What are some famous sayings from tornado videos?

[Tim Vasquez]

A HUGE thanks to Greg Stumpf for identifying most of these -- he has written all of the citations below except for Bobby Prentice's.

"Damn. It's gonna take all them houses!"
- Unknown resident, the North Platte tornado of 5/18/90

"Do not drive through this. DO not drive." (menacingly) "Or I will get out of the car."
- Greg Stumpf says: "Yours truly, after a mesocyclone with developing tornado passed over the road less than 1/4 mile ahead of us, with a strange "fog" on the road. Date: 3/13/90, near Dibble OK. Went on to hit Noble OK with an F1 (about 4 miles from my present house). "

"G--, D-MN, F---NG, SH--!!! I'll NEVER take this camera again!"
- Dave Gold, sometime in May 1989, NW Texas.

"Oh my god there's a tornado in the video What? There's a large tornado -- IN da video!"
- Steve Hodanish, 5/13/90, storm near Vernon Texas. Was a rain shaft. To this day, we still quote that when chasing to screw with him.

"Oh, thank you GOD!" (repeated many times during chase)
- Bobby Prentice, 4/26/91

"I've HAD it with this stupid frigging lightweight tripod!"
- Erik Rasmussen, 6/14/90, near Brush CO. Spectacular LP upside down wedding cake updraft of a kind nearly unmatched today.

"Listen to the energy of it!" (referring to wall cloud)
- Unknown resident near Grand Island NE 3/13/90. Whooping and hollering at the tornado while chugging Bud Lites.

Quotes are not necessarily meant to poke fun at any one tragedy but to qualify audio excerpts that have endured the test of time.

Tim

 

[Justin Teague]

Here's one.........

"SUSAN, GET MY PANTS!"
- Crazy farmer, some Nebraska tornado.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

For the sake of brevity and clarity in this FAQ I have integrated Greg Stumpf's information directly into my first post, which had a lot of missing information. I figured this was better than leaving an erroneous post and a list of corrections in place. Thank you Greg for identifying those clips! Our discussion about the chase song I split off into Weather & Chasing.

 

[Jeff Wear]

"I hate Oklahoma"
-local resident, Carmen OK, 5/17/1995

"Right down there is the city of Laverne.....Laverne's gonna get nailed"
-local resident, Laverne OK, 5/15/1991

"We'll be alright. We're full grown adults"
-local resident, Lazbuddie TX multi tornado event, 5/10/1991

 

[Tony Laubach]

My most famous from my videos..

"Ow! Ow you ass!" James Carnegie after a semi threw tons of hail on him through the open window of my car.

"This thunderstorm is still capable of 12 inch diameter hail." NOAA WX Radio in a hailstorm in NE Colorado.

"This storm has produced 32inch hail, and is likely to produce larger hail as this storm is strengthening." NOAA WX Radio this year in a NE Colorado hailstorm.

 

[Thomas Loades]

“I’m 10 feet from it! — I’m 10 feet from it, and all the electricity — all the power lines are going . . .â€
then:
“Tree just blew over . . . GET AWAY FROM THE WINDOWS!! GET AWAY, GET AWAY, GET AWAY!! Where is everybody?â€
— Robert Goodrie (non-chaser), Gull Lake, MN 7/5/1991

“You got this on camera or something?â€
— Unknown airman at McConnell AFB, nr. Wichita, KS 4/26/1991

“S—t! . . . Oh, I got struck!â€
— Unfortunate resident of Fritch, TX 6/27/1992 (knocked over by lightning discharge entering his trailer via the tree roots it sat on, then knocked out as F4 tornado damaged said trailer minutes later)

“You don’t drive into that. . . .â€
“That would be the — the penultimate HP experience.â€
“No, that would be death.â€
— Gene Rhoden and another chaser observing HP supercell nr. Beloit, KS 6/15/1992

“What makes a storm like this go mad?â€
— Tim Marshall observing supercell in process of distributing 10-member tornado family nr. El Dorado, KS 5/26/1991

“Could you swing around and get that, please?â€
— KAUZ-TV reporter in the field asks cameraman to resume taping the Wichita Falls, TX, tornado of 4/3/1964

“Oh, wait, that’s a fire!â€
— Jim Leonard (but not Nova viewers) almost taken in by a cunning smoke column E of Gotebo, OK 6/2/1985

"Damn. It's gonna take all them houses!"
- Unknown resident, the North Platte tornado of 5/18/90

I thought this was 6/25/1989 — or was it not of that tornado after all?

 

[Mickey Ptak]

These are not famous sayings but it is funny for anyone hearing it.

May 12, 2004

Shane Adams: "Oh I got trees in the air. pause. No. No it's just a bird."

April 21, 2004

Shane Adams: "Good eye Mick. Good eye."
Mickey Ptak: "Hay MFR don't be make'n fun of my one eye."

June 12, 2004
Shane as he was trying to find the NWS phone number for
David Drummond.

