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00:00Imagine the loudest sound you've ever heard.
00:05Now imagine hearing that sound for five minutes.
00:11The tornado that struck Gerald in 1997 was, in every sense of the word, dehumanizing.
00:19Not only did it take 27 lives, but it systematically erased every trace of them
00:25in ways the modern world had never seen.
00:28Every aspect of this storm was atypical.
00:31It shapeshifted from a thin rope into a massive black cloud of spinning debris.
00:36It moved backwards.
00:38It nearly stood still like a blender spinning at 300 miles per hour.
00:43It tore the skin off of livestock, peeled asphalt from roads,
00:48and went on a killing spree while hundreds of onlookers watched in horror.
00:52All of this in an atmosphere that didn't look dangerous enough to produce such a monster.
00:57So how did the most unsurvivable tornado ever recorded form beneath such an ordinary sky?
01:03What would it have taken to survive?
01:05And will we see anything remotely close to this in the future?
01:17On May 26th, forecasters were watching central Texas closely,
01:22but not for violent tornadoes, for general severe thunderstorms with large hail.
01:28The kind that the southern plains sees every spring.
01:31A cold front was draped across central Oklahoma, which would drip southeastward throughout the afternoon,
01:37pushing up warm, moist air, creating thunderstorms.
01:40These thunderstorms would likely cluster together, creating a mesoscale convective system, or NCS,
01:47causing minor flooding as it drifted southeast in the early morning hours of the 27th.
01:52With this in mind, the Storm Prediction Center issued a slight risk for the Ozarks to Tallahassee,
01:58directly ahead of the storms.
02:00And sure enough, late in the day on the 26th, storms erupted in central Oklahoma,
02:05racing southeast, forming an MCS.
02:08These storms brought heavy downpours in large hail,
02:11expelling cool dry air, which spilled into northeast Texas by the following morning.
02:16This outflow boundary can act as a mini cold front or dry line,
02:21which can help initiate thunderstorms later in the day if conditions are right.
02:25As data came in from atmospheric soundings on the 27th, things changed quite a bit.
02:31In central Texas, a cold front was observed drifting through the region,
02:35one that would push immense amounts of surface moisture upwards and create thunderstorms.
02:41Just above the sweltering surface air was a thick, hot, and dry air mass
02:46that once sat over the high plateau of northern Mexico.
02:49If this moisture at the surface was pushed upwards into this dry air,
02:54it would rise to 50,000 feet in a matter of minutes,
02:58creating massive thunderstorms with large hail.
03:01With this in mind, the Storm Prediction Center upgraded central Texas
03:05to a moderate risk for severe thunderstorms.
03:08The question was, would there be tornadoes?
03:12While the Gerald tornado was truly unsurvivable, no matter the preparation,
03:17the vast majority of natural disasters you'll ever have to deal with
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04:59While the atmosphere was teeming with energy, there was very little spin.
05:03The jet stream, the very thing that causes rotating winds with height, was 300 miles north of central Texas.
05:10Looking at a profile of wind speed and direction with height, the winds were rather light and chaotic.
05:16Storm relative helicity values were measuring at about 30,
05:19which dictates an atmosphere with very little shear or spin.
05:23If a tornado were to occur, let alone a violent tornado,
05:27it would be a freak occurrence where everything would have to line up perfectly.
05:32Nobody could have predicted the series of events that would unfold in the next three hours.
05:37The storms that moved through Arkansas in the overnight hours had created little ripples in the atmosphere
05:43that could be seen on satellite imagery.
05:46It's called a gravity wave, and at the top of the wave, or crest, air is forced upwards,
05:52resulting in thicker clouds than at the bottom of the wave, or valley.
05:56When a gravity wave moves through an unstable atmosphere, it can help initiate thunderstorms.
06:01When that atmosphere has significant moisture on the ground and 6,000 joules per kilogram of Cape above,
06:08it's only a matter of time.
06:11A small shower appears on radar just west of Waco, Texas, drifting eastward.
06:16At a moment, the cold front and dry line were performing what is called a zipper merge.
06:22Much like when two lanes of traffic narrow into just one,
06:26the cold front was overtaking the dry line, creating an increased area of lift
06:30that was propagating the storm's new updrafts southwestward.
06:35A tornado watch was issued at 12.54pm, with a tornado warning 30 minutes later.
06:41But the question remained, where was the spinning motion coming from?
06:44The winds were fairly light and chaotic aloft.
06:47You would expect a consistent change in wind speed and direction with height,
06:52yet there was nothing resembling a tornado-producing atmosphere.
06:56The answer lies at the surface, where a complex situation was developing.
