00:00It was June 1928, when Mr. Keller almost lost his life in a terrifying natural disaster.
00:07He was outside with his family when he noticed an umbrella-shaped cloud that seemed to be
00:11approaching them.
00:12It gave him a sense of foreboding – a tornado was probably forming there.
00:18Indeed, in no time, three huge funnel clouds were dashing their way.
00:24After rushing his family into the storm cellar, Keller decided to have another look.
00:28And what he saw both terrified and mesmerized him.
00:34The twister was directly overhead, but inside the swirling cloud, everything was eerily
00:40still.
00:41The man could feel a strong, grassy smell.
00:44He had trouble breathing.
00:45He looked up and saw a circular opening right overhead.
00:49It was around 50 to 100 feet across and around half a mile high.
00:54Keller could clearly see the walls of the rotating cloud.
00:57Constant bursts of lightning zig-zagged from side to side non-stop, illuminating this horror
01:03movie scene.
01:04The man could also see many smaller tornadoes forming and breaking free.
01:09A deafening, hissing noise was overwhelming.
01:12And the next moment, the tornado skipped over Keller's house and smashed the home of his
01:17neighbors.
01:20Mr. Keller wasn't the only person to see the tornado from the inside and live to tell
01:24the tale.
01:25But other survivors didn't end up as unscathed.
01:29It seemed to be a regular day when Chris Tuving from Dallas, Texas got to the Little Caesars
01:34in 2019.
01:35They had run out of pizzas, so he decided to wait.
01:39Well it was a grave mistake.
01:41A powerful tornado hit the shopping mall where he was staying and pulled him out of the building.
01:46Chris managed to find a support column and held on for dear life.
01:50But no muscle strength could compare to the terrifying power of the tornado.
01:55Tuving was lifted into the air and thrown into a truck parked in front of the restaurant.
02:00He tried to hold on to the hood, but there was nothing to grab.
02:04In the end, he managed to hold on to the rim of the left front tire and stayed there until
02:09the whole nightmare stopped.
02:11The tornado Chris survived had sustained winds of 140 miles per hour and was 13 football
02:18fields wide at the base.
02:20Eric Simmons recalled taking cover from a tornado in May 2019 by climbing into his truck.
02:27Once inside, he looked out of his right windshield and saw vines growing along the fence.
02:32They were moving around in a bizarre way that confused the man.
02:36And then it all started.
02:38Suddenly, everything Eric could see was wind and pitch black darkness.
02:44Then a section of a roof flew over him and shredded apart mid-air.
02:48The truck's back windshield shattered, showering the man with shards of glass.
02:53A tree in front of him was lifted into the air like a twig and the fence blew over the
02:57top of the truck.
03:00Simmons could feel the back of the vehicle lifting.
03:02He could see the power lines exploding right in front of his eyes.
03:06Even though the visibility was terrible, he could still see the flashes.
03:11It all lasted around 45 seconds, but to him, an eternity seemed to have passed.
03:17When the coast grew clear, Eric got out of the car, but he could barely walk after the
03:21shock he had lived through.
03:23He couldn't speak.
03:25It was one of the most horrifying and traumatic experiences of his life.
03:30According to the man, the real reason why he was so terrified was because he had no
03:34training, no warning, and no defense against whatever was coming.
03:39Later, he found out that the tornado had almost taken his life at a speed of 86 to 110 miles
03:46per hour and was around 75 to 100 yards across.
03:52A tornado is a rotating column of air that touches the ground.
03:57Sometimes it's connected to the base of a thunderstorm.
04:00The wind speeds inside tornadoes can top hundreds of miles an hour.
04:05No wonder they have enormously devastating potential, picking up objects, unrooting trees,
04:10destroying buildings, you name it.
04:13The problem with escaping a tornado is that it's not always easy to see.
04:18The wind, however severe it is, is invisible.
04:22The first sign of an approaching tornado might be the infamous rumble resembling the noise
04:27a moving freight train produces.
04:30There are also some other sounds indicating that a tornado is coming, but the human ear
04:35can't perceive those.
04:37When you spot that classic tornado cone, it means it has already developed a condensation
04:42funnel made of water, dust, and debris.
04:46The most destructive tornadoes are born from rotating thunderstorms called supercells.
04:51Luckily, those are something meteorologists can actually notice because such storms have
04:57a well-defined appearance on radars.
05:00Experts believe that the difference in the temperature of such a storm can determine
05:04how likely a tornado is to form.
05:07And still, there's a lot we don't know about this process.
05:11For example, the question about why and where tornadoes are most likely to appear remains
05:16unanswered.
05:21The strength of tornadoes is measured with the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
05:25The rating goes from 0 to 5, considering the damage caused by a tornado and its wind
05:31speeds, where EF0 is the weakest tornado and EF5 is a tornado I hope you will never ever
05:38come across.
05:40The EF scale rounds off at wind speeds of 318 miles per hour, with strong frame houses
05:46being lifted off foundations and carried long distances to be eventually broken into pieces.
05:53Tornadoes fly through the air for more than 328 feet away, and steel-reinforced structures
06:00are left badly damaged.
06:03Despite this terrifying power and ferocity of tornadoes, authorities report that even
06:08the worst of them have a 99% survival rate.
06:11But it doesn't mean that you shouldn't take all possible precautions to avoid ending
06:15up inside one.
06:17Stay away from doors and windows, move to an interior room if possible, and use pillows,
06:22blankets, and mattresses to protect yourself from flying debris.
06:27If stranded outside during a tornado, crawl into a ditch and cover yourself, protecting
06:32the head.
06:33Now there's another twister that is as scary as a tornado, but this one forms in the water.
06:40Whirlpools appear when fast-flowing water crashes into an obstacle or another current.
06:46The water starts swirling in a downward spiral, creating a vortex that can pull objects, animals,
06:53and even small boats that happen to be nearby to the bottom.
06:58One more way for a whirlpool to form is the sudden appearance of a sinkhole created by
07:03a collapsed cave, for example.
07:06This makes water flood the hollow structure and creates a whirlpool, similar to the one
07:10you see when you pull the plug out of a bath filled with water.
07:15While some whirlpools are small and brief, others can reach enormous sizes and be driven
07:21by constant currents.
07:23The most dangerous of them are maelstroms.
07:26If you get into a whirlpool like that, your chances to get back to the surface are slim.
07:32The incessant movement of the water and its pulling power can leave you disoriented and
07:36stuck without air.
07:39That's what happened to Stuart Foulstone when he got trapped in a whirlpool.
07:44His first instinct was to swim out of it, but this idea proved to be hopeless.
07:49The footage filmed by the cameraman attached to his helmet later showed that the man had
07:53been underwater for almost three and a half minutes.
07:57He had probably been dragged all the way down to the riverbed.
08:00There, the pull of the twister lessened a bit and finally released its hold.
08:05The guy was lucky to get spotted face down in the water and pulled to the surface by
08:09a kayak.
08:11The depth a whirlpool can pull you down to can vary.
08:14It depends on its power and size.
08:17Sadly, not everyone who got trapped in a whirlpool survived and got out again.
08:22In different ways in which whirlpools form means that sometimes they can appear out of
08:27the blue.
08:28You can't predict this process and get no warning.
08:31So the best way to stay safe is to wear your life jacket at all times when in the water.
08:37If you get pulled into a whirlpool, try not to move in the same direction as the water
08:41flow.
08:42Aim for the outer edge rather than the center of the twister.
08:46If you're lucky, the whirlpool might throw you back up.
08:49There have been precedents.
08:51And if you come over a whirlpool in a boat or kayak, do your best to stop the boat from
08:56filling with water.
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