Near-death moments from the path of tornados that killed five
Terrifying videos captured the terror unleashed by a series of tornadoes that hit the nation over the weekend, leaving five dead.
Jesse Rossi, his 12-year-old daughter and her mother got terrifyingly close to the powerful EF3 tornado near Marietta, in southern Oklahoma, on Saturday.
Their car was almost hit by debris during a Facebook Live stream by Jesse as the trio drove on Interstate 35.
Jesse and his wife are heard discussing the cloud formation ahead of them as they see lightening and realize they are directly facing the tornado.
As they decide to pull over, a large piece of metal falls right in front of their car, sparking panic in the storm chasers.
Meanwhile footage from Friday in Nebraska shows the moment a semi-truck slammed into a vehicle during another twister.
Footage from Friday in Nebraska shows the moment a semi-truck slammed into a vehicle during another twister
Jesse Rossi and his wife are heard discussing the cloud formation ahead of them as they see lightening and realize they are directly facing the tornado
Jesse Rossi and his 12-year-old daughter got terrifyingly close to the powerful EF3 tornado near Marietta, in southern Oklahoma, on Saturday
At least 25 tornadoes killed four people in the state and left thousands without power Sunday, with at least 100 people injured.
Footage of the aftermath in Marietta shows a Dollar Tree distribution center completely destroyed and ripped open by the twister.
More than 20,000 people were still without electricity hours after tornadoes began late Saturday night.
The destruction was extensive in Sulphur, a town of about 5,000 people, where a tornado crumpled many downtown buildings, tossed cars and buses and sheared the roofs off houses across a 15-block radius.
‘You just can’t believe the destruction,’ Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said during a visit to the hard-hit town.
‘It seems like every business downtown has been destroyed.’
Stitt said about 30 people were injured in Sulphur, including some who were in a bar as the tornado struck. Hospitals across the state reported about 100 injuries, including people apparently cut or struck by debris, according to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
One of the family members is seen outside the vehicle after reviewing the damage
Footage of the aftermath in Marietta shows a Dollar Tree distribution center completely destroyed and ripped open by the twister
An infant was among those killed, Hughes County Emergency Management Director Mike Dockrey told Oklahoma television station KOCO.
White House officials said President Joe Biden spoke to Stitt on Sunday and offered the full support of the federal government.
The deadly weather in Oklahoma added to the dozens of reported tornadoes that have wreaked havoc in the nation’s midsection since Friday.
Another death was reported Sunday in Iowa, where officials in Pottawattamie County said a man critically injured during a tornado Friday had died.
In Oklahoma, authorities said the tornado in Sulphur began in a city park before barreling through the downtown, flipping cars and ripping the roofs and walls off of brick buildings. Windows and doors were blown out of structures that remained standing.
Farther north, a tornado near the town of Holdenville killed two people and damaged or destroyed more than a dozen homes, according to the Hughes County Emergency Medical Service.
Stitt issued an executive order Sunday declaring a state of emergency in 12 counties due to the fallout from the severe weather.
The contents of a Dollar Tree warehouse are seen in an aerial photograph
Stitt said about 30 people were injured in Sulphur, including some who were in a bar as the tornado struck
Residents in other states were also digging out from storm damage. A tornado in suburban Omaha, Nebraska, demolished homes and businesses Saturday as it moved for miles through farmland and into subdivisions, then slammed an Iowa town.
The tornado damage began Friday afternoon near Lincoln, Nebraska. An industrial building in Lancaster County was hit, causing it to collapse with 70 people inside. Several were trapped, but everyone was evacuated, and the three injuries were not life-threatening, authorities said.
One or possibly two tornadoes then spent around an hour creeping toward Omaha, leaving behind damage consistent with an EF3 twister, with winds of 135 to 165 mph, said Chris Franks, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Omaha office.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds spent Saturday touring the damage and arranging for assistance for the damaged communities. Formal damage assessments are still underway, but the states plan to seek federal help.
Read more