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00:00The wind started howling, and you could hear the roar coming.
00:19Looks like a 5,000-pound bomb hit the middle of town and blew up.
00:25Holy ! Get inside! Oh, my God!
00:28This is an emergency. You go to a safe place right now.
00:34I knew the direction it was heading, and I knew my baby was in that path.
00:39Oh, my God! Oh !
00:44As temperatures rise all around the globe,
00:47natural disasters are becoming more violent and more frequent.
00:51Extreme weather survivors have captured the intensity and the magnitude of these events.
01:00These are first-hand accounts of a planet gone rogue.
01:04April 27, 2011 was the worst day on record in Alabama.
01:1362 tornadoes touched ground, and 252 people died in less than 24 hours.
01:20James Spann spent most of that day on live TV, trying to save lives.
01:25The most important part of my job is to provide adequate warning for storms that can kill people.
01:37And if we're not successful at that, we're not successful at anything.
01:41At 5.40 a.m., James Spann joins his colleague, Jason Simpson, who's been on the air since 3.30 a.m.
01:48I want to show you this.
01:49From the graphics system, the Storm Prediction Center has placed Alabama in a high risk of severe weather today.
01:55We all knew it was going to be bad.
01:56It was going to be one of the worst severe weather days that we had ever seen.
01:59We've got James Spann.
02:01Thank you very much.
02:02When he walked in the door, for me there was a feeling of comfort,
02:05because I knew I wasn't going to keep fighting this fire alone.
02:12In addition to radar and satellite data, Spann and Simpson rely on professional storm spotters
02:18to provide what they call ground truth.
02:22We were one of several teams that worked for James Spann at his TV station.
02:27So our job is to find storms in northwest Alabama, and when they start happening,
02:33to give visual confirmation.
02:3545 years in the weather business, and I've never seen a tornado,
02:38and somehow or other I just had this knowledge that I was going to see one on this day.
02:43Brian and Tim meet in the city of Jasper, an hour northwest of Birmingham,
02:48where Spann's TV station is located.
02:51Around 2 p.m., we notice an odd-looking cloud approaching us.
02:56Brian, is that a rain-free base over there, sir?
02:59I was just trying to decide that.
03:01I mean, this storm looks so weak on radar, it doesn't even seem possible.
03:04It doesn't look like much at all.
03:06Lo and behold, it comes over us, and as it comes over us,
03:10we see that telltale sign, a rain-free base and a wall cloud,
03:15and in addition to that, the wall cloud is rotating.
03:19I see rotation, I see rotation. Check it out, Brian.
03:22Yep.
03:23Rotation. We have rotation.
03:29It takes a severe thunderstorm to make a tornado.
03:32If wind shear causes the mid-levels of a thunderstorm to rotate,
03:36a mesocyclone is formed.
03:39And if the rotating winds then descend to the ground,
03:42the result is a tornado.
03:45Shoot. Where's the cell phone?
03:48Tim places a call to the National Weather Service
03:51and informs them of what we're seeing as storm spotters.
03:55This is Tim Coleman. I am on Highway 78, just west of Jasper,
03:59and I'm watching a rotating wall cloud.
04:01That picture's coming right at us. I've got to get back in the truck.
04:04They immediately issued a tornado warning.
04:06This is an urgent message.
04:08This is a tornado emergency for the city of Coleman.
04:12Lauren Minot was aware of the tornado warning
04:15when she left her house and headed to work in downtown Coleman.
04:18But for Lauren and most people who've grown up in the area,
04:21tornadoes and tornado warnings are just a routine part of life
04:25in rural Alabama.
04:27I had the radio on, but I wasn't really paying attention
04:30to the weather until it beeped really loud
04:33and said there was a tornado in South Coleman County.
04:36The National Weather Service in Huntsville
04:40has issued a tornado warning for extreme
04:43southeastern Madison County in north central Alabama,
04:46southwestern Jackson County in northeast Alabama.
04:49I get just about in town, you know, I'm looking around,
04:52because they're still saying that there's a tornado.
04:55And finally I see it.
04:57Oh my God.
05:00Holy crap.
05:02At this point, I'm just like, oh my gosh,
05:04I have to get out of here.
05:05So I turn around thinking that I'm going to have time
05:08to get out the way.
05:10Friday, April 29th is the final day to shop the willow tree.
05:14And it hits me.
05:17It sounds like someone is throwing rocks at my car.
05:21And at this point, I feel like I'm being lifted up,
05:35because I had that weird feeling in my stomach.
05:38You know, like when you're riding a roller coaster.
05:41The tornado scooped up the car.
05:44The tornado scooped up the car.
05:46And dropped it in a parking lot next to the road.
05:49Fortunately, Lauren escaped with a
06:16without injury, even though she ignored all the warnings.
06:21In 2011, about 80% of all tornado warnings were false.
06:25A warning was issued.
06:26Nothing happened at your house.
