First-hand accounts of tornado survivors have revealed what it's actually like to get sucked into one.
When Dorothy and her house get sucked up into a tornado in The Wizard of Oz, she ends up seeing a chicken coop flying by, a grandma knitting in her rocking chair, two men rowing through the storm and the Wicked Witch of the West.
Granted, this doesn't quite mirror the experiences of real-life tornado survivors, but the 1939 film certainly gives a sense of the panic and intensity that's been felt by people who've found themselves in the middle of one.
What a tornado actually is
The NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory explains a tornado is 'a narrow, violently rotating column of air that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground'.
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What can make tornados so dangerous is they can be really tricky to see because of wind ultimately being invisible to the eye. So, 'unless it forms a condensation funnel made up of water droplets, dust and debris', you may not see it coming until it's too late.
A tornado's strength is measured by the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale, which measures from zero to five, five being windspeeds of 512 kilometers per hour (318 miles per hour) - so strong houses can be picked up and carried 'considerable distances to disintegrate'.
Despite tornados being 'among the most violence phenomena of all atmospheric storms we experience,' some people who've found themselves in one have lived to tell the tale, revealing their terrifying truth about what happened via the National Weather Service.
Real-life survivor accounts
The National Weather Service features a whole page of 'Tornado survivor stories'.
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One entry sees someone called Eric Simmons recall taking cover from a tornado in May 2019 by sitting in his truck.
"I looked out my right windshield and noticed the vines growing along the fence were starting to blow around kind of funny,
"A moment later, just like that, all around me was wind and it got real dark. The wind was going in a way that I've never seen before. Then a section of a roof blew over me and just shredded apart mid-air. That's when the back windshield on my pickup truck shattered, throwing glass all over me."
A tree in front of him 'blew over like it was nothing' and a fence blew over the top of his truck. So, he 'crouched down real low' and 'just prayed,' holding on to the steering wheel for 'dear life'.
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"I could feel the back of the truck lifting. I could still see out the front windshield and I could see power lines exploding out in front of me. The visibility was really poor at this point but I could still see the flashes. It lasted for about 45 seconds but it seemed like a lifetime," he said.
When the coast grew clear, he got out of the car but 'could barely walk' in 'a state of shock' left unable to speak. He resolved: "I've been through a couple traumatic incidents in my life as a veteran of the Gulf War. This was, hands down, one of those most traumatic and terrifying moments of my life. I think the real reason why I was so terrified because I had no training, no warning, and no defense against whatever was coming. The tornado was classified two days later as an EF-1 tornado. It had a base of about 75 to a hundred yards across."
And the accounts don't end there either.
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In 2019 in Texas, someone called Cheri experienced a tornado on April 24 while working in their car shop.
"At approximately 4:30 pm the rain stopped and there was an eerie silence followed by the patter of what sounded like hail on the metal roof of the shop. Then the wind started howling. followed by a large crashing noise on the back wall of the shop. I looked up and saw the 16 ft garage door bowing inward from the wind. I thought, 'Oh no, I hope it’s not a tornado.' The door breathed back out. I sighed a breath of relief hoping the twister had skipped over the shop. That relief was short lived as in the next few seconds I heard the train sound, which actually sounded like a thrashing machine metal being chewed up, indescribable actually. Then the entire back wall of the shop began to bow in."
Cheri tried to reach 'a low spot' but 'there was none,' so ran to the bathroom and 'laid down on the floor and grabbed the toilet', which was bolted to the floor.
"In the next 2-5 seconds, I saw the corner of the shop and bathroom lift up and disappear over me. Then I was hit with a force I can’t describe and felt myself being lifted into the air traveling backwards at what seemed like 100 mph. I was being hit from all directions by objects and beams from the building. A thousand thoughts went through my mind and I just knew I was dead. I prayed for God to save me then I was slammed back onto the ground.
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"I realized I was alive and did not think I was hurt to badly. Then the debris started falling out of the sky. I thought, oh great, I survived being sucked up into the air in a tornado, now I’m gonna be crushed to death!"
The debris rained down on Cheri and 'then as fast as it started it was over'.
"No noise. I was bleeding and it felt like my ankle was broken but I was alive. I couldn’t breathe because I was being crushed. I pushed one more time and was able to create enough space to breathe. I hollered for someone to get the building off of me but no one answered.
"I wiped the blood from my eyes and saw a 1965 Pontiac Catalina next to me. My first thought was why is that car in the bathroom with me. Then it hit me that I was some 80 ft from where the bathroom once stood and was out in the parking lot in front of the shop. I pushed and clawed my way out of the rubble, shocked angry and thankful to God that I was alive.
"I survived bruised from head to toe with a broken foot and some lacerations. I went back out to the shop the next day and just cried seeing where I had crawled out from the broken pieces of the toilet under where I laid. Turns out the toilet had just been set on the wax ring and caulked to the floor, not one bolt in the slab. In retrospect, that toilet not being secured is probably what saved me as I think I was traveling with the debris in the twister. not sitting still being struck by the debris field."
Topics: Weather, World News, Science, Health, Mental Health
Poppy Bilderbeck