00:00In June 1928, a certain Mr. Keller almost lost his life in a terrifying natural disaster.
00:07He was outside with his family when he noticed a cloud in the shape of an umbrella that seemed to be approaching them.
00:13He felt a sense of anxiety. A tornado was probably forming in this place.
00:18Indeed, in a blink of an eye, three huge clouds in the shape of a funnel were heading towards them.
00:24After having led his family into the underground shelter, Keller decided to take another look.
00:29And what he saw horrified him and hypnotized him at the same time.
00:34The tornado was just above his head. But inside the swirling cloud, everything was strangely calm.
00:41The man perceived a strong smell of grass. He had trouble breathing.
00:45He raised his eyes and saw a circular opening just above him.
00:49It was between 15 and 30 meters in diameter and about a kilometer high.
00:54Keller clearly distinguished the walls of the cloud in rotation.
00:57Constant flashes were zigzagging from side to side non-stop, illuminating the scene worthy of a horror movie.
01:04Many smaller tornadoes were forming and detaching from the cloud.
01:09A deafening whistling could be heard.
01:12The next moment, the tornado passed over Mr. Keller's house and destroyed those of his neighbors.
01:20Mr. Keller is not the only person to have seen a tornado from the inside and survived.
01:25But the other survivors were not so lucky.
01:29In 2019, Chris Tuveng, from Dallas, Texas, one day went to a pizzeria without knowing what to expect.
01:37As the pizzas were not ready, he decided to wait a little while.
01:41It was a big mistake.
01:43A powerful tornado fell on the mall where the restaurant was located and dragged him outside the building.
01:49He managed to hang on to a column and prayed for his life.
01:54But what human strength can resist the terrifying power of a tornado?
01:59Tuveng was lifted into the air and thrown onto a truck parked in front of the restaurant.
02:03He tried to hang on to the hood, but there was nothing to grab.
02:07Finally, he managed to hang on to the front left tire and stayed there until the nightmare stopped.
02:13The tornado that Chris survived was measuring, at its base, 13 football fields wide and its gusts reached 225 km per hour.
02:22Eric Simmons climbed into his truck to protect himself from a tornado in May 2019.
02:27Once inside, he looked through his windshield.
02:31Vines seemed to grow along a closure.
02:34It was moving in a strange way.
02:36He felt like he was losing his head.
02:38That's when it all started.
02:40Suddenly, all Eric could see was the wind.
02:44The darkness was total.
02:46Then a layer of roof flew over him and broke into the air.
02:50The rear windshield of the truck also broke and projected glass shards on our man.
02:55A tree in front of him was raised like a twig and the closure was dragged over the truck.
03:01Simmons felt the back of the vehicle lift up.
03:04He saw electric lines exploding under his eyes.
03:07Even if the visibility was bad, he could still see the lightning.
03:11All this lasted about 45 seconds, but it seemed to him that an eternity was running out.
03:17When the road was cleared, Eric got out of his vehicle.
03:20But he could barely walk after the shock he had just suffered.
03:23He couldn't talk either.
03:25It was one of the most horrible and traumatic experiences of his life.
03:29According to him, the reason for his paralyzing terror was that he had not received any training,
03:34that he had not been warned and that he could not defend himself against what was happening to him.
03:39Later, he discovered that the tornado that had almost cost him his life
03:43had a speed between 138 and 177 km per hour and was between 68 and 91 meters in diameter.
03:52A tornado is an air column in rotation that touches the ground.
03:56Sometimes it is connected to the base of a storm.
03:59The wind speed inside tornadoes can reach hundreds of kilometers per hour.
04:04It is therefore not surprising that they have enormous devastating potential.
04:08They tear down cars, roots, trees, destroy buildings, etc.
04:14The problem with a tornado is that it is not always easy to see it coming.
04:18The wind, however violent it is, is invisible.
04:23The first sign of its approach is often the famous rumbling,
04:26which recalls the noise of a train of goods on the move.
04:30There are other sounds indicating the arrival of a tornado,
04:33but the human ear cannot perceive them.
04:37When you see the cone of a tornado,
04:39it means that it has already formed a condensation funnel composed of water, dust and debris.
04:46The most destructive tornadoes are born from rotating storms that are called supercells.
04:52Luckily, meteorologists are able to spot such storms
04:56because they have a well-defined appearance on the radars.
05:00Experts estimate that it is the difference in temperature
05:03that determines the probability of formation of a tornado.
05:07And yet, we still don't know a lot about this process.
05:11For example, the questions of why and where tornadoes are most likely to occur remain unanswered.
05:21Tornadoes are measured using the improved Fujita scale.
05:25The scale ranges from 0 to 5 depending on the damage caused by the tornado and the wind speed.
05:31EF0 is the weakest tornado,
05:34and EF5 is a tornado that you will never meet, I hope.
05:41The EF scale peaks at 290 km per hour.
05:45Solid-structure houses are lifted from their foundations
05:48and transported over long distances before being reduced to rubble.
05:53Cars are thrown into the air over 100 meters away,
05:58and steel-frame constructions are seriously damaged.
06:03Despite the terrifying power and ferocity of tornadoes,
06:07authorities report that even the worst of them have a survival rate of 99%.
06:14But this does not mean that you should not take all the possible precautions
06:18to avoid finding yourself inside one of these monsters.
06:21Do not approach doors and windows.
06:24Take refuge, if possible, in the center of your house
06:27and use pillows, blankets and mattresses to protect yourself from flying debris.
06:32If you are stuck outside during a tornado,
06:34crawl up to a ditch, cover yourself and protect your head.
06:38There is a phenomenon just as frightening as a tornado,
06:41but which is formed in the water.
06:43Turbulences appear when water at high flow hits an obstacle or another current.
06:49The water then begins to swirl in a descending spiral,
06:52dragging all objects, animals and even small boats that are nearby to the bottom.
07:00A tornado can also form when a gulf suddenly appears created by the collapse of a cave, for example.
07:06The water then invades the hollow structure and creates a swirling current,
07:10similar to the one you see when you remove the cap of a bathtub filled with water.
07:15While some tornadoes are small and brief,
07:18others can reach enormous dimensions and be driven by constant currents.
07:23The most dangerous of them are the maelstroms.
07:27If you enter such a swirl, your chances of going back to the surface are slim.
07:32The constant movement of the water and its attraction force disorient you and prevent you from breathing.
07:39This is what happened to Stuart Fullstone when he found himself trapped in a swirl.
07:44His first reflex was to swim, but this idea proved to be unfruitful.
07:49The images filmed by the camera fixed on his helmet
07:52show that the man remained underwater for nearly three and a half minutes.
07:57He was probably dragged all the way to the bottom of the river.
08:00There, the attraction force weakened a little and finally released its grip.
08:05The man was lucky. A kayaker spotted him in the water and brought him back to the surface.
08:11The depth at which a swirl can drag you can vary.
08:15It depends on its power and its size.
08:18Fortunately, all people trapped in a swirl have not survived and have never come out of the water.
08:24The diversity of the ways in which swirls form means that they can sometimes appear unexpectedly.
08:31Impossible to predict anything, you are not warned.
08:35The best way to stay safe is to wear your life jacket at all times when you are in the water.
08:42If you are dragged into a swirl, try not to move in the same direction as the water flow.
08:47Aim for the outer edge rather than the center of the swirl.
08:51If you are lucky, its force will project you upwards. There have been precedents.
08:56If you cross a swirl by boat or kayak, do your best to prevent your boat from filling with water.
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