06:28And after repeated warnings like that,
06:31where nothing happens, it's cry wolf.
06:33The boy that cried wolf.
06:34And we know that people seek confirmation
06:36when they hear a warning.
06:37They believe it when they see it.
06:39They turned on the television,
06:40and we had the live stream of the tornado.
06:42There it is.
06:43And again, this is coming right through the middle
06:45of downtown Cullman.
06:46You can see the debris.
06:47The live streaming images broadcast on TV
06:50left no doubt in Kim Cross's mind
06:53that this storm was dangerous and deadly.
06:56She's a journalist and longtime Alabama resident.
06:59When we first saw Cullman on TV,
07:02you get this terrible feeling in the pit of your stomach.
07:05You think, my God, people could be dying.
07:07I'm watching on TV as people are dying.
07:13You know, I grew up with tornadoes.
07:15I remember being in first grade
07:17and having to do tornado turtle,
07:19where you get down in the hallway and put your,
07:21you know, crawl up in a ball,
07:22and you put your hands over your head
07:24and protect your head.
07:25The tornado turtle is a leftover
07:27from a nuclear bomb awareness film
07:29dating back to the Cold War era.
07:31And the air raid sirens,
07:33many installed during World War II,
07:35are no match for the deafening roar of a tornado.
07:39You might hear a siren on a calm day
07:41with no storm during a raging thunderstorm
07:44that is 65,000 feet tall
07:46with a tornado and driving rain
07:48in unbelievable thunder.
07:50You can't hear a siren.
07:51They're worthless.
07:52But if they see a tornado live on television,
07:54then they will do something.
07:58The Cullman tornado was an EF-4.
08:01EF stands for Enhanced Fujita,
08:04a scale which classifies tornadoes
08:06from zero to five,
08:08depending on the wind speeds
08:09and the damage they inflict.
08:11The Cullman EF-4 stayed on the ground
08:14for more than 65 kilometers.
08:16And close on its heels,
08:18an EF-5 tornado slammed
08:20into the city of Hackleburg.
08:22So if you have family that live in Lawrence County
08:26up around Moulton and Hatton,
08:27call them now.
08:28Let them know that there's a large,
08:30violent tornado on the ground
08:31moving across Lawrence County.
08:33After it flattened the Wrangler jeans factory,
08:36the EF-5 continued northeast,
08:39headed straight towards Carrie Kirby
08:41and her family and friends.
08:43The last thing they said on TV
08:45before we lost power was,
08:47it just hit Phil Campbell,
08:48it's headed towards Mt. Hope.
08:50If you're in the path of Mt. Hope, get out.
08:52So we got in the truck
08:53and came down here and got in.
08:55And it was bad.
08:57And it was bad.
09:00Carrie's neighbor, Billy Little,
09:02is a chicken farmer.
09:04Just a few hours before the twister hit,
09:06Billy saw Carrie and her husband Hal in town
09:09and invited them to ride out the storm
09:12in his cinder block shelter.
09:14You know, it was real black back in there.
09:17You know, it was just a black cloud.
09:19But yet we would,
09:20I was looking back in there over in woods
09:23and the tornado was drawing that energy
09:26and it was clouds.
09:27I mean, big clouds just rushing towards it.
09:30You know, it looked like it was doing
09:32two, three hundred mile an hour.
09:35You could see a wall of rain and stuff moving.
09:38I saw some black and gray mist looking
09:41that it was rolling in front of that wall.
09:44Hail the size of golf balls
09:46started dropping from the sky.
09:48The telltale sign of the cold front
09:50that fueled the twister.
09:51Then me and Billy were looking at the balls of ice.
09:54One hit you on the hand, didn't it?
09:56It hit me on the hand and my son,
09:58he was running and one hit him on the head.
10:00Before he could get in.
10:02And then I could see gray smoke
10:04just rolling towards us.
10:06And that scared me to death when I saw that.
10:09So I got back in the shelter and sat down
10:11and I was silently praying they would hurry up
10:14and get in the shelter and close that door.
10:16Hey, it's coming right over us.
10:18Yeah, I ain't never seen nothing like this.
10:19Look at that boy, it's getting dark.
10:20Look here, Lord, how merciful.
10:22I ain't never seen anything like this.
10:23When they got the door shut,
10:25it didn't last but 30 seconds of quiet
10:28before we could start hearing the tornado coming.
10:30and it sounded like a jet airplane to me.
10:41And it just kept getting louder and louder and louder.
10:43And then we could start seeing mud and pieces of leaves
10:56and trash being thrown up under the door into the shelter with us.
11:00The tornado does not let up.
11:13And there's not much to do but hunker down and pray.
11:19One of the deadliest super outbreaks in the history of the United States
11:23has unleashed a rash of violent tornadoes on the towns and farmlands of Alabama.
11:29For the unlucky victims, it seems as if the entire planet has suddenly gone rogue.
