Guy gets way too close to Illinois Tornado

[Kevin Rimcoski]

He definitely comes across as being oblivious to it.
He has no idea what would actually happen had he even been a few feet closer.
"I've never been inside of a tornado" good luck being inside that one I guess

 

[John Olexa]

I guess the old saying is true,Ignorance is bliss. He didn't even seem to understand how much danger he really was in. He lucked out. I just worry others who see this and also don't know any better will think it's not that dangerous.

 

[John Hollingshead]

"... I don't know how to get away from it." Try turning around and driving northbound down the southbound shoulder of the interstate. I don't believe that you're going to encounter too much southbound traffic for a few minutes. "The truck feels like it's about to lift up off of the ground." That may be because the truck WAS about to lift up off of the ground. For starters, it's a good thing that he was driving a heavy Nissan Titan and that he wasn't cut to shreds from the potential of his glass shattering among the other obvious potential dangers to his life. I hope he bought his guardian angel a beer afterwards.


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[Kevin Rimcoski]

There's already a rise of interest in chasing since the TV show, I'm worried about the people who will see this thinking this is how to chase

 

[Bill Giles]

I went ahead and grabbed the video and fixed the camera rotation for the second half, but I'm hesitant to upload it back to YouTube without contacting the guy and letting him have it (I certainly don't want to take credit for his video). He disabled comments though so I'm not sure how to go about it. Ah well.

 

[Kevin Rimcoski]

I went ahead and grabbed the video and fixed the camera rotation for the second half, but I'm hesitant to upload it back to YouTube without contacting the guy and letting him have it (I certainly don't want to take credit for his video). He disabled comments though so I'm not sure how to go about it. Ah well.

Isn't there a way to message him still?

 

[Robert Forry]

I saw your post on this on Twitter, Ben. Just nuts. That dude was pretty damn lucky it took that little side step to the right other wise he'd have been dead meat..

 

[Todd Lemery]

You know, he had forever and then some to move. He kept saying it was coming right for him, yet he just sat there staring at it and not heading in either direction to clear it. Sometimes natural selection swings and misses....

 

[rdale]

And sometimes people freeze in the sight of danger. It doesn't mean they are stupid. It's why I always count the number of rows from my seat to the emergency exit.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/03..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0QQP68FDWWADXVNZ88W3

 

[Todd Hendrix]

Wow. You can really see the multiple vortices of that monster in the video. That guy is incredibly lucky to be alive.

 

[Bill Giles]

Isn't there a way to message him still?

I just sent him a message via YouTube/Google+ letting him know and asking him if he wants it. I also mentioned the "overpasses = not a good idea" thing and sent him a link to the Brooks/Doswell/Rasmussen presentation hosted on the NWS Norman page regarding the problems of overpasses as tornado shelters (http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=safety-overpass - if anyone new hasn't seen it). Hopefully I'm not the latest in a line of people to do that.

 

[Drew Terril]

Combat engineer here, he's probably an 88M, solid driver but when something happens IVO the front of the vehicle they stop and wait for us to get there [emoji4]

LOL. That made me laugh. I was a tanker. All us Cav types get antsy when we are forced to stay put.

 

[Kevin Rimcoski]

I don't want him to feel discouraged from chasing, but I'd like him to understand he did everything wrong that you could do wrong in a 2 minute time frame. He did have more than enough time to go either south or north for sure. Sounds like he put a kid and maybe wife in danger. ..the guy was just extremely lucky...that can't be said enough

Again, not to bash him or anything or make him feel guilty for wanting to chase or whatever his reasoning was, but to get him to understand some safety lessons. I don't think he really knew how powerful it really was.

It would just suck to become another statistic, especially if you put yourself there and didn't know what you're doing

 

[Rick Schmidt]

It sounds like a few are guessing that he had someone in the vehicle with him, such as family?? The brief sounds I heard I figured were coming from the radio. If he was not alone, this was worse than I first thought. Putting yourself in great danger is foolish, but others as well is...well....despicable. I would think children would be screaming and crying. Hopefully, he was alone.

 

[Alex Heimberger]

Insane video! Crazy guys lucky to be be alive.