I grew up in Moore, so I was there for both storms