11:35Holy crap!
11:40Carrie and her friends find shelter in a bunker
11:43to escape an EF-5 tornado headed straight for them.
11:47I just was hoping that the roof would stay on and the door would stay shut.
12:04Don't open the door yet, please! Don't open the door yet, please!
12:08When the terrifying sound of 320-kilometer-an-hour winds
12:12and flying debris finally subside,
12:14some of the men try to exit the shelter.
12:17The entire line has blown over the door here.
12:19Well...
12:20Over our door right here?
12:22Over that door.
12:23We're stuck.
12:24They're alive and well,
12:25but there's no telling what devastation lies beyond that door
12:28or how long they'll be stuck inside.
12:35Finished with Mount Hope,
12:36the violent long-track EF-5 tornado plowed through several more rural towns,
12:41leaving behind a wake of destruction over 210 kilometers long,
12:46with 72 people dead.
12:49But there was more to come,
12:50as storm spotters Brian Peters and Tim Cullman would soon discover.
12:54The Doppler radar showed the tornado moving northeast at 55 miles per hour.
13:05We hear the emergency broadcast system,
13:07that sound that is so unmistakable.
13:10It starts listing off times,
13:12and it tells us this large tornado will be in Cordova at 4.55 p.m.
13:18The tornado will be near Jasper and Cordova around 4.55 p.m. Central Daylight Time.
13:25Tim's radar application shows two massive thunderstorms,
13:29both capable of producing tornadoes.
13:32But radar doesn't tell the whole story.
13:35A lot of people think the radar beam just magically hugs the surface of the Earth.
13:39It doesn't work that way.
13:40Radar goes in a straight line.
13:42The Earth curves.
13:44So as you get a distance from the radar site,
13:46the beam is higher and higher and higher.
13:49So in some cases at a distance from that radar site,
13:51your beam might be 5,000 feet off the ground.
13:54So we know there's violent circulation 5,000 feet off the ground.
13:57We don't know if it's at the surface.
13:59And the only way we know that, it's trained spotters.
14:03Tim and Brian are both professional meteorologists.
14:06They've studied enough tornadoes to know that what makes them so dangerous
14:10is their unpredictability.
14:12They know that without warning, a tornado can change direction,
14:15turn back on you, or appear when you least expect it.
14:19That's why a trained storm spotter never stops evaluating
14:23and reevaluating the risk.
14:25We decided, well, let's go for it.
14:27And if it becomes too dangerous, we'll stop.
14:29So we began to head south.
14:31All right, this will take us straight down to the interstate.
14:34We're going to try to intercept a massive supercell
14:36with a dangerous tornado that's currently in Peacons County.
14:39We get on Interstate 22 around 4.20 PM.
14:43We know the tornado is back there.
14:45We cannot see it because we are in extremely heavy rain.
14:49At this point, we realize we can catch this tornado,
14:54but we're going to have to drive through the northeast edge of the storm,
14:59right out in front of the tornado,
15:01get south of it so we can see it.
15:03So it's a very risky maneuver.
15:05We're driving into the core now.
15:08I don't even think we can do much more.
15:10It's just heavy rain.
15:12Given the fact that we now are going to cross directly in the path
15:15of the likely tornado,
15:17I'm becoming apprehensive about continuing on this journey.
15:20I mean, I don't know, bro.
15:22I just don't want to die, you know?
15:24I don't want to die here.
15:26We can do it.
15:27The rain starts letting up,
15:28and we're seeing a little bit of brighter sky ahead.
15:31We knew that when you start getting into that bright area,
15:34that's where the tornado is going to be.
15:40We're going at speeds close to 90 miles per hour.
15:43A few hailstones start hitting the car.
15:51We counted at least nine bangs as large hail begins to hit my vehicle.
15:58They were at least golf ball size.
16:01And under the overpass, we're getting hail.
16:04I mean, we're directly in the path of the tornado now.
16:08Brian then starts asking me, should we stop?
16:11And I said, no, we cannot stop here.
16:14We are directly in the path of the tornado.
16:17If we stop here now, we will die.
16:19Just haul ass.
16:20You've got a good view coming up right here.
16:23There's the tornado.
16:24OK.
16:25Oh, my God.
16:26It's there.
16:27I see it.
16:28Just keep driving, man.
16:30Because it's coming at us.
16:32Where's my phone?
16:33Let me have my phone.
16:34Drive.
16:35My first thought was, I need to call James Spann at ABC 3340.
16:39This is Brian Peters.
16:40Can you catch me through to James?
16:42My second thought was, it's happening.
16:45After 45 years in the field of meteorology,
16:48I'm finally seeing a real tornado.
16:51I'm on I-22, and we've got the tornado in sight.
16:54There it is, Brian.
16:55My voice goes up an octave.
16:57There it is, Brian.
16:58So at that point, we stop.
17:00I'm stopping on the interstate to give James a play-by-play of what we can see from our band.
