Surviving an EF5, Video from inside the Greensberg tornado

More images from the chase HD cam in the rear of the lead van. Sam did a great job of getting the computers on occasion during the trip down 183.

Capture 1 is of us being trapped on 183 after sitting to get lightning shots.
Capture 2 is of both the MTN and Weather Tap as we started to move south.
Capture 3 is of the shear marker in the storm (we thought this to be a false outline)
Capture 4 Radar and GPS location during the heaviest winds
Capture 5 is of us leaving the cell to the west to get out of the RFD (we thought)
 

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Hey Randy,

What you guys might want to do is something similar to what I did with my April 13th 07 chase. I used the Street Atlas gps log and time stamps and compared that to radar archive to eventually put together a picture of the position of the wedge tornado and my position as well as other chasers. Here is the pseudo case study I am describing: http://www.tornadoxtreme.com/Chases_By_Year/2007_Chases/April_13_07/april_13_07.html
I found the study very useful as the accurate gps timestamps could be lined up with radar to help my visualize everything. You might want to overlay the NWS Greensburg tornado damage path as well. I think it would be pretty cool and enlightening. Perhaps you can find some good Level II radar archives. Likely someone on this website saved some off from Grlevel2 this night. I can also point you to some good sources for radar archives if you like.
 
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Randy,
Don't know if you've seen this survey from the DDC NWS site. It seems to show how you could've thought the tornado had crossed 183 and then looped back west to cut you off. Look at that path!
 
Did anyone catch the story on the kid out of Newton, KS? He is a fairly new storm chaser......and actually survived inside Greensburg as it hit. Some bar or something, wouldn't let him in to take cover! He taped the whole thing I guess as it was barreling down on him IN Greensburg. He became disoriented and went east then eventually went back west and somehow survived. He then handed his video camera off to someone else and started rescuing people.

The video of the rescue:
http://www.weather.com/multimedia/v...tion=videocoll26&nav=141&from=abramsandbettes

That noise you hear in the background gives me chills still. It echoed throughout the whole town.

PS:

Randy, amazing pictures you guys took there in Greensburg. I must have seen over a hundred on Fox news! Glad you guys were doing your thing and helping people, talk about the right place at the right time! How many people did you guys treat? We never really got into seeing many injuries on the west side of town (you guys were on the east side). Most people were okay. It was a true miracle of how a lot of those people survived.
 
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MESO Greensburg account

I've been reading this thread with great interest, but was finding it very difficult to fully understand what went down that night because the basics of what happened to the MESO team seem to be missing (perhaps because they were pulled, as indicated by the first few posts in the thread). It was clear that something had gone awry with the chase and the team narrowly escaped serious injury or death, but I hadn't yet seen a straightforward report of what happened and when.

A little searching got me to this, the team's "final account" of the events of that night:

My apologies if this account has already been posted elsewhere—I have looked in the other Greensburg-related threads and didn't see these details anywhere else.

Many of you here may already know the full story because you know the MESO folks or were actually there that night or during the days immediately following--but I found it helpful to get it all in one seamless narrative, and thought perhaps some others here would as well. I hope it's all right to post this link here; I'm assuming the team wants this to be out there, and it certainly helps put things in context.

As a side note, I'm SO glad everyone here is safe and sound, and it's wonderful that so many of you were able to be there for the people of Greensburg. Randy, I am glad you've ultimately decided to release the video and I look forward to seeing it.
 
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We are still working on the videos. We have over 7 hours of footage and most of the scenes are not appropriate for public viewing for one reason or another. Those with the footage have committed to not show video that will show disrespect to the people of Greensberg or any first responder on scene. We are also in the process of selling the footage and story. The proceeds will be donated to the Greenberg Volunteer Fire Department. I have also promised the footage to multiple government agencies for training purposes (Including the NWS).

The basic story is that we were sitting on 183 to get lightning shots for those with still cameras. We got trapped between cells and were going to sit it out between the cells when we were told that the wedge had crossed 183 about 7-8 miles south of 54. We chose to get south to 54 when the south cell split again and turned west onto us. Before we could react, we were in major cross winds. We were in what we thought was MAJOR RFD about 3-4 miles north of 54 on 183. We didn't panic and we worked our way out of a VERY bad situation. We had major debri flying horizantal including quite a bit of pink insulation and very large tree branches. We got to 54 and the RFD did not stop AND again picked up. The forecasters could not figure out why we were still in high winds for so long. We could not seam to get out of the high wind even while heading west on 54. We now know why.

Please be patient while we work hard to raise money for the Greensberg fire department. I will work on getting the actual chase video (from the back of my van) up on a server somewere for private invitation as soon as it is sold. I think you will all see that it is worth the waite and I hope we can all learn something from it. The team remained extreemly calm and each member was using their head to think our way out of the bad situation. MESO has alot to be proud of.

See you on the chase!
Randy
 
So you are passing this video off as "Inside an EF-5", which was really careless on your part to begin with, as RFD! Sorry man, I don't buy that you guys were inside the tornado, one bit, you wouldn't be talking on here if you were. It's all nice for the media about you claiming this, and claiming that, and we were the only people that did this........and so on, but you weren't in the tornado. How many times are you guys gonna call yourselves heroes? I guess the media wouldn't know the difference between RFD and a tornado at night time. But maybe your 7 hours of footage can prove me wrong.
 
This thread was started 12 days ago. Is it that hard to post *some* video?

Edit: Nevermind I see it was "pulled" from the start. Maybe the thread title should change then.
 
Hey Dick,
Number one, I am not calling myself or any member of MESO a hero in any way. I am mearly saying I am proud of the efforts put forth. The video will be used for training and the proceeds used to give a little something back to the folks of Greenberg.

Numer two, I am not going to argue with you about this. If you don't want to see it then don't watch it! Whether it is RFD or FDICTN is none of my concern in any way. I am proud of the how we reacted in a bad situation, plain and simple.

The video we are working on does not include any of Allan's video. It includes alot of boring video and also good stuff in the city from the moment we pulled in.

Believe what YOU want to believe... And then do something good for someone!
 
I somehow am doubtful we will see *ANY* video from inside this tornado.

As this was at night regardless, I doubt we would see anything regardless besides trees and a rocking vehicle and horizontal sticks. One cannot claim video from inside an F5 tornado unless they were literally inside the F5 tornado. I might add that any vehicle truly inside the F5 tornado would not have stood a chance against the tornadic winds, as the Greensburg aftermath video clearly indicates.

If the author of the video can give clear, concise video evidence of truly being inside the F5 tornado (which would be for sure some of the most dramatic tornado video - of historic proportions), and somehow managed to film it safely, I would be impressed. For now, based on the screenshots posted and lack of video, I am taking the opinion that this video is at the most unimpressive and not really the tornado at all.

I sincerely hope I will be proved wrong in short order.
 
Randy Denzer said:
Hey Dick,
Number one, I am not calling myself or any member of MESO a hero in any way. I am mearly saying I am proud of the efforts put forth. The video will be used for training and the proceeds used to give a little something back to the folks of Greenberg.

Numer two, I am not going to argue with you about this. If you don't want to see it then don't watch it! Whether it is RFD or FDICTN is none of my concern in any way. I am proud of the how we reacted in a bad situation, plain and simple.

The video we are working on does not include any of Allan's video. It includes alot of boring video and also good stuff in the city from the moment we pulled in.

As far as media glory? I was asked to be on the Today show on Sunday morning and did not go due to the simple fact that I did not feel comfortable sitting in the spotlight after what we experienced. I am in NO way a hero for what I did in Greenberg. I saw many heros at work there and I am working hard to get them recougnized and our videos will show this.

The video is being professionally edited and we are holding out untill it sells. I am sending DVD's
Click to expand...

If you aren't concerned whether it was RFD or not.......then maybe you should change the title of this thread! "Surviving an EF5, Video from inside GreensbUrg tornado"

FWIW, I talked to one of your MESO members, and his story was that he thought he was hit with very strong RFD's. (This was that night.) Maybe you don't remember us coming up and talking to you while you were shooting photos, but we were there.

It's good that you are trying to do good for the people of Greensburg, as we all are, but don't hype video up that isn't what it is.
 
Once again, This forum is a whipping post!!!

In my profession, I am used to commrodery (sp?) and studying mistakes to prevent them from happening in the future. We learn from our past and we don't try so hard to cut each others throats.

We appreciate the emails of support and acknowledgement from those who know the facts about the night of May 4th. It will not go un-noticed

I am proud of each MESO member who worked hard the night of May 4th. Nothing any yahoo can say on here will take away my pride. MESO has an opportunity to put storm chasers across the country in a very positive light. While we are trying to do this, there will of course be those who will be saying we are doing this for some hidden agenda. In the end, ANY person who is trying to get personal gain from this will come to light.....
 
No, I didn't call you a yahoo and why don't YOU tell me what our intentions were? I am seriously curious at this point.


I never talked to you in Greenberg. I was on the north side in an airpack or with the Fire Chief. I have never met you...

You spoke with Allan Detrich who was the ONLY member taking pictures in Greenberg.


Where is this coming from?
 
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Randy Denzer said:
No, I didn't call you a yahoo and why don't YOU tell me what our intentions were? I am seriously curious at this point.

What is your deal? Where is this coming from?
Click to expand...

Perhaps Dick's point is you should be honest with how you market the video. It appears from everything that has been presented at this point that your team was not directly struck by the tornado and therefore you are providing, at the least, misinformation regarding what your group encountered that night. I'm certain the tension regarding this thread would not be what it was if you had been upfront in the beginning by not claiming to have survived being in the tornadic circulation.
 
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