Bodycam footage shows Fulton County deputy, patrol vehicle in tornado

[Jesse Risley]

FULTON COUNTY (25News Now) - The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office has released bodycam footage of a deputy inside their patrol car inside an EF-3 tornado.

The sheriff’s office says the deputy was not injured, but the patrol vehicle sustained significant damage.

Ever wonder what it is like inside an EF3 tornado in a car? Thankfully, the Deputy was not injured. The patrol vehicle did sustain significant damage, however.

 

[John Robinson]

While the tornado, overall, may have been rated EF3, I think it's a sure bet that it was not EF3 strength when it encountered that patrol car. How many people are going to look at that video that the TV station posted and think it's safe to ride out a strong tornado in a car?

 

[JamesCaruso]

Pretty boring video actually… Can’t see a thing, and no sound…

Why would he just sit there? Even if he was acting as a spotter, spotters are not supposed to just remain sitting ducks…

 

[Mike Smith]

Pretty boring video actually… Can’t see a thing, and no sound…

Why would he just sit there? Even if he was acting as a spotter, spotters are not supposed to just remain sitting ducks…

The night of the Greensburg Tornado, a sheriff's deputy was killed because he positioned himself ahead of the later Trousdale Tornado and couldn't escape.

The next year a fireman died in southwest Missouri when he was overtaken by an F-4 tornado: Tyler H. Casey - National Fallen Firefighters Foundation

The same night as Fulton Co, here is a deputy in an EF-2 rated tornado in Allen, Co., Indiana.
Watch: In-car footage shows Indiana deputy caught in middle of EF-2 tornado

Between these and Fulton Co., there have been far too many examples of non-meteorological first responders getting into the paths of tornadoes, many of which have not made the news. In Kansas, the law enforcement training academy does not teach storm spotting or storm safety. I wish it, and others, would.

 

[Michael Towers]

Why would he just sit there? Even if he was acting as a spotter, spotters are not supposed to just remain sitting ducks…

Sitting ducks, just what I thought on my way home after dark from my 3/31 Iowa chase. Eastbound on I-88, a tornado warned line persisting on my tail even at highway speeds. LEOs were perched atop 3 consecutive overpasses to monitor the storm, unless they had time to get to safety they were essentially at the mercy of not getting hit by an embedded circulation when the line hit them. And for what benefit? That part of the line was already tornado warned…

 

[Andy Wehrle]

The night of the Greensburg Tornado, a sheriff's deputy was killed because he positioned himself ahead of the later Trousdale Tornado and couldn't escape.

The next year a fireman died in southwest Missouri when he was overtaken by an F-4 tornado: Tyler H. Casey - National Fallen Firefighters Foundation

The same night as Fulton Co, here is a deputy in an EF-2 rated tornado in Allen, Co., Indiana.
Watch: In-car footage shows Indiana deputy caught in middle of EF-2 tornado

Between these and Fulton Co., there have been far too many examples of non-meteorological first responders getting into the paths of tornadoes, many of which have not made the news. In Kansas, the law enforcement training academy does not teach storm spotting or storm safety. I wish it, and others, would.

I thought it was you who mentioned this in another thread some time ago. This is a real travesty, since these are the people who as part of their job are expected to (or take it upon themselves to) block roads around tornadic storms in the name of public safety.

 

[Stan Rose]

While the tornado, overall, may have been rated EF3, I think it's a sure bet that it was not EF3 strength when it encountered that patrol car. How many people are going to look at that video that the TV station posted and think it's safe to ride out a strong tornado in a car?

Hard to say from the video, but I'm guessing EF-1

 

[Mike Smith]

I thought it was you who mentioned this in another thread some time ago. This is a real travesty, since these are the people who as part of their job are expected to (or take it upon themselves to) block roads around tornadic storms in the name of public safety.

It is worse than blocking roads (where a highway patrol probably got a man killed by trapping him in traffic in Indiana). Law enforcement, these days, seem to believe they are experts in everything.

I'm sure everyone remembers the Indiana State Fair (ISF) stage collapse.

The State Fair had an onsite meteorologist who told them to shut down the event. NWS had a SVR out. We had a warning out for a Indy Symphony outdoor concert a few miles away.

So, what did the organizers do? Continue! Why? An Indiana State patrolman who had an app on his smartphone (which likely wasn't RadarScope or something similar, why would he pay the fees?) told them things looked okay to him. Of course, an IHP person has no idea what a radar "fine line" is nor the wx it will bring. In our crazy world, the IHP has more credibility -- tragically -- than a meteorologist in things meteorological!

Which brings me to my #1 pet peeve: This is the reason I wrote Warnings. Our field deserves a tremendous amount of respect that we do not receive. But, we are undermining our position when the we miss obvious tornado warning situations like Joplin, Gaylord, Bensalem and others. It is not just the people who die in those situations, it is the indirect fatalities (as at the ISF) which occur because weather science does not have the credibility it should.

 

[Jesse Risley]

Hard to say from the video, but I'm guessing EF-1

While the video doesn't appear to give any details about the deputy's exact location, indeed the NWS (ILX) rated much of the damage in the EF-0 or EF-1 range, particularly southwest of Lewistown and again to the northeast of town (some of the worst damage was near Bryant up to the northeast, which is close to Canton too): April 4, 2023 - Tornado & Large Hail Event (Updated April 7th)

Since the FCSO noted on their FB post that the same deputy was in assumption of disaster command duties in Lewistown only 20 minutes later I'd assume the deputy was likely on one of the rural roads within 10 miles or less of Lewistown either way.

 

[JamesCaruso]

Of course, an IHP person has no idea what a radar "fine line" is nor the wx it will bring. In our crazy world, the IHP has more credibility -- tragically -- than a meteorologist in things meteorological!

Unfortunately, you can add storm chasers along with meteorologists in your observation there Mike…

This is a real travesty, since these are the people who as part of their job are expected to (or take it upon themselves to) block roads around tornadic storms in the name of public safety.

A huge pet peeve of mine… They often have no idea what they are doing… At best, they needlessly prevent a chaser from continuing to chase. At worst, they put chasers and the general public in *more* danger by trapping them in a traffic jam dead-ended at a road stop, or by cutting off an escape route…

 

[Jeff Wright]

Another close call

MSN

I think Falcon Heavy was threatened…

Virginia Beach struck

 

[Jeff Duda]

Okay...
1) What the hell? How do you get caught in a tornado by just sitting there?
2) No way he went through the core of that tornado. Even an EF1 will lift a car off the ground like it's nothing.