Shane Adams: "1-800-G** Damnit"

Most of these are on his DVD and/or mine.
http://www.mesomick.com/LOVE_MesoRoad.htm

Mick

 

[Thomas Loades]

“I’n’t that funny-looking?â€￾
—Observer of Albion, IL tornado 6/2/1990

“Look at all this water, dad . . .â€￾
—Photographer unaware that surface of Mississippi R. is turbulent because of the tornado passing over it, just behind his home; Port Byron, IL 3/13/1990

“Slow down—slow way down—â€￾
***
“We are within one quarter of a mile! This definitely makes my all-time chase highlights film, by the way.â€￾
***
“I’ve never been closer. . . . I now know what ‘the hose’ sounds like!â€￾
—R.J. Evans and Robert Prentice pull right up to the Dimmitt, TX tornado, 6/2/1995

“That’s a tornado! Look at it! Holy s##t . . . that’s fantastic!â€￾
—Photographer viewing a tornado (for the first time, maybe?) nr. Hermitage, PA 5/31/1985

“When you’re done, can we get a copy of this?â€￾
“If we live to show it to anybody!â€￾
—Photographer and other observer, Grand Island, NE 3/13/1990

“About one-half— DEBRIS! DEBRIS! TORNADO! Passing right in front of us—â€￾
—Erik Rasmussen with NSSL/U. of Mississippi “Sound Chaseâ€￾ team a little too close to deploy sound package into tornado, nr. Tecumseh, OK 5/17/1981

“Might have to head for the basement—no, this one ain’t goin’ down.â€￾
—Earlier on in aforementioned North Platte, NE video

“Panic has set in!â€￾
—Later on in aforementioned Lazbuddie, TX video

 

[Shane Adams]

Since the notables are obviously well-covered, I'll go outside the box here....(these quotes are from memory, so variations of the actual phrases are possible, but you get the gist)

"I can see it visually with my eyes." Jeff Johncox, while watching the lengthly Ft. Cobb, OK tornado (5-3-99)

"I feel all tingly inside, man." Dwain Warner, getting jazzed about the maturing supercell we were approaching in western OK (4-2-99)

"Shane I might have to run out into that field but I'll keep recordin'." Chad Lawson, while taping a close wallcloud that was moving behind a row of trees near Haskell, TX (5-3-03)

"Do it for daddy." Me, trying to will a funnel to the ground near Dwyer, WY (5-16-00)

"Hell, I'm gonna get in the damned thing." Scott Blair, as he was scaling a barbed wire fence, preparing to run out into a field and through a dust devil near Paoli, OK (8-6-01)

"I'm gonna find out who that was and send 'em an email and tell 'em to go f!@# themselves." Amos Magliocco, reacting to a person in a tour van who upset him while passing by (don't have the date offhand, but I beieve it was sometime in 2000)

"Cows fleeing in panic!!!!" Rob Satkus, excitedly describing the scene as an anticyclonic tornado whirled a few hundred yards northeast of him in northern OK (5-24-98)

"That thing to the left is gonna be BIG." Jim Leonard, anticipating the storm's next cycle while watching a decaying rope tornado in the OK panhandle (5-5-93)

"At least there's not any paint damage." Me, trying to make chase partner David Brown feel better about having his side window blown out in southwest OK (3-7-00)

"Oh I'm gonna remember this Memorial Day." Mark McGowan, after witnessing the last of three tornadoes in southwest OK (5-31-99)

"Hey Mike, SMILE!!!!" Jim Leonard shouting to his chase partner just ahead of him, as a very close tornado crosses the road in front of them, putting "Mike" in the foreground of Jim's shot near Hamlin, TX (5-12-89)

 

[Rockwell Schrock]

I absolutely love this quote from the intro to Seven Years on Cyclone Road:

Passer-by: Is there a tornado coming?
Chasers: Not yet...

(pause)

Passer-by: Do I need to get into a ditch?
Chasers: No...

The way they say "no" at the end is hilarious.

 

[Andy Wehrle]

I like these from the Rhoden's "Violent Prairies"

May 9, 2003:

Karen R: "What's going on?"

Tim M: "Just a little tornado."

Then a few minutes later the lightning illuminates a giant wedge.

May 29, 2004, while watching a tornado in Kansas:

Gene R: "It's a two-tone tornado!" (Referring to how the sunlight is making the bottom part of the funnel appear much brighter than the top)

A little later while watching the same tornado:

(Distant dog barking)

Karen R: "That dog sure sees it."

 

[Jeff Whitworth]

Here's my nominee for the most infamous tornado video quote:

"Get up under the girders!" (4/26/1991 -- Many people have incorrectly inferred from this video that a highway overpass is a good place to take shelter from a tornado.)

 

[Skip Talbot]

How about:

It sounded like a freight train.

I remember hearing this iterated over and over on the news when Plainfield got hit in 1990. I"m sure the phrase has been used other places as well.

 

[fplowman]

Me when i seen my first wedge... Mile wide outside of Jamestown on the 29th 2004...

Is that a F#$%ing tornado??. .. Wow .. thats a f$%^ing tornado...Thats the biggest F#$%ing tornado Ive ever seen!

Avatar to the left is the moment I speak of :wink: lol

 

[Thomas Loades]

Originally posted by Skip Talbot
How about:

It sounded like a freight train.

I remember hearing this iterated over and over on the news when Plainfield got hit in 1990. I\"m sure the phrase has been used other places as well.

Actually, that's in the "underpass" video, too. :roll: