Earthstorm (2022) s01e01 Episode Script
Tornado
1
[thunder rumbling]
[reporter] This is a
once-in-a-generation catastrophic tornado.
[chilling music playing]
[reporter] You've got to get,
to your safe place now.
[glass shattering]
[sirens wailing]
[woman crying]
We had a tornado. I'm so scared.
[child's voice]
Is there anybody else out there?
[woman] All my co-workers are screaming,
"I'm gonna die.
Tell my family I love them."
And I'm like, "We're not dying in here.
We're not dying."
And then, boom!
Everything just fell on us.
Somebody please, send us some help.
We are trapped.
Nobody can get to us.
I couldn't move and I started to panic.
I've watched all these movies about
disasters and people getting trapped.
And I never would have thought
that I would have lived,
through something like that.
[sirens wailing]
[loud thunder]
[opening theme music playing]
[suspenseful music playing]
[narrator] Every year, there are more
than 1200 tornadoes in the United States.
Four times more than
in the rest of the world combined.
Each is simply a vortex of air.
But when that vortex
is spinning at 200 miles an hour,
it becomes unstoppable.
- [first man] Oh, wow!
- [second man] Wow!
[narrator] This is a film about people
who chase tornadoes.
Lured by their terrible beauty.
This whole place is just gone.
[narrator] And about the people
whose lives are pulled apart,
by the destructive power of nature.
[solemn music playing]
[narrator] Brandon Clement has been
chasing tornadoes for over 20 years.
[Brandon] I had a tornado warning at
the school I was going to
and they were trying
to get us all in the hall and,
I may have just kind of skipped out
and went to the parking lot,
got in my car and started chasing it. So
It was probably a dumb move but,
instantly I
it was like, "Okay, I like this."
[Brandon] By 2003,
I was building chase vehicles,
and eventually started
shooting video with it.
[ominous music playing]
[narrator] Brandon
is a professional chaser.
He makes a living posting footage
of tornadoes online,
selling it to different media outlets.
[narrator] His chase partner
is Brett Adair.
The chase is an adrenaline rush,
and anyone who says it's not,
they would be lying.
This RFD is about to slam into us.
Right there's where the tornado
would be though, right over the tree line.
[Brett] You don't know what to
expect because every storm is different.
Every system is different.
This RFD started just coming in.
We gotta go. We gotta go back north.
Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
Then that adrenaline starts to kick in.
[Brett] Come on. Come on.
My passion is to be in violent weather.
[dramatic music playing]
[Brett] Brandon and I,
we don't work together
in a sense of being in the same vehicle.
There we go.
Wow.
[Brett] We may have a different opinion
of where the best storm's gonna be.
So that's the storm.
It's got lightning on it.
[Brett] And it's great,
because you need somebody to push you.
Yeah, we have two spots.
Three spots now,
if you look out to your two o'clock.
[Brett] So, it's kind of a
competitive nature for the two of us too.
[man] Looks like a tornado on the ground.
I think it is.
[Brett] And that's how we operate.
[thunder]
[sinister music playing]
[narrator] Each tornado,
is spawned by a thunderstorm.
Warm, moist air rises.
It cools and condenses to
form towers of cumulonimbus cloud.
But only one in 5000 thunderstorms
has enough moisture,
energy and wind speed to become a tornado.
Just forget the core of the storm.
We need to stay just northeast of that.
Right?
Whatever's gonna take
you northeast of the cloud base.
[Howard] I'm an observationist.
I like to go out in nature
and observe these storms.
And then ask questions like,
"Why are they there?
What causes them?
What makes them look the way they do?"
[suspenseful music playing]
The ultimate goal is
to look at a storm and say,
"This one is likely to produce a tornado,
and this one is not."
[Howard] The source of the
rotation of tornado is the horizontal row
that occurs along
the boundary between the cool air,
where rain has fallen and evaporated,
and the regular warm moist air
that's just outside the storm.
That's where the spin comes from.
That air which is spinning
approaches the updraft,
the main buoyant updraft in the storm,
and it gets tilted up.
And lo and behold,
you have a low level mesocyclone.
And this mesocyclone is a swirl of winds,
maybe, two, three, four kilometers across.
And as the air rises,
air has to come in from
the sides to feed that updraft.
And so that region of air
which is spinning, contracts.
And so that stretches the column of air
and then you get a very intense vortex,
right near the ground.
That's when you get the tornado.
This is just so spectacular,
I can't even talk.
We dream of getting something like this.
Oh, man! Look at that.
[uneasy music playing]
I hope someone is getting that.
Don't get me, get that.
[wind blowing]
[narrator] Spring
is tornado season in the US
when there's both warm
and cool air in the atmosphere,
enough for a storm to start spinning.
It's also chasing season,
when there's the best chance
of catching a twister in action.
[deep drumming music playing]
[tracker ticking]
[narrator] Brandon is chasing in Texas.
Heading Northwest towards
Red River County.
[Brandon] Right here is where the
storms are starting to form.
You see the first storm blowing up.
And as they're coming towards you,
you want to go towards them
and then you can get ready
for Tornado Time.
Tornado Time is what I call,
uh, in the afternoons, in the plains.
You know, that five o'clock
to eight o'clock hour,
uh, that's where you get
most of your tornadoes.
[narrator] Brett is also in Texas,
driving south to Jasper.
Chasing down a different tornado.
[Brett] We're going to stay on these
until they start to show those MCS signs
and then we're going to blow East.
It's good to know
that they're coming across.
I see your area over there is now
under a severe thunderstorm watch
for the afternoon.
[Brandon] Yeah. They have put
a tornado watch out for us.
It's the last circle on the drylines.
All right. Cool. Hey, do you know anything
that's good to eat down near DeRidder?
Of course, he would lose signal.
Brandon, I'm getting hangry.
Answer me, boy.
[chuckles and grunts]
[tense music building]
Here it goes.
You definitely see it trying now.
See how the width of the clouds
in the front are going up?
The back side is coming back around.
That's exactly what you want to see.
Hopefully it can continue to develop
and then we'll get a nice,
tight tornado right in front of us.
Like we were talking about earlier,
Tornado Time.
You know, we're just now getting
into that window.
So I think this storm finally
may put one down.
Oh, yeah.
Full tornado on the ground.
[thrilling music playing]
I'm getting out right here.
[resounding chimes]
[Brandon] Most tornadoes
only last a few minutes.
Sometimes just seconds.
Oftentimes, our footage is
the only evidence that they ever existed.
We're like journalists,
documenting each storm.
Bearing witness
to the destruction it causes.
Is anybody in the car?
[indistinct shout]
[Brandon] Chasers like me,
we're here when the destruction
is happening.
So it's before the First Responders
even get here.
Watch the power lines.