17:05We can't stay here long.
17:06I know it.
17:07Multiple vortex tornado.
17:10And there it is.
17:11Not a wall cloud.
17:12Not a rain-free base.
17:13A full-fledged tornado.
17:15We've got Brian Peters on the line with us.
17:17Brian, you're seeing a tornado right now.
17:19Tell us what you've got.
17:20Yes, James.
17:21We're about a mile from Cordova, exit 72.
17:23But I want to tell you right now, it's actually coming in our direction.
17:27So we're not going to be able to stay here very long.
17:30Hey, Brian, you get out of there.
17:31I mean, if you've got to hang up, you go.
17:32But have you noticed any debris falling out of the sky?
17:35There's definitely debris now, James.
17:37I can see there's a debris cloud near the bottom.
17:39At that point, we've done our job.
17:41We have visually identified it, given that information,
17:45so then James Spann, the National Weather Service,
17:48and be able to tell people, this is not just on radar.
17:51This is verified on the ground by two professional meteorologists.
17:57While James Spann tracks the Cordova tornado,
18:00a second team of storm spotters flags another twister.
18:04John Oldshue also has a tornado on his live stream.
18:07All right, let me...
18:08Goodness gracious.
18:09That is a large wedge tornado.
18:11Two storm spotter teams are now each tracking
18:14two separate EF-4 tornadoes on live TV.
18:18It was the moment when we could see the lowering behind the trees
18:22that we knew what was coming to Tuscaloosa.
18:24We are now calling a tornado emergency for Tuscaloosa and Northport.
18:28It's way, way, way too close.
18:30On April 27, 2011, one of the worst tornado outbreaks in U.S. history
18:41is barreling through the state of Alabama
18:43and has already claimed dozens of lives.
18:46Get away from the door!
18:48The magnitude of this super outbreak has caught everyone by surprise.
18:57So far, 43 tornadoes have struck.
19:00There's the tornadoes!
19:01Keep s***! You better keep driving s***!
19:03It's not on top of us!
19:05Don't open the door yet! Please don't open the door yet!
19:08Meteorologists James Spann and Jason Simpson scrambled to get the word out and to save lives.
19:14They tracked an EF-4 that devastated the small town of Cordova, population 2100.
19:20Now they're streaming live video of another EF-4 approaching the city of Tuscaloosa, population 90,000.
19:27So John Olshu has a large wedge tornado.
19:30I believe John's on Interstate 59. Is that right, Jason?
19:33He's at Knoxville looking up at this thing as it's coming up toward Highway 11.
19:38For the first time today, James Spann and his teams of storm spotters are ahead of the game.
19:44They report on a tornado touchdown 50 kilometers outside of the Tuscaloosa city limits.
19:50My job was not to make it the best shot in the world. My job was to get in front of the storm that was going to produce the tornado and get video live back to James.
20:00It just got black and black and more black. I mean, it was just the perfect wedge-shaped tornado.
20:05It doesn't matter what you say when there's a tornado coming through a city. It's too late. It doesn't matter.
20:10What matters is what you said 40 minutes ago. And in this case, I don't have to say anything because of John and Ben's livestream.
20:17There it is. This is an emergency. You go to a safe place right now.
20:23With a population of over 90,000, about a third of whom are students, Tuscaloosa is one of the biggest cities in the state.
20:31Alabama University graduate and journalist Kim Cross has lived here for most of her career.
20:37Alabama is what I always imagined a college would look like.
20:41The campus is beautiful. It's around a big green quad.
20:45And it's a huge school. And there are apartments and little cottages and rental homes.
20:50And a lot of students will get, you know, three or four roommates and get a rental house. That's what we did.
20:56Football is really, really a big deal. On game days, you will see the quad blanketed with tents and carpets and flat screen TVs and lazy boys.
21:07I mean, they take it to a new level with the tailgating.
21:14But today is not that kind of day. A large EF-4 tornado is fast approaching the heavily populated college town.
21:23Let's look at the Tuscaloosa sky cam. Jason is working that.
21:27While Spann tries to convince his audience to take shelter, two young daredevils, Ryan Chandler and Nate Hugot, have ideas of their own.
21:36I'd always wanted to chase a storm, so I posted a tweet about who wants to chase a storm with me.
21:40My friend Nate said I'm in.
21:43Nobody should be driving. Everybody down there listening to me on radio in Tuscaloosa, stop now at the next exit, the next convenience store that will let you in.
21:53At this point, it's still lighthearted and fun, and we're making jokes. As we get on 359, we start to be able to see the tornado.
22:01If you know anybody that maybe doesn't have electricity and cannot watch us or listen to us, make a call.
22:06Look at that. It's huge. The camera, for those of you that are watching maybe for the first time, this is on top of the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse.
22:14We're looking back up a little bit so that it's not so shaky, but look at that.
