburg that night. If you know where the command center was that night the gas station that is where I was during the tornado. I thank the good lord every day for letting me be alive today and everyday. I also learned take life slow it is to short to always be working and not enjoying life.
Brad,
Do you remember talking to any storm chasers? I was parked in front of the convenience store you were taking cover in.
I might have, man alot of that night is fuzzy very fuzzy, I called my mother right after the tornado and it took her 10 min. to figure out what I was saying then she freaked out and asked if I was still going to drive a truck I told her I don't know anything else that I can do that I love so much :)
Better question is do you have any pictures of that convenience store ?
There's a great freeze-frame radar signature from the Greensburg tornado that is like nothing I've ever seen, like a purple doughnut on the back edge of a red/yellow monster headed North. The radar actually shows an eye. It's pretty unbelieveable actually given the normal radar signatures of tornadoes, it looks almost like a mini hurricane. Here's a link, scroll to the bottom of the page: http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/883842/
As far as tornado eyes go, as with all undeciphered facets of tornado study, they intrigue me as well. I can offer some semi-literate details garnered from the books and videos I've watched, since nobody has mentioned them here yet.
Tornado eyes are of course a fact. The link provided above of a close-up nexrad seems to be a good example. If you watch the Tornado Video Classics videos, they go into important detail on the matter. In a nutshell, when a tornado's vorticity has passed a certain threshold, it will have evolved into the well-known multiple vortex variety, with the center being a downward draft. (Theoretically) most of the damaging wind activity is away from the center during this phase.
Here's where I submit my speculative observations. The highest-detail image of a tornado eye I have seen is one taken from near proximity to the 1999 OKC F5 when it was roughly a mile wide. There were details strongly hinting at structure in the inner walls of the eye. But the thing I noticed was how small the OKC tornado's eye was. I had seen radar imagery of other tornado eyes and they were much wider, relative to the tornado's total width.
When one considers the incontrovertible strength of the OKC tornado, vs. the relative lack of strength of other large tornadoes with radar-imaged eyes, a correlation develops: The stronger the tornado, the smaller, relatively speaking, the eye has shrunk. It seems significant to me that the same correlation can be drawn between the strength of hurricanes and the size of their eyes. Granted, the structure is dramatically different in ways, but the phenomena appear to be the same.
Just a point for consideration.