[indistinct talking]
[Brandon] It's our moral obligation
to find out if anyone is hurt
and do what we can to help.
[loud breathing]
[Brandon] Y'all okay?
Yeah, they were in the shelter.
Good place to be.
Yeah. Scary, man.
Is it just you?
- Huh?
- Just you?
- Right.
- Nobody else inside or anything?
- No.
- Good.
Can you turn that main switch
on the propane tank off?
Yeah, we can.
Yeah.
[tragic music playing]
- I cut it back on.
- Watch out.
Pretty good.
Yeah. All right, come on.
They're all right.
Good thing they were in the shelter.
You can still see the tornado.
Quite a rope.
Okay.
[Brandon] It always amazes me,
how something so beautiful
can do so much damage.
[tragic music fades]
I'm over here near Jasper with this one
that's coming, uh, out of Woodville.
[narrator] Meanwhile,
Brett is 200 miles further south,
trying to locate a different storm.
This has got some wind. It's
you can see the inflow
but man, it's super cool.
I can go just south of town right here
at Jasper, that's what I'm,
I'm trying to make
a decision here though pretty quick.
Maybe we should go a little south,
get in a better position.
All right man, we'll talk. Bye.
[deep tone plays]
Uh-oh. Right here.
I hate this, man.
[narrator] By the time
he hones in on a tornado,
it's so wrapped in rain,
he can't see anything.
[thunder crashes]
[man] Copy that.
There it is. Look out
your window, right there.
That's a tornado over there to the left.
[dark music playing]
[Brett] When you get in those
situations in the rain,
it's like a big washing machine.
Buckle up and get ready for the ride.
[somber music playing]
[narrator] Most tornadoes in the US,
happen on the Great Plains
in Tornado Alley.
It's wedging out,
and you're probably seeing a sheer,
a sheer zone,
with it going up and over.
[narrator] The geography is perfect,
for the formation of big storms.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Howard] When the air comes in
from the Pacific over the Rocky Mountains,
it subsides.
And as that air subsides,
pressure increases,
and that pressure squeezes the air
and it warms it up.
As it warms up,
you get southerly winds ahead of it.
And those southerly winds
bring up moisture
from the Gulf of Mexico to fuel
the storms that form.
So, it's very important to be here,
because we have the mountains
and we have the Gulf of Mexico.
[man] Howie, we should go.
Uh, we need to go.
[narrator] Tornado Alley, has more
violent tornadoes than anywhere on Earth.
[electric sparking]
[narrator] Each is measured
on the EF-Scale.
Based on wind speed and structural damage.
[sinister music playing]
- [wind howling]
- [crashing]
[wind howling]
[wind howling]
[thunderous music playing]
[narrator] Only one percent
of tornadoes in the US
are EF4s or EF5s,
classified as violent tornadoes.
[man whimpers] Until you see
this in person, you have no idea.
[exhales sharply]
It's it's devastation.
[narrator] On average,
there's fewer than one EF5 per year,
but they're the storms
that live on in the memory.
[man] Look at the size of that monster.
[thunder rumbling]
[man] Jesus!
[narrator] The El Reno Tornado
still haunts those who were there.
All right. We are near El Reno, Oklahoma.
We have a rapidly rotating wall cloud
just to our west.
Once that first lightning strike happens,
I'm instantly wondering,
how long until I see a tornado.
[Brandon] Wow, this thing
just keeps forming new vortices.
In that moment, I see one little funnel
and it touches the ground.
And then I see another little funnel
and it touches the ground.
But what I don't realize is
that the whole sky
is actually about to become a tornado.
[woman] Because we knew
there was a lot of potential
for strong tornadoes on this day,
and we knew there were
so many storm chasers everywhere,
we decided to give
the storm a lot of space.
So, when we went to our first
position watching the El Reno storm,
we were about six miles away from it.
[thunder rumbling]
You're kind of hoping that the rear
flank downdraft is going to clear out
and you're going to get a beautiful shot
of the tornado that's under there.
[Brandon] We were there chasing.
I actually had my dad with me.
And when the tornado formed,
it was several miles off to our west.
Had a good viewing position.
Very relaxed environment.
And the tornado started growing
from when we first got
in the car, as a small,
few hundred yard wide multi-vortex,
to at this point, a two and a half
to three-mile-wide just monster.
[thunder rumbling]
Looking right at it.
[Brandon] We got 30 seconds.
Turn the car around!
[Brandon] I wanted the car turned around
so that we wasted no time
in getting out of there.
But all I wanted to do in that moment was,
was film it,
because I'd never seen
anything like it before.
The fact that it was so mesmerizing
kept me in that moment
for too long.
[narrator] There were 250 chasers
on the scene that day,
their locations mapped by GPS.
They weren't prepared
for the speed of the oncoming storm.
[Jennifer] We were only 90 seconds away
from that tornado hitting our location.
[man] Jump in!
[Jennifer] We've got to haul ass.
[Jennifer] We got in our vehicle
and we pulled out and screamed east
as fast as we could.
[Jennifer] Go. Go. Go. Go!
- [Jennifer] Drive! Fuck.
- [man] Let's go.
[Jennifer] Fuckin' shit.
Imagine being chased by something that's
two and a half miles wide,
moving at 55 miles per hour.
[urgent music building]
[Jennifer] And it was actually
gaining on us.
All you can hope is that the road
you're on continues for miles and miles,
so you can continue to drive away
as fast as you can.
[Brandon] We had to turn around
back across the tornado.
At this point, I'm having trouble
keeping the vehicle on the road.
And I knew we're about
to take a direct hit.
And there was nothing I could do about it.
All I could think, is just keep
the nose of the car in the wind.
I knew if we got sideswiped
in any way that car was going rolling
and we weren't gonna make it.
[Brandon] I realized this tornado was
going towards my escape route.
Whoa! Go! I'll get the tripod.
Just drive! Just drive!
[pressing music building]
[Brandon] And that's when we decided
to go south as fast as we could.
Go! Winds!
[Brandon] And we started having headwinds
that were probably over 100-mile-an-hour.
And the car could just not go any faster.
Forty is not enough!
I can't see.
You're fine. You're good.
I can see for you. Go!
Go!
[Brandon] I yell at my driver
to drive south.
Just go! Don't stop now! Go!
Because if he stops, if we hesitate
any more than we already did
by me taking too much time
we're not gonna make it.
Go south! If you don't go south,
we're gonna die!
- It's okay?
- Yes, just drive south!
[Brandon] There was farm equipment
coming right at my vehicle.
[dramatic music escalating]
Shit.
[Brandon] It shattered
my windshield immediately.
Get down! Duck down! Duck down!
[wipers screeching]
Drive forward if you can.
[Brandon] So we slam
into this 2000-pound hay bale.
[Brandon] You're good.
Oh, shit!
[Brandon] And it just adds
to the chaos of the moment.
[driver] I can't see.
Okay, that's fine.
Phew.
[Brandon] We realized then
that the worst has passed us
and that the tornado had curved
back off to the northeast
and we had just escaped out of the south.
Oh, my God!
Yeah, my car is totaled.
Just drive.
[Brandon] I've seen so many tornadoes.
And I've seen the damage that they cause.
But actually being in that situation
and thinking you might not make it out
just totally reframes the perspective,
uh, and the respect for Mother Nature.
[delicate music playing]
[Jennifer] When we finally felt we were
in a safe enough position to stop,
we got out.
And when we looked up at the storm,
we can see the entire mesocyclone.
It was totally and utterly awe-inspiring.
And for a moment you forgot
the horrible beast that was underneath it.
I said out loud, "Wow,
I hope all the storm chasers are safe."
And, uh, that ended up being
about six minutes after
Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras, and Carl Young
had actually been hit by that tornado.
[thunder and rain pattering]
[Jennifer] They were the first
storm chasers ever killed by a tornado.
[soft pensive music playing]
I can only imagine,
that it was very hard to see.
It probably moved very fast
and they probably didn't realize
the danger that they were in
until it was too late.
[haunting music playing]
[narrator] The season
is over in Tornado Alley.
There have been no violent tornadoes.
When that, that storm complex dives
[narrator] Brett Adair and
Brandon Clement are back on home territory
in the South.
You know, you're in Mississippi,
you live here, I live in Alabama.
For me, personally,
I might stay a little east tonight.
If we get those type
of parameters along I-20, Birmingham
Yeah, the symbol is right there.
Right.
[narrator] Alongside Tornado Alley,
is Dixie Alley.
Cutting through the southern states
of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
It has more violent tornadoes
per square mile than its larger neighbor.
[swooshing]
And those tornadoes
continue later in the year.
With a second spike in the fall.
[Brandon] Chasing in the South,
to me, is different than the Plains.
I have kids,
I have a mother, I have friends.
And it's terrifying knowing that
these tornadoes that
I'm out here chasing could, you know,
be going at them next.
[phone ringing]
- [Brandon] Hi.
- [woman] Hey.
[Brandon] Be ready,
'cause they're a lot worse
than what the radar
is representing all day long.
So be careful.
It's coming right towards the house.
[woman] Yes.
[Brandon] I, uh, if you can hear me,
I love you. Gotta go.
- [woman] I love you too. Bye.
- Bye.
[narrator] Tornadoes in fall are
normally weaker than those in spring.
Blowing out by Thanksgiving.
But not this year.
- Oh, shit.
- Wow!
[ominous music playing]
[narrator] The Gulf of Mexico is warmer
than it's been in December for 40 years.
Increasing evaporation
adding moisture into the atmosphere.
As warm, moist air heads inland,
it collides with cold air further north
and strong winds in the upper atmosphere
a recipe for the worst winter tornado
in Kentucky's history.
This is the most remarkable,
destructive tornado
that I have seen around here.
[troubled music playing]
[Trent] As this storm moved over our area,
we were able to detect winds
of well over 150 miles per hour.
And that's incredible.
This was a storm, you know, on radar,
you might see out in
Oklahoma or Texas, but not here.
You know, in 14 years
of working at the station,
I've never seen anything this powerful.
That night, we had to take our message up
to the highest level of urgency.
We may be looking
at a one-mile-wide tornado.
Just incredible, incredible winds.
This is a once-in-a-generation
catastrophic tornado
that will be talked about for years.
We were telling people to get mattresses,
pull those off your beds.
Take those into your,
your safe room with you.
Get baseball helmets, football helmets.
Put those on your head.
Make sure that you've got,
uh, pull out some pillows
[Trent] This was the type of storm
that if you weren't in a basement,
you were in danger.
And so we had to try to tell people,
you know, uh,
to take every precaution necessary
to try to save their lives.
I cannot, cannot tell you
with any greater urgency.
You've got to get to your safe place now!
[soft frail music playing]
When I heard the thunder,
I came over to this door.
And then I turned around.
And when I looked again,
I saw a big flash of white light.
I looked outside
and all of a sudden,
debris started whipping up
and the door started shaking.
So I went ahead and locked the door.
I said, "Everybody,
let's go to the bathroom."
So we started walking
all the way over here.
Came into the restroom,
and we all huddled in here.
We were scared, it was terrifying.
Just the sound
and the debris hitting the house.
I mean, I can hear
tree trunks just hitting and slamming.
And the windows breaking from that side,
and, the way it just came.
It felt like it was coming this way,
just like this.
So it's, it's a terrible feeling.
It's, not a wonderful feeling.
And right now I'm hearing it
like if it was that day.
Just talking about it makes me feel
that it's happening right now.
[gentle music playing]
[narrator] As a Southerner, Brett was
the only professional storm chaser
in a position to capture
the tornado on camera.
[thunder crashing]
[Brett] This storm dropped tornadoes
all the way from Arkansas
to Northeast Kentucky.
I mean, that's literally
like the storm chaser's lottery.
And when it lights up
and you're like, "Holy smokes!"
[thunder crashing]
[Brett] You can see the debris
being lofted and thrown,
and that's what we were watching for
when Mayfield was hit.
And unfortunately,
it was hit, and hit hard.
[wind howling]
[glass shattering]
[narrator] The full wrath of the storm
was focused on the city of Mayfield,
in Western Kentucky.
[foreboding music playing]
[Brett] So we roll up
and everything's trashed all around you.
You know, people yelling,
the candle factory's been destroyed.
There was so much debris.
You know, it took first responders
and took us a moment to get through that.
And it looked like
an unworldly, ungodly situation
that you can only imagine
that you see in movies.
[dreaded tone plays]
[Brett] This is a factory
that employs well over 100 people.
And seeing that, just the entire
building structure, just gone.
Honestly, I thought,
"There's no way anybody survived this."
[devastating music playing]
[woman] We're at the candle factory
in Mayfield,
and we are trapped.
Please, y'all, get us some help.
Please. Please.
[woman] I went on Facebook Live because
for one, I needed to keep talking.
I needed to ramble
so that I wouldn't be focused on
what was going on.
But also because I needed
somebody to know that we were stuck.
I don't know who's watching.
We had a tornado and the building fell.
I'm so scared.
Is anybody out there?
All my coworkers are screaming,
"I'm gonna die.
Tell my family I love them."
And I'm like, "We're not dying in here.
We're not dying."
And I'm like, "It's almost my birthday."
And so, you know,
a lot of that was on the Live.
It's almost ten o'clock.
Y'all gonna sing "Happy Birthday" to me.
[overlapping voices]
Happy birthday to you ♪
We're gonna sing now.
Y'all gotta sing "Happy Birthday" to me.
[overlapping voices]
Happy birthday to you ♪
Okay. Okay, y'all.
I wanna get out.
[disconcerting music playing]
[Brett] We pulled three or four
people out the whole time I was there,
which was around four hours.
But you know there were people underneath
the pile that didn't make it.
All you can do is
is comfort the ones
that could hear you and say,
"Just hold on. Just hold on.
Uh, we're coming.
We're trying. We're on the way."
And
[hesitates]
it was just rough. It was really rough.
[man] Help!
I hope that's people that, like,
know what the fuck they doing.
- Y'all.
- No, you loose?
[Kyanna] Andrea got loose first
and they pulled her out.
Then Dakota, then Daniela.
But I was so afraid that
they wasn't gonna be able to get me out.
I said, "I got a big ass."
And I'm like, "I'm not going to fit."
And they got underneath me.
See, this is a State Trooper.
Got my butt and pushed it up,
and Gary was at the top
and he was pulling.
Hey y'all, they got me out.
[Kyanna] And I got up to the top
and I got out.
I'm out.
[unnerving music playing]
[Kyanna] Seeing the factory now,
it is unbelievable.
I mean, you would have thought
that one of the Three Little Pigs made it.
Like the one that made it of straw.
[doomful tone plays]
[drone chimes]
[narrator] The next morning,
Brandon got the first drone footage,
of the damage at Mayfield.
Wow, it's,
this whole place is just gone.
[troubled piano music playing]
[Brandon] I mean, I just love seeing
the power of Mother Nature,
until you see this.
It looks like somebody
hooked up a giant tiller
and just came for a mile-wide,
right through this area.
Slab right there. Slab right there.
- Right.
- Slab right there.
Right.
[Brandon] It's almost like a CSI case,
trying to unravel a murder, you know.
Right there is where,
debris rowing and stuff.
- Yeah.
- You see all that debris going out.
I mean, that's just
as intense as it gets right there.
Yup.
There's a small little sector.
[Brandon] I've been hit
by big tornadoes before but,
at least I had a chance.
These people didn't have a chance.
[despairing music playing]
[Peter] We've seen storms.
We've been through storms.
But nothing like this.
Nothing like this.
This is more than just a house.
It's where I raised my children.
My son said,
"Man,
I played on this property,
I played all around in here."
And, uh, he had never expressed
his nostalgic views of, the home
until this, you know?
I'm not giving this up.
I'm fighting for it.
[despairing music fades]
[reporter] Breeanna Glisson
still hasn't figured out
how she and her four
and two-year-old children are alive.
[Breeanna] There was warnings going off
like crazy and sirens going off.
But I had nowhere safe to go.
So I grabbed my kids
and I laid down in my bed, my mattress.
Held onto them.
Um, the windows shattered.
Any and all glass was gone.
And that's when I saw
the roof coming at me.
It felt like one solid motion.
It crushed us and then we were flown,
and so was the whole house.
In a millisecond,
we were no longer in the bed
or in our house.
We were on the ground
all the way over there somewhere.
Like on the other side of those cars?
Like over this rubble,
on the ground, in mud.
[Breeanna] We were stuck there
for hours and hours.
[dejected music playing]
And it took so long for someone
to come and help
because there was nobody could get in.
There was so much damage
and debris over the roads.
They couldn't get to us.
That tornado was huge.
I don't understand how I'm even alive
after going through it.
Every time I close my eyes,
I see the roof, crushing us.
I wouldn't wish my worst enemy to go
through something
like what I've been through.
[narrator] The tornado outbreak
killed at least 88 people.
It caused four billion dollars worth
of damage.
[dejected music continues]
[Brandon] We've had more billion-dollar
disasters over the past ten years
than we have in decades prior to that.
These types of events,
are just going to happen more frequently
as we see a warmer climate develop.
We just have to be prepared
for more extreme events to occur.
[Breeanna] We usually don't have
tornadoes in Kentucky.
Seriously, like, it is not a normal thing.
And with the way
that the planet is changing,
I feel like it's going to get worse.
[narrator] In recent years,
as the planet warms,
the boundaries
of Tornado Alley and Dixie Alley
have been shifting further north and east
into more heavily
populated parts of the country.
Areas without storm shelters.
[Brandon] There's definitely some
causation with climate change.
Because you're getting
these strong systems that come in
that normally don't have enough energy,
enough juice to produce,
you know, the big tornadoes.
And now they do, and this is the result.
It's just,
I mean, you know,
if we don't start doing
something about climate change,
it's just gonna continue to get worse.
[dejected music fades]
[engine rumbling]
[tender piano music playing]
[narrator] A month after the tornado,
the demolition crews move in.
The clean up operation begins.
[tender piano music continues]
[woman] Every disaster
you go to is different,
but the personal impact is the same.
People are grieving, people are hurting.
People don't want
to walk out their door every day
and see the disaster and piles like this.
They just want an ounce of hope
and an ounce of recovery.
And if we can bring that,
then that's our goal.
That's what keeps us coming back.
The mindset is, you know, this is my home.
This is where I grew up.
This is where my family is
and so, you're gonna rebuild.
[narrator] A symbol of the disaster
was a photograph,
taken in the rubble of a movie theater.
So I posted the photo
and everybody liked it.
And uh, I didn't realize
how quickly it would catch on,
but I think now it's got close
to like 160,000 uploads.
[ticking]
You know, as of now, we've
raised over 70,000 dollars on GoFundMe.
I had a guy just hand me
a big wad of cash one day.
And he said, "I heard what you were doing.
I saw it on CNN.
Like, I just want to help
you out as best I could. Here you go."
And I think that really
says a lot about this community.
[tender music continues]
[man] When this thing first started,
a lot of people couldn't get a hot meal.
Of course, by me being a cook,
I've been trying to help people
as much as I can.
We're all in this together.
And we need to stick together
to help one another to rebuild it.
Okay, you want to take those
and then come back?
- I can. Yes. Thank you.
- Okay, there you go.
[James] The people of Mayfield
make Mayfield.
And each one of us will play
a part in the rebuilding of this.
- Thank you, Ma'am.
- Thank you.
And the people that are here,
that are gonna stay here,
that are gonna to rebuild,
that's Mayfield.
[forlorn music playing]
[Brett] Here's the thing.
Mayfield is not unique.
It's just the latest city
to be hit by a tornado.
There will be more.
There are always more tornadoes.
And people like me, will be there
to record the power of Mother Nature
when it strikes.
It makes you feel kind of vulnerable,
never knowing when that next tornado
is going to come your way.
[forlorn music ends]
[thunderous rumbling]
[menacing closing theme music playing]
Subtitle translation by: Antoinette Smit
[thunder rumbling]
[reporter] This is a
once-in-a-generation catastrophic tornado.
[chilling music playing]
[reporter] You've got to get,
to your safe place now.
[glass shattering]
[sirens wailing]
[woman crying]
We had a tornado. I'm so scared.
[child's voice]
Is there anybody else out there?
[woman] All my co-workers are screaming,
"I'm gonna die.
Tell my family I love them."
And I'm like, "We're not dying in here.
We're not dying."
And then, boom!
Everything just fell on us.
Somebody please, send us some help.
We are trapped.
Nobody can get to us.
I couldn't move and I started to panic.
I've watched all these movies about
disasters and people getting trapped.
And I never would have thought
that I would have lived,
through something like that.
[sirens wailing]
[loud thunder]
[opening theme music playing]
[suspenseful music playing]
[narrator] Every year, there are more
than 1200 tornadoes in the United States.
Four times more than
in the rest of the world combined.
Each is simply a vortex of air.
But when that vortex
is spinning at 200 miles an hour,
it becomes unstoppable.
- [first man] Oh, wow!
- [second man] Wow!
[narrator] This is a film about people
who chase tornadoes.
Lured by their terrible beauty.
This whole place is just gone.
[narrator] And about the people
whose lives are pulled apart,
by the destructive power of nature.
[solemn music playing]
[narrator] Brandon Clement has been
chasing tornadoes for over 20 years.
[Brandon] I had a tornado warning at
the school I was going to
and they were trying
to get us all in the hall and,
I may have just kind of skipped out
and went to the parking lot,
got in my car and started chasing it. So
It was probably a dumb move but,
instantly I
it was like, "Okay, I like this."
[Brandon] By 2003,
I was building chase vehicles,
and eventually started
shooting video with it.
[ominous music playing]
[narrator] Brandon
is a professional chaser.
He makes a living posting footage
of tornadoes online,
selling it to different media outlets.
[narrator] His chase partner
is Brett Adair.
The chase is an adrenaline rush,
and anyone who says it's not,
they would be lying.
This RFD is about to slam into us.
Right there's where the tornado
would be though, right over the tree line.
[Brett] You don't know what to
expect because every storm is different.
Every system is different.
This RFD started just coming in.
We gotta go. We gotta go back north.
Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
Then that adrenaline starts to kick in.
[Brett] Come on. Come on.
My passion is to be in violent weather.
[dramatic music playing]
[Brett] Brandon and I,
we don't work together
in a sense of being in the same vehicle.
There we go.
Wow.
[Brett] We may have a different opinion
of where the best storm's gonna be.
So that's the storm.
It's got lightning on it.
[Brett] And it's great,
because you need somebody to push you.
Yeah, we have two spots.
Three spots now,
if you look out to your two o'clock.
[Brett] So, it's kind of a
competitive nature for the two of us too.
[man] Looks like a tornado on the ground.
I think it is.
[Brett] And that's how we operate.
[thunder]
[sinister music playing]
[narrator] Each tornado,
is spawned by a thunderstorm.
Warm, moist air rises.
It cools and condenses to
form towers of cumulonimbus cloud.
But only one in 5000 thunderstorms
has enough moisture,
energy and wind speed to become a tornado.
Just forget the core of the storm.
We need to stay just northeast of that.
Right?
Whatever's gonna take
you northeast of the cloud base.
[Howard] I'm an observationist.
I like to go out in nature
and observe these storms.
And then ask questions like,
"Why are they there?
What causes them?
What makes them look the way they do?"
[suspenseful music playing]
The ultimate goal is
to look at a storm and say,
"This one is likely to produce a tornado,
and this one is not."
[Howard] The source of the
rotation of tornado is the horizontal row
that occurs along
the boundary between the cool air,
where rain has fallen and evaporated,
and the regular warm moist air
that's just outside the storm.
That's where the spin comes from.
That air which is spinning
approaches the updraft,
the main buoyant updraft in the storm,
and it gets tilted up.
And lo and behold,
you have a low level mesocyclone.
And this mesocyclone is a swirl of winds,
maybe, two, three, four kilometers across.
And as the air rises,
air has to come in from
the sides to feed that updraft.
And so that region of air
which is spinning, contracts.
And so that stretches the column of air
and then you get a very intense vortex,
right near the ground.
That's when you get the tornado.
This is just so spectacular,
I can't even talk.
We dream of getting something like this.
Oh, man! Look at that.
[uneasy music playing]
I hope someone is getting that.
Don't get me, get that.
[wind blowing]
[narrator] Spring
is tornado season in the US
when there's both warm
and cool air in the atmosphere,
enough for a storm to start spinning.
It's also chasing season,
when there's the best chance
of catching a twister in action.
[deep drumming music playing]
[tracker ticking]
[narrator] Brandon is chasing in Texas.
Heading Northwest towards
Red River County.
[Brandon] Right here is where the
storms are starting to form.
You see the first storm blowing up.
And as they're coming towards you,
you want to go towards them
and then you can get ready
for Tornado Time.
Tornado Time is what I call,
uh, in the afternoons, in the plains.
You know, that five o'clock
to eight o'clock hour,
uh, that's where you get
most of your tornadoes.
[narrator] Brett is also in Texas,
driving south to Jasper.
Chasing down a different tornado.
[Brett] We're going to stay on these
until they start to show those MCS signs
and then we're going to blow East.
It's good to know
that they're coming across.
I see your area over there is now
under a severe thunderstorm watch
for the afternoon.
[Brandon] Yeah. They have put
a tornado watch out for us.
It's the last circle on the drylines.
All right. Cool. Hey, do you know anything
that's good to eat down near DeRidder?
Of course, he would lose signal.
Brandon, I'm getting hangry.
Answer me, boy.
[chuckles and grunts]
[tense music building]
Here it goes.
You definitely see it trying now.
See how the width of the clouds
in the front are going up?
The back side is coming back around.
That's exactly what you want to see.
Hopefully it can continue to develop
and then we'll get a nice,
tight tornado right in front of us.
Like we were talking about earlier,
Tornado Time.
You know, we're just now getting
into that window.
So I think this storm finally
may put one down.
Oh, yeah.
Full tornado on the ground.
[thrilling music playing]
I'm getting out right here.
[resounding chimes]
[Brandon] Most tornadoes
only last a few minutes.
Sometimes just seconds.
Oftentimes, our footage is
the only evidence that they ever existed.
We're like journalists,
documenting each storm.
Bearing witness
to the destruction it causes.
Is anybody in the car?
[indistinct shout]
[Brandon] Chasers like me,
we're here when the destruction
is happening.
So it's before the First Responders
even get here.
Watch the power lines.
[indistinct talking]
[Brandon] It's our moral obligation
to find out if anyone is hurt
and do what we can to help.
[loud breathing]
[Brandon] Y'all okay?
Yeah, they were in the shelter.
Good place to be.
Yeah. Scary, man.
Is it just you?
- Huh?
- Just you?
- Right.
- Nobody else inside or anything?
- No.
- Good.
Can you turn that main switch
on the propane tank off?
Yeah, we can.
Yeah.
[tragic music playing]
- I cut it back on.
- Watch out.
Pretty good.
Yeah. All right, come on.
They're all right.
Good thing they were in the shelter.
You can still see the tornado.
Quite a rope.
Okay.
[Brandon] It always amazes me,
how something so beautiful
can do so much damage.
[tragic music fades]
I'm over here near Jasper with this one
that's coming, uh, out of Woodville.
[narrator] Meanwhile,
Brett is 200 miles further south,
trying to locate a different storm.
This has got some wind. It's
you can see the inflow
but man, it's super cool.
I can go just south of town right here
at Jasper, that's what I'm,
I'm trying to make
a decision here though pretty quick.
Maybe we should go a little south,
get in a better position.
All right man, we'll talk. Bye.
[deep tone plays]
Uh-oh. Right here.
I hate this, man.
[narrator] By the time
he hones in on a tornado,
it's so wrapped in rain,
he can't see anything.
[thunder crashes]
[man] Copy that.
There it is. Look out
your window, right there.
That's a tornado over there to the left.
[dark music playing]
[Brett] When you get in those
situations in the rain,
it's like a big washing machine.
Buckle up and get ready for the ride.
[somber music playing]
[narrator] Most tornadoes in the US,
happen on the Great Plains
in Tornado Alley.
It's wedging out,
and you're probably seeing a sheer,
a sheer zone,
with it going up and over.
[narrator] The geography is perfect,
for the formation of big storms.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Howard] When the air comes in
from the Pacific over the Rocky Mountains,
it subsides.
And as that air subsides,
pressure increases,
and that pressure squeezes the air
and it warms it up.
As it warms up,
you get southerly winds ahead of it.
And those southerly winds
bring up moisture
from the Gulf of Mexico to fuel
the storms that form.
So, it's very important to be here,
because we have the mountains
and we have the Gulf of Mexico.
[man] Howie, we should go.
Uh, we need to go.
[narrator] Tornado Alley, has more
violent tornadoes than anywhere on Earth.
[electric sparking]
[narrator] Each is measured
on the EF-Scale.
Based on wind speed and structural damage.
[sinister music playing]
- [wind howling]
- [crashing]
[wind howling]
[wind howling]
[thunderous music playing]
[narrator] Only one percent
of tornadoes in the US
are EF4s or EF5s,
classified as violent tornadoes.
[man whimpers] Until you see
this in person, you have no idea.
[exhales sharply]
It's it's devastation.
[narrator] On average,
there's fewer than one EF5 per year,
but they're the storms
that live on in the memory.
[man] Look at the size of that monster.
[thunder rumbling]
[man] Jesus!
[narrator] The El Reno Tornado
still haunts those who were there.
All right. We are near El Reno, Oklahoma.
We have a rapidly rotating wall cloud
just to our west.
Once that first lightning strike happens,
I'm instantly wondering,
how long until I see a tornado.
[Brandon] Wow, this thing
just keeps forming new vortices.
In that moment, I see one little funnel
and it touches the ground.
And then I see another little funnel
and it touches the ground.
But what I don't realize is
that the whole sky
is actually about to become a tornado.
[woman] Because we knew
there was a lot of potential
for strong tornadoes on this day,
and we knew there were
so many storm chasers everywhere,
we decided to give
the storm a lot of space.
So, when we went to our first
position watching the El Reno storm,
we were about six miles away from it.
[thunder rumbling]
You're kind of hoping that the rear
flank downdraft is going to clear out
and you're going to get a beautiful shot
of the tornado that's under there.
[Brandon] We were there chasing.
I actually had my dad with me.
And when the tornado formed,
it was several miles off to our west.
Had a good viewing position.
Very relaxed environment.
And the tornado started growing
from when we first got
in the car, as a small,
few hundred yard wide multi-vortex,
to at this point, a two and a half
to three-mile-wide just monster.
[thunder rumbling]
Looking right at it.
[Brandon] We got 30 seconds.
Turn the car around!
[Brandon] I wanted the car turned around
so that we wasted no time
in getting out of there.
But all I wanted to do in that moment was,
was film it,
because I'd never seen
anything like it before.
The fact that it was so mesmerizing
kept me in that moment
for too long.
[narrator] There were 250 chasers
on the scene that day,
their locations mapped by GPS.
They weren't prepared
for the speed of the oncoming storm.
[Jennifer] We were only 90 seconds away
from that tornado hitting our location.
[man] Jump in!
[Jennifer] We've got to haul ass.
[Jennifer] We got in our vehicle
and we pulled out and screamed east
as fast as we could.
[Jennifer] Go. Go. Go. Go!
- [Jennifer] Drive! Fuck.
- [man] Let's go.
[Jennifer] Fuckin' shit.
Imagine being chased by something that's
two and a half miles wide,
moving at 55 miles per hour.
[urgent music building]
[Jennifer] And it was actually
gaining on us.
All you can hope is that the road
you're on continues for miles and miles,
so you can continue to drive away
as fast as you can.
[Brandon] We had to turn around
back across the tornado.
At this point, I'm having trouble
keeping the vehicle on the road.
And I knew we're about
to take a direct hit.
And there was nothing I could do about it.
All I could think, is just keep
the nose of the car in the wind.
I knew if we got sideswiped
in any way that car was going rolling
and we weren't gonna make it.
[Brandon] I realized this tornado was
going towards my escape route.
Whoa! Go! I'll get the tripod.
Just drive! Just drive!
[pressing music building]
[Brandon] And that's when we decided
to go south as fast as we could.
Go! Winds!
[Brandon] And we started having headwinds
that were probably over 100-mile-an-hour.
And the car could just not go any faster.
Forty is not enough!
I can't see.
You're fine. You're good.
I can see for you. Go!
Go!
[Brandon] I yell at my driver
to drive south.
Just go! Don't stop now! Go!
Because if he stops, if we hesitate
any more than we already did
by me taking too much time
we're not gonna make it.
Go south! If you don't go south,
we're gonna die!
- It's okay?
- Yes, just drive south!
[Brandon] There was farm equipment
coming right at my vehicle.
[dramatic music escalating]
Shit.
[Brandon] It shattered
my windshield immediately.
Get down! Duck down! Duck down!
[wipers screeching]
Drive forward if you can.
[Brandon] So we slam
into this 2000-pound hay bale.
[Brandon] You're good.
Oh, shit!
[Brandon] And it just adds
to the chaos of the moment.
[driver] I can't see.
Okay, that's fine.
Phew.
[Brandon] We realized then
that the worst has passed us
and that the tornado had curved
back off to the northeast
and we had just escaped out of the south.
Oh, my God!
Yeah, my car is totaled.
Just drive.
[Brandon] I've seen so many tornadoes.
And I've seen the damage that they cause.
But actually being in that situation
and thinking you might not make it out
just totally reframes the perspective,
uh, and the respect for Mother Nature.
[delicate music playing]
[Jennifer] When we finally felt we were
in a safe enough position to stop,
we got out.
And when we looked up at the storm,
we can see the entire mesocyclone.
It was totally and utterly awe-inspiring.
And for a moment you forgot
the horrible beast that was underneath it.
I said out loud, "Wow,
I hope all the storm chasers are safe."
And, uh, that ended up being
about six minutes after
Tim Samaras, Paul Samaras, and Carl Young
had actually been hit by that tornado.
[thunder and rain pattering]
[Jennifer] They were the first
storm chasers ever killed by a tornado.
[soft pensive music playing]
I can only imagine,
that it was very hard to see.
It probably moved very fast
and they probably didn't realize
the danger that they were in
until it was too late.
[haunting music playing]
[narrator] The season
is over in Tornado Alley.
There have been no violent tornadoes.
When that, that storm complex dives
[narrator] Brett Adair and
Brandon Clement are back on home territory
in the South.
You know, you're in Mississippi,
you live here, I live in Alabama.
For me, personally,
I might stay a little east tonight.
If we get those type
of parameters along I-20, Birmingham
Yeah, the symbol is right there.
Right.
[narrator] Alongside Tornado Alley,
is Dixie Alley.
Cutting through the southern states
of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
It has more violent tornadoes
per square mile than its larger neighbor.
[swooshing]
And those tornadoes
continue later in the year.
With a second spike in the fall.
[Brandon] Chasing in the South,
to me, is different than the Plains.
I have kids,
I have a mother, I have friends.
And it's terrifying knowing that
these tornadoes that
I'm out here chasing could, you know,
be going at them next.
[phone ringing]
- [Brandon] Hi.
- [woman] Hey.
[Brandon] Be ready,
'cause they're a lot worse
than what the radar
is representing all day long.
So be careful.
It's coming right towards the house.
[woman] Yes.
[Brandon] I, uh, if you can hear me,
I love you. Gotta go.
- [woman] I love you too. Bye.
- Bye.
[narrator] Tornadoes in fall are
normally weaker than those in spring.
Blowing out by Thanksgiving.
But not this year.
- Oh, shit.
- Wow!
[ominous music playing]
[narrator] The Gulf of Mexico is warmer
than it's been in December for 40 years.
Increasing evaporation
adding moisture into the atmosphere.
As warm, moist air heads inland,
it collides with cold air further north
and strong winds in the upper atmosphere
a recipe for the worst winter tornado
in Kentucky's history.
This is the most remarkable,
destructive tornado
that I have seen around here.
[troubled music playing]
[Trent] As this storm moved over our area,
we were able to detect winds
of well over 150 miles per hour.
And that's incredible.
This was a storm, you know, on radar,
you might see out in
Oklahoma or Texas, but not here.
You know, in 14 years
of working at the station,
I've never seen anything this powerful.
That night, we had to take our message up
to the highest level of urgency.
We may be looking
at a one-mile-wide tornado.
Just incredible, incredible winds.
This is a once-in-a-generation
catastrophic tornado
that will be talked about for years.
We were telling people to get mattresses,
pull those off your beds.
Take those into your,
your safe room with you.
Get baseball helmets, football helmets.
Put those on your head.
Make sure that you've got,
uh, pull out some pillows
[Trent] This was the type of storm
that if you weren't in a basement,
you were in danger.
And so we had to try to tell people,
you know, uh,
to take every precaution necessary
to try to save their lives.
I cannot, cannot tell you
with any greater urgency.
You've got to get to your safe place now!
[soft frail music playing]
When I heard the thunder,
I came over to this door.
And then I turned around.
And when I looked again,
I saw a big flash of white light.
I looked outside
and all of a sudden,
debris started whipping up
and the door started shaking.
So I went ahead and locked the door.
I said, "Everybody,
let's go to the bathroom."
So we started walking
all the way over here.
Came into the restroom,
and we all huddled in here.
We were scared, it was terrifying.
Just the sound
and the debris hitting the house.
I mean, I can hear
tree trunks just hitting and slamming.
And the windows breaking from that side,
and, the way it just came.
It felt like it was coming this way,
just like this.
So it's, it's a terrible feeling.
It's, not a wonderful feeling.
And right now I'm hearing it
like if it was that day.
Just talking about it makes me feel
that it's happening right now.
[gentle music playing]
[narrator] As a Southerner, Brett was
the only professional storm chaser
in a position to capture
the tornado on camera.
[thunder crashing]
[Brett] This storm dropped tornadoes
all the way from Arkansas
to Northeast Kentucky.
I mean, that's literally
like the storm chaser's lottery.
And when it lights up
and you're like, "Holy smokes!"
[thunder crashing]
[Brett] You can see the debris
being lofted and thrown,
and that's what we were watching for
when Mayfield was hit.
And unfortunately,
it was hit, and hit hard.
[wind howling]
[glass shattering]
[narrator] The full wrath of the storm
was focused on the city of Mayfield,
in Western Kentucky.
[foreboding music playing]
[Brett] So we roll up
and everything's trashed all around you.
You know, people yelling,
the candle factory's been destroyed.
There was so much debris.
You know, it took first responders
and took us a moment to get through that.
And it looked like
an unworldly, ungodly situation
that you can only imagine
that you see in movies.
[dreaded tone plays]
[Brett] This is a factory
that employs well over 100 people.
And seeing that, just the entire
building structure, just gone.
Honestly, I thought,
"There's no way anybody survived this."
[devastating music playing]
[woman] We're at the candle factory
in Mayfield,
and we are trapped.
Please, y'all, get us some help.
Please. Please.
[woman] I went on Facebook Live because
for one, I needed to keep talking.
I needed to ramble
so that I wouldn't be focused on
what was going on.
But also because I needed
somebody to know that we were stuck.
I don't know who's watching.
We had a tornado and the building fell.
I'm so scared.
Is anybody out there?
All my coworkers are screaming,
"I'm gonna die.
Tell my family I love them."
And I'm like, "We're not dying in here.
We're not dying."
And I'm like, "It's almost my birthday."
And so, you know,
a lot of that was on the Live.
It's almost ten o'clock.
Y'all gonna sing "Happy Birthday" to me.
[overlapping voices]
Happy birthday to you ♪
We're gonna sing now.
Y'all gotta sing "Happy Birthday" to me.
[overlapping voices]
Happy birthday to you ♪
Okay. Okay, y'all.
I wanna get out.
[disconcerting music playing]
[Brett] We pulled three or four
people out the whole time I was there,
which was around four hours.
But you know there were people underneath
the pile that didn't make it.
All you can do is
is comfort the ones
that could hear you and say,
"Just hold on. Just hold on.
Uh, we're coming.
We're trying. We're on the way."
And
[hesitates]
it was just rough. It was really rough.
[man] Help!
I hope that's people that, like,
know what the fuck they doing.
- Y'all.
- No, you loose?
[Kyanna] Andrea got loose first
and they pulled her out.
Then Dakota, then Daniela.
But I was so afraid that
they wasn't gonna be able to get me out.
I said, "I got a big ass."
And I'm like, "I'm not going to fit."
And they got underneath me.
See, this is a State Trooper.
Got my butt and pushed it up,
and Gary was at the top
and he was pulling.
Hey y'all, they got me out.
[Kyanna] And I got up to the top
and I got out.
I'm out.
[unnerving music playing]
[Kyanna] Seeing the factory now,
it is unbelievable.
I mean, you would have thought
that one of the Three Little Pigs made it.
Like the one that made it of straw.
[doomful tone plays]
[drone chimes]
[narrator] The next morning,
Brandon got the first drone footage,
of the damage at Mayfield.
Wow, it's,
this whole place is just gone.
[troubled piano music playing]
[Brandon] I mean, I just love seeing
the power of Mother Nature,
until you see this.
It looks like somebody
hooked up a giant tiller
and just came for a mile-wide,
right through this area.
Slab right there. Slab right there.
- Right.
- Slab right there.
Right.
[Brandon] It's almost like a CSI case,
trying to unravel a murder, you know.
Right there is where,
debris rowing and stuff.
- Yeah.
- You see all that debris going out.
I mean, that's just
as intense as it gets right there.
Yup.
There's a small little sector.
[Brandon] I've been hit
by big tornadoes before but,
at least I had a chance.
These people didn't have a chance.
[despairing music playing]
[Peter] We've seen storms.
We've been through storms.
But nothing like this.
Nothing like this.
This is more than just a house.
It's where I raised my children.
My son said,
"Man,
I played on this property,
I played all around in here."
And, uh, he had never expressed
his nostalgic views of, the home
until this, you know?
I'm not giving this up.
I'm fighting for it.
[despairing music fades]
[reporter] Breeanna Glisson
still hasn't figured out
how she and her four
and two-year-old children are alive.
[Breeanna] There was warnings going off
like crazy and sirens going off.
But I had nowhere safe to go.
So I grabbed my kids
and I laid down in my bed, my mattress.
Held onto them.
Um, the windows shattered.
Any and all glass was gone.
And that's when I saw
the roof coming at me.
It felt like one solid motion.
It crushed us and then we were flown,
and so was the whole house.
In a millisecond,
we were no longer in the bed
or in our house.
We were on the ground
all the way over there somewhere.
Like on the other side of those cars?
Like over this rubble,
on the ground, in mud.
[Breeanna] We were stuck there
for hours and hours.
[dejected music playing]
And it took so long for someone
to come and help
because there was nobody could get in.
There was so much damage
and debris over the roads.
They couldn't get to us.
That tornado was huge.
I don't understand how I'm even alive
after going through it.
Every time I close my eyes,
I see the roof, crushing us.
I wouldn't wish my worst enemy to go
through something
like what I've been through.
[narrator] The tornado outbreak
killed at least 88 people.
It caused four billion dollars worth
of damage.
[dejected music continues]
[Brandon] We've had more billion-dollar
disasters over the past ten years
than we have in decades prior to that.
These types of events,
are just going to happen more frequently
as we see a warmer climate develop.
We just have to be prepared
for more extreme events to occur.
[Breeanna] We usually don't have
tornadoes in Kentucky.
Seriously, like, it is not a normal thing.
And with the way
that the planet is changing,
I feel like it's going to get worse.
[narrator] In recent years,
as the planet warms,
the boundaries
of Tornado Alley and Dixie Alley
have been shifting further north and east
into more heavily
populated parts of the country.
Areas without storm shelters.
[Brandon] There's definitely some
causation with climate change.
Because you're getting
these strong systems that come in
that normally don't have enough energy,
enough juice to produce,
you know, the big tornadoes.
And now they do, and this is the result.
It's just,
I mean, you know,
if we don't start doing
something about climate change,
it's just gonna continue to get worse.
[dejected music fades]
[engine rumbling]
[tender piano music playing]
[narrator] A month after the tornado,
the demolition crews move in.
The clean up operation begins.
[tender piano music continues]
[woman] Every disaster
you go to is different,
but the personal impact is the same.
People are grieving, people are hurting.
People don't want
to walk out their door every day
and see the disaster and piles like this.
They just want an ounce of hope
and an ounce of recovery.
And if we can bring that,
then that's our goal.
That's what keeps us coming back.
The mindset is, you know, this is my home.
This is where I grew up.
This is where my family is
and so, you're gonna rebuild.
[narrator] A symbol of the disaster
was a photograph,
taken in the rubble of a movie theater.
So I posted the photo
and everybody liked it.
And uh, I didn't realize
how quickly it would catch on,
but I think now it's got close
to like 160,000 uploads.
[ticking]
You know, as of now, we've
raised over 70,000 dollars on GoFundMe.
I had a guy just hand me
a big wad of cash one day.
And he said, "I heard what you were doing.
I saw it on CNN.
Like, I just want to help
you out as best I could. Here you go."
And I think that really
says a lot about this community.
[tender music continues]
[man] When this thing first started,
a lot of people couldn't get a hot meal.
Of course, by me being a cook,
I've been trying to help people
as much as I can.
We're all in this together.
And we need to stick together
to help one another to rebuild it.
Okay, you want to take those
and then come back?
- I can. Yes. Thank you.
- Okay, there you go.
[James] The people of Mayfield
make Mayfield.
And each one of us will play
a part in the rebuilding of this.
- Thank you, Ma'am.
- Thank you.
And the people that are here,
that are gonna stay here,
that are gonna to rebuild,
that's Mayfield.
[forlorn music playing]
[Brett] Here's the thing.
Mayfield is not unique.
It's just the latest city
to be hit by a tornado.
There will be more.
There are always more tornadoes.
And people like me, will be there
to record the power of Mother Nature
when it strikes.
It makes you feel kind of vulnerable,
never knowing when that next tornado
is going to come your way.
[forlorn music ends]
[thunderous rumbling]
[menacing closing theme music playing]
Subtitle translation by: Antoinette Smit