22:17Right. And this thing is still southwest of downtown Tuscaloosa.
22:21That's southwest of downtown Tuscaloosa. There it is. You can see debris in the air.
22:26Look at the debris. Look at the debris in that. Goodness gracious.
22:29This will be a day that will go down in state history, and all you can do is pray for those people.
22:34The Twister has been on the ground for close to half an hour.
22:37There's a tornado. Right there. Guys, everybody go.
22:41Wreaking havoc through the city suburbs.
22:43It is right there.
22:45With smartphones and digital cameras, awestruck residents capture images of the tornado as it marches past.
22:52Oh, my God.
22:54Towards the heart of downtown Tuscaloosa at McFarland and 15th Street.
22:58This is a large, violent tornado coming up on downtown Tuscaloosa. Be in a safe place right now.
23:07So now we're starting to see the flashes.
23:09There it freaking is. Oh, my God. Okay, speed up.
23:13Okay, speed up. It's out the passenger window. So, of course, Nate's filming and looking at it. And it's not until it's right on top of us that I actually get my first view of it.
23:24Go, Chandler. Never in my life will see this again.
23:29Oh, my God.
23:30I turn the car around so that I have the opportunity to see the storm out the front windshield.
23:36Chandler, do not go back that way.
23:39Nate, film it.
23:40I am.
23:41And it's right there in front of us.
23:45There's two of them.
23:48We need to go that way.
23:50We're fine.
23:51We're fine.
23:52We're fine.
23:53Taylor, go the back. I'm not kidding.
23:57This being my first opportunity to see the storm, I'm kind of like a moth to light at that point.
24:01I'm just going to sit there.
24:03And he yelled at me and told me to go back.
24:06So, we put the car in reverse down the wrong side of the interstate.
24:19It's crossing the interstate right where we were.
24:22Oh, my God.
24:35You can see huge debris.
24:40Oh, my God.
24:41That thing is destroying everything.
24:43If you have a child on the campus of the University of Alabama, call them and tell them now to go into a safe place.
24:54Let's pan over to the left.
24:55Oh, my goodness.
24:56Look at that.
24:57Are you kidding me?
24:58Look at all the stuff flying around up there.
25:00That's coming over near Interstate 359 in Skyland.
25:03Nobody should be out there.
25:05This is an extremely violent situation.
25:08I had turned the TV on in Elmore County.
25:10And I knew where that storm was.
25:12I knew the direction it was heading.
25:15And I knew my baby was in that path.
25:18I've got my mom, my brother, my sister, my family, my wife, my two boys all living there.
25:27And now I'm not home to protect them.
25:30Students living off campus in ground floor apartments take shelter in bathrooms where pipes in the walls and bathtubs offer protection.
25:38Oh, .
25:39Get back there.
25:40Oh, my God.
25:41Holy.
25:42Look at it, dear.
25:43Holy .
25:44Get inside here.
25:45I can't see it.
25:46It's back there.
25:47He texted me at 512 and he told me, he said, this thing is huge.
25:55I'm fine.
25:56And I text him back and I said, so y'all are okay?
26:00Holy .
26:01It's right outside.
26:03Holy .
26:04Oh, my God.
26:06My phone cut off at 513.
26:11I knew in that second she was gone.
26:15Moments later, the tornado comes knocking at Will Caruso's door.
26:20Incredibly like so many others, he has the presence of mind to keep recording with his smartphone.
26:26It is exactly 514.
26:29The tornado is passing over us.
26:31Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
26:32I love you guys.
26:33I love you guys.
26:34Holy .
26:35Holy .
26:36Holy .
26:37Hey.
26:38I got it.
26:39Hey.
26:40I got it.
26:41I got it.
26:42We were all holding onto each other.
26:44I was holding onto two dogs and trying to pry myself between two walls and just doing whatever
26:49I could just not to get sucked up.
26:51Oh, God.
26:52The windows are going out.
26:54The water's coming down.
26:55The water's coming down.
26:56The water's coming down.
26:57A large tree behind the house fell on top of the roof and beams from the attic and insulation
27:03and drywall came pouring down on top of us.
27:05Oh, God.
27:06Oh, God.
27:07The wind is tearing his house apart, but Will's smartphone is still recording.
27:13Someone's on your roof, man.
27:15It's still pretty windy out there, but...
27:16Oh, my God.
27:17Look at the house.
27:18Look at the house.
27:19Oh, my God.
27:20Look at the house.
27:21Oh, my God.
27:22Look at the house.
27:23Look at the house.
27:24After it passed, the backside of the house was just demolished, just crushed.
27:29All the windows are blown in, glass and drywall.
27:32A tornado just passed over the house.
27:34The house is destroyed.
27:35Oh, my God.
27:36Everything is gone.
27:37There's got to be people trapped in there.
27:38We've got to check on them.
27:39The tornado's fury lasted only 15 to 20 seconds, but the damage it caused was apocalyptic,
27:46and it's not over yet.
27:47It's still on the ground, on a path towards its next victims.
27:51We're going to get hit by a tornado.
27:57On April 27, 2011, the state of Alabama is under siege.
28:02Oh, my God.
28:04That thing is destroying everything.
28:06The super outbreak's latest tornado barreled through downtown Tuscaloosa.
28:10Now it's headed toward the nearby town of Holt, Alabama.
28:14Vietnam veteran and environmentalist John Wathen knows this storm is the real deal.
28:19Here it is, boys and girls.
28:22Our weatherman, James Spann, is normally cool, calm, collected.
28:28Nothing rattles this guy.
28:29But I don't want to be so specific.
28:32I want everybody in the city limits of Tuscaloosa to stay sheltered.
28:36I heard something in his voice I'd never heard before.
28:39The urgency now is for those of you out here in the eastern side of town,
28:42ever here toward Cottondale and Holt and Alberta City.
28:45People can read me.
28:46I've been here since the Civil War.
28:47I'm old as dirt.
28:48I've been on television forever.
28:49They can read my body language.
28:50They can read my voice inflection.
28:52And they could see a change when I saw that live stream.
28:55After hearing the edge and James Spann's voice, I took my camera bags, my guitar.
29:00I went up there to the storm room that I'd built and put everything inside.
29:05Started getting the family inside.
29:07Look at the fall.
29:10Coming up out of the valleys.
29:12This is spooky.
29:14The creek was evaporating.
29:16The barometric pressure was dropping so fast that it was actually pulling moisture out of the creek.
29:22Inside the vortex of a tornado, a vacuum effect occurs.
29:26At times when the atmospheric pressure drops and the updrafts are strong enough,
29:31it can suck up water from a river into the tornado's funnel.
29:35This phenomenon was captured by a weather camera in Springfield, Massachusetts in 2015.
29:44Then it got dark outside.
29:46The wind went completely calm, but then it started howling and you could hear the roar.
29:51It dawned on me that, yeah, this was coming straight at me and I needed to be underground.
30:08That's where I cut it off and ran underground.
30:20That's a dumpster in the air right there.
30:22When I looked up over the camera and saw that, it's when I, this is not a viewfinder, this is real.
30:27We're in the storm room.
30:29Listen, I got one bolt locked on the door when it started rattling.
30:35There goes the house.
30:36At one point, we could hear what I thought was the house leaving, but it was actually my neighbor's trailer.
30:42It picked his trailer up and slammed it up against the house and just demolished it.
30:48I can feel my ears popping.
30:55The barometric pressure went so low that our ears were popping worse than any airplane ride I'd ever been on.
31:02I smell trees.
31:05All right, I think it's gone.
31:10Oh, crap!
31:12Oh, my God!
31:17See, that's right out this window here.
31:20My brother Johnny's lost every damn thing.
31:22We've got roof damage.
31:23Oh, my truck!
31:24Oh, God Almighty!
31:26Have you seen this lately?
31:41No.
31:45No.
31:46Sorry.
31:50It was just, it was gone, man.
31:52Oh, my God!
31:58We were bloody lucky.
31:59That house was built right after Hurricane Katrina to withstand 200-mile-an-hour winds.
32:07I built it.
32:09My God, the son of a bitch!
32:11Oh, my God!
32:14Oh, my God!
32:17I don't like to watch it.
32:19Oh, my God!
32:20Oh, my God!
32:26The tornado shows no sign of letting up.
32:29It's growing in size and power and becoming more dangerous by the minute.
32:34Holy .
32:36Freaking huge, man.
32:38This is the storm right here that produced all of the damage in Tuscaloosa County coming up toward Birmingham.
32:43And, again, it is a clear, clear, clear call to action.
32:46There it is right there.
32:47This is going to turn out to be one of the biggest tornadoes that ever hit Alabama, I think.
32:52The tornado is almost two kilometers wide.
32:55It's headed straight for Birmingham, the largest city in the state, and home to journalist Kim Cross.
33:00When the Tuscaloosa tornado was coming toward Birmingham, it looked like it was on track to hit our house.
33:06We have a large, violent tornado. There's no if. It's a matter of where and when.
33:11After we saw that, our power flickered and died.
33:14And when that happens, not only do you lose TV, you lose your lights, you lose all of the whirring, clicking things that happen in a house, and it gets dead quiet.
33:23I follow James Spann's Twitter feed, and he tweeted a link to the livestream coverage so we were able to watch TV on our phones.
33:30And at some point, he calls out our neighborhood.
33:32And, again, this thing is awfully close to Bessemer, Hueytown, Fairfield.
33:36If I've called out your neighborhood, you should be in a safe place.
33:39That's when you think we could die in a few minutes.
33:41Luckily, the EF-4 never made it into the center of Birmingham.
33:45It changed course, missed the downtown area, and then headed straight to the suburbs.
33:50We came out after the warning expired, and, you know, we looked around.
33:55There was not a leaf disturbed in our neighborhood, and we thought, well, is that it?
33:58And seven miles away, Pleasant Grove was devastated.
34:01Tornadoes are the Russian roulette of storms.
34:04No one can predict when or where they'll strike.
34:07And while Kim Cross and her family don't suffer damage or harm, not everyone was so lucky.
34:15On April 27, 2011, a record-breaking number of destructive long-track tornadoes strike Alabama.
34:23The storm is on a rampage, destroying several billion dollars of property and taking scores of lives.
34:32Since the early hours of the morning, meteorologists James Spann and Jason Simpson have been on the air, trying to save lives.
34:40The sole reason we're here is to provide lead time for people to go to a safe place of a storm that can kill you.
34:46In the case of April 27, it didn't stop for hours and hours and hours and hours.
34:51It was like a bullet from hell.
34:53We've got to get through this event so we don't have any more loss of life.
34:57It's now late afternoon, and as the sun lowers on the horizon, the heat that helped fuel the twisters finally begins to dissipate in some parts of the state.
35:07And Spann's TV station begins to broadcast damage reports.
35:12Storm spotters John Oldshue and Ben Greer have made it back to Tuscaloosa, their hometown.
35:18It's an obstacle course of overturned cars, upside-down cars, upside-down trucks and overturned 18-wheelers.
35:25I am finally relieved to get a text from my wife.
35:28She says they are fine. Don't worry about it.
35:31I look to see all this devastation.
35:34John starts sending a live feed back to Spann for the first coverage of Tuscaloosa of the damage that's done.
35:40That is a live stream coming from John Oldshue.
35:42John is on the scene of that severe damage down in Tuscaloosa.
35:46He tells me, Ben, hop on outside, start taking pictures now.
35:52I get out and I realize that about 600 yards from me is where my sister's house used to be.
35:57There's nothing there.
36:02I pick up my phone and I text my mother.
36:04Within 10 seconds I get a reply, she's fine, she's on her way here.
36:08Just a few blocks away, amateur storm chasers Ryan Chandler and Nate Hugin try to get back home to their families.
36:16I can't even recognize this place.
36:18We see the damage, we see the houses, but what's actually happened a mile down the road, you have no idea.
36:26White poles down in the road. This thing can't focus.
36:30So as we pull up behind the storm, a woman comes running up to the vehicle and we tell her to get in.
36:36Come on.
36:37Get in, get in.
36:38Come on.
36:39My dog.
36:40Oh my God, my dog.
36:41Are you okay?
36:42Are people okay?
36:43I don't know.
36:44I can't.
36:45Oh my God, my dog dead.
36:47Oh my God.
36:49I can't.
36:50We gotta, like there's tons of people out there.
36:53I know.
36:54Oh my God.
36:55So at that point we get out and start digging people out of their houses.
37:00For those living beyond the city limits, finding loved ones is not always easy.
37:05The storm knocked down power lines, destroyed relay stations and communication towers.
37:11We kept calling and couldn't get a response, you know, and that's, that wasn't like him not to answer his phone.
37:20I called many times the hospital, the student health center, Ferguson center, all of the places that they were telling online and on the news for you to call to locate your student.
37:31So that's when we got in the car and drove Tuscaloosa.
37:34Pratt City, a bedroom community of Birmingham, has also been hit.
37:44That's where Alter lives, but he was lucky.
37:47He was at work when the tornado slammed into his neighborhood.
37:50I got a call from a female friend.
37:52She says that the storm was in the area.
37:54Then I got another call from another one of my neighbors.
37:57He was like, might want to try to get home.
37:59I said, man, it's looking like a third world country over here.
38:02Alter's good friend, filmmaker Tig Knight, filmed as they surveyed the damage.
38:07Power lines down, debris everywhere.
38:10Devastation.
38:11Yeah.
38:12People just everywhere.
38:14Siding thrown everywhere else.
38:16Everything was in the yard.
38:18A neighbor's house, I could see directly into his kitchen.
38:23I walk in the house and I could just look up and I could see the sky just like I can see it right now.
38:28It was almost like it just had a sunroof.
38:30The top half portion, the roof was completely gone.
38:33Everything was in disarray and it was devastating.
38:36And like I said, knowing where different things were placed and located and now it's just completely gone.
38:47It was your bedroom.
38:49It really didn't sink in until you just had time to sit down and think about it.
38:54Probably felt good that you wasn't home.
38:56Yeah, exactly.
38:57Exactly.
38:58Because if I was at home, I was going to either be in one of two places.
39:01It was going to be one in my bedroom or two downstairs in the basement.
39:05And my bedroom, two of the walls that face outside were actually gone.
39:10So, you know, it could have just came and couldn't be here today.
39:14So, you know.
39:15What's going through your mind like right now?
39:19I don't know.
39:21Rebuild or move?
39:22Yeah.
39:23That's the question.
39:24Yeah.
39:25That's the question right there.
39:27Major question.
39:28To stay and rebuild or leave and begin a new life somewhere else, perhaps even in a safer place.
39:36That was the question on a lot of people's minds that day.
39:43An unprecedented tornado outbreak strikes the southern United States on April 27th, 2011.
39:50The hardest hit are the residents of Alabama, where over 50 tornadoes have touched down so far and wreaked havoc.
39:59Carrie Kirby and her husband, Hal, found shelter in Billy Little's bunker.
40:03But now they're stuck.
40:05Fire lines are floating over the door here.
40:08Over our door right here?
40:09Over that door.
40:10We stuck.
40:11So three or four of them put their shoulders up against the door and shoved and shoved until they got a big enough crack that Hal could stick his head out the door.
40:22Billy said, what do you see, Hal?
40:23And he looked around and he said, nothing, Billy. I shouldn't see anything.
40:27It's all gone.
40:31They all got the telephone pole off the door and we came out and there were just piles of debris everywhere, metal twisted everywhere.
40:40We looked over there and the black and white horse that had been in this field right behind us was sticking out the top of one of the chicken houses that was laying on the ground.
40:51And he was flailing his head around.
40:54And I just couldn't look at that anymore.
40:58So we went over towards Billy and Nancy's house to look at what was left over there.
41:03His house had been stoned, rock, brick, and the walls inside were tongue and groove walls and there was nothing left that you could recognize in that pile of debris except a rock fireplace sticking up in the middle of it.
41:16There wasn't really an option to pick up and move.
41:23You just take one day at a time and dig in and build it back.
41:31Further south, the Stevens drive to Tuscaloosa to search for their son, William, who has not reached out to them in over three hours.
41:42It looked like somebody had come in and dropped a bomb on the place because you could not drive down McFarland Boulevard.
41:48Will had decided to ride out the storm with a childhood friend, Danielle Downs, and her roommate, Lauren Brown.
41:57The house was surrounded by a lot of trees and it took the trees down and one come down and just took the whole house, just centered the house.
42:06When they found them, he had one under one arm, one under the other.
42:10He was on top of both of them.
42:11Yeah, he was laying over top of them and they was holding hands and Lauren's...
42:18Lauren's nails had broken off into his hands.
42:20Nail cramp, yeah, had broken off into his hands.
42:22She had squeezed his hands so tight and her fingernails had broke off into his hands.
42:26Lauren's mother, Ashley Mims, found her daughter in a hospital morgue.
42:32She had pieces of debris in her hair.
42:35A broken Xbox game, dirt and stuff like that, grass, leaves mixed in her curly hair.
42:46And she was just asleep is what it looked like.
42:52In all, the death toll was 252, a number that haunts James Spann to this day.
43:00That number will be etched in my mind until the day I die, because that's the death toll.
43:06That's the only number I'm focused on.
43:10History is going to judge what I did on the green wall, but the number of people that died lets me know that there was a lot of things we didn't do right.
43:18And yet at the same time, a lot of people that lived, there were some things we did right.
43:23I believe, like he does, that what we do is a service.
43:26We want to serve the communities that we love.
43:29So when we looked at each other about 11 o'clock that night when the final tornado warning had ended and we signed off the air, there was nothing to say.
43:36There was just a heaviness.
43:38There was grief.
43:39There was sadness because this was our state.
43:42Many records were broken that day.
43:44The frequency of the tornadoes, the distance they traveled and their wind speeds.
43:49And while much about tornadoes remains a mystery, modern research can increase warning lead times using computer models and ground observations.
43:58Because as global temperatures continue to rise, it's likely that the frequency of super outbreaks will also continue to rise.
44:07And meteorologists like James Spann can do little more than prepare for the next catastrophe and find new ways to save more lives.
44:16Often in the weather enterprise, we're very guilty of being narcissistic and we thump our chest.
44:21We talk about we save lives and we're so good.
44:23Well, we didn't save 252 in my state that day.
44:26I won't accept that.
44:27And I'm very driven to find out what went wrong.
44:30Let's get in there and fix it.
44:31The physical science was excellent.
44:33The social science, behavioral science, we have to learn.
44:35We have to learn.
44:56Come on, Reeves.
44:57Reeves, come on.
44:59Thank you again.
45:02Thanks a lot.
45:03Welcome to the world tomorrow.
45:05Thanks a lot.
45:07We'll see you again on Thursday.
45:08Bye.
45:09Now.
45:11Thanks a lot.
45:12Bye.
45:13Bye.
45:15Bye.
45:16Bye.
45:17Bye.
45:19Bye.
45:21Bye.
45:22Bye.
45:23Bye.
45:24Bye.
45:25Bye.
45:26Bye.
45:27Bye.
45:28Bye.
45:29Transcription by CastingWords
45:59CastingWords
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