07:01As the storm propagated southwestward, the downdraft, the cold air rushing out of the storm,
07:07merged with the cold front dry line merger, creating this distorted enhanced gust front.
07:14East of this gust front, the southerly inflow into the storm was accelerated,
07:19causing a spinning motion at the surface.
07:21Due to the explosive environment aloft, with 6,000 joules per kilogram of cape,
07:27and such a large portion of this energy existing near the ground,
07:30any spinning air at the surface could get stretched upwards into the storm itself,
07:36and could be enough to produce a tornado.
07:38The tornadoes would likely be short-lived, due to the complex boundaries that would produce them.
07:44Tornadoes require a balance of atmospheric forces,
07:47and when you have multiple boundaries interacting in such a complicated way,
07:51there's typically small windows where that balance can be achieved.
07:54It's similar to trying to start an old lawnmower with a bad carburetor.
07:59You can get it to run for a little bit, but it keeps shutting off.
08:03At 1.21pm, the first tornado touched down,
08:07a tall, thin rope near Spring Valley, Texas, that was 25,
08:11and storm chasers, amateur photographers, and news journalists
08:14were careening up from Austin to try to catch a glimpse of a tornado.
08:18One of these videographers was Scott Guest,
08:21who, after being briefed in the KVUE newsroom,
08:24headed north with the crew in search of a tornado.
08:26And sure enough, another thin funnel touches down from the clouds,
08:30dancing around the field somewhere north of Prairie Dell.
08:34This was likely a land spout,
08:36a spinning vortex that occurs when weak, localized rotation from surface boundaries stretches upwards,
08:42but does not fully stretch into the updraft of the thunderstorm.
08:46Scott pulls over, gets out his camera,
08:49and films the small tornado toss hay bales,
08:52slowly twisting and turning southward.
08:54But then, it appears to drift towards the highway,
08:57forcing the team to tear down and head north,
09:00out of the twister's path.
09:02They drive half a mile north to the Bell County rest area,
09:05well out of the tornado's path.
09:07Scott continues to film the twisting rope as it snaps trees in a field.
09:11Wayne Persky was six miles to the northeast,
09:15working on his family farm, when he spotted the tornado.
09:18He drove out to a field in his pickup truck
09:20and began filming the twister as it glided southwest.
09:24Scott Beckwith was working at Jarrell Farm Supply,
09:27when, upon getting word of an approaching tornado,
09:30ran outside with his film camera in hand.
09:33He begins taking photographs of the twisting funnel.
09:36But then, something incredible happened
09:38that would go down in meteorological history.
09:42Over the course of three minutes,
09:44the singular funnel slowly turned into a massive multi-vortex tornado,
09:50which, at one point, resembles a giant walking amongst the earth
09:55with two legs and a distorted arm.
09:57In some Native American languages,
10:00a multi-vortex tornado is referred to as the dead man walking,
10:04a reminder that these types of tornadoes
10:07are often the strongest seen on planet Earth
10:10and should be treated with the utmost respect.
10:13But how did this transformation happen?
10:16Well, the tornado went from being mostly a landspout,
10:19with rotation existing mainly near the ground,
10:22to a violent tornado with multiple vortices
10:25and that parent rotation extending all the way into the storm's updraft.
10:29Southward, the winds around the vortex increased to over 250 miles per hour.
10:36This dramatic increase in intensity
10:38happened directly above Chuck Tunn's farmstead
10:41on County Road 304,
10:43killing multiple sheep and cattle
10:45and tearing the roof clean off of his underground storm cellar.
10:49Thankfully, Chuck wasn't home at the time,
10:52but you can imagine what would have happened
10:54if he was in his storm cellar.
10:55The sheer force of the winds acted like an enormous shovel,
10:59digging a trench over one foot deep into several fields.
11:03This dirt was launched into the funnel,
11:06giving it a pitch black appearance.
11:08Traffic was at a standstill on I-35
11:11as drivers looked on in horror at something they would never see again.
11:16An F5 tornado was less than a mile from the highway.
11:20Continuing to grow in size,
11:22the black cloud was now one mile away from the Double Creek Estates,
11:26a neighborhood of about 40 people on the northwest side of Jarrell.
11:30The tornado was moving slow enough
11:32that residents could watch it approach for several minutes
11:35and still have enough time to make a decision.
11:38In fact, if they were paying attention,
11:41they had almost an hour of lead time,
11:43which was enough for the Igoe family to get to safety.
11:46Or so they thought.
11:48When the tornado warning was issued,
11:50the Jarrell Fire Department activated the town's emergency siren.
11:54Joan Igoe, who was teaching at Jarrell High School,
11:57along with her 17-year-old daughter Audrey,
11:59immediately left for home upon hearing the tornado warning.
12:03Larry, the father of the family,
12:05closed up his Chevy parts shop three blocks south of the school,
12:08speeding home to seek shelter,
12:10with the rest of his family in a central closet.
12:12But unbeknownst to them,
12:14by rushing back home,
12:16the family had now put themselves directly in the path of the monster.
12:20To make matters worse,
12:22Larry had about 85 parts cars located behind his home
12:26that could easily become deadly projectiles
12:29if the tornado hit their property.
12:31John and Michael Ruiz were also at the school,
12:34shooting baskets when they decided to head home
12:37due to the impending bad weather.
12:38But they lived in a trailer,
12:40and, knowing the dangers of being in a mobile home during a tornado,
12:45decided to leave for the Moring family home,
12:47on their bikes,
12:48over a mile away.
12:50Thankfully,
12:51the two teenagers made it inside with time to spare.
12:54As the black cloud drew closer,
12:56Billy LaFrance put his daughter,
12:58Kristen,
12:59and his wife,
13:00Debbie,
13:00into the bathtub of their central bathroom.
13:03With there being no room for himself,
13:05he huddled against the wall
13:07and waited for the worst to pass.
13:09In a cruel twist of fate,
13:11and for reasons not easily explained,
13:14the tornado slows down to a crawl,
13:17simultaneously growing to three quarters of a mile wide,
13:21now moving at just several miles per hour.
13:25The force of the winds is so strong
13:28that asphalt is lifted from County Road 305.
13:32Minutes later,
13:33the dead man walks into...
13:35...was just missing.
13:36Not a single one of Larry Igoe's 85 vehicles were immediately found.
13:43Several inches of topsoil was removed from the surrounding yards,
13:47leaving thick mud in its wake.
13:49The death toll within this mile stretch reached a staggering 27 residents.
13:55Those whose remains were found were seemingly difficult to identify,
14:00for reasons that you can infer.
14:02Dental records and fingerprints became vital tools to identify the dead.
14:07The death toll included the entire Igoe family,
14:10with the two twins, Paul and John,
14:12being at home the entire day.
14:14Tragically, the Mo-Ring family,
14:16including John and Michael Ruiz,
14:19did not make it out alive.
14:20While the Igoe family and Ruiz brothers made the right decisions that followed conventional wisdom,
14:27had Larry, Audrey, and Joan stayed at work in downtown,
14:31and had the Ruiz boys stayed in their family trailer,
14:35all of them would have made it out alive.
14:38But then again, those who did survive also followed conventional wisdom.
14:43Billy LaFrance's wife Debbie and daughter Kristen
14:46made it through the horrifying several minutes in their bathtub.
14:50But unfortunately, Billy did not.
14:52He was pulled out of the home as it was being destroyed.
14:56The other survivors in Double Creek were sheltered underground
14:59in two separate storm cellars
15:01that were properly constructed to withstand such extreme winds.
15:05Shortly after exiting Double Creek,
15:08the tornado began to shrink in a neighboring field
15:10and lifted about one mile later.
15:13The dead man had returned to the sky.
15:18As recovery efforts concluded in the coming months
15:21and the neighborhood grieved the tremendous loss,
15:25the tornado went into the record books with an F5 rating,
15:29estimated wind speeds of over 260 miles per hour.
15:33But throughout the years,
15:34a murmur had turned into a discussion.
15:37What makes a tornado cause that much damage?
15:41Could the extremely slow, forward speed mean that lesser winds,
15:45maybe less than 200 miles per hour, yield the same result?
15:49Unfortunately, there's no way to tell without some new evidence.
15:53Maybe a new close-up camera angle
15:56that shows the tornado moving through Double Creek.
15:59But when a situation like this undoubtedly happens again,
16:03there will be high-tech radars scanning the storm,
16:05maybe even of the mobile variety,
16:08as well as dozens of storm spotters and chasers
16:11capturing different angles of the tornado at different times.
16:16As for Gerald,
16:17the residents rebuilt their homes and tried their best to heal.
16:20New cookie-cutter subdivisions are popping up in the surrounding fields,
16:25featuring homes that are poorly built
16:27and would be a potential disaster
16:29if a violent tornado were to once again move through.
16:31The corporations that bought these plots of lands
16:35don't care about safety,
16:37but thankfully, David Cockrum does.
16:39He started Gerald Storm Shelters
16:41after experiencing the tornado firsthand,
16:44making it his mission to construct a...
16:46And I was 하는 Stateora,
16:46And the局's going to type some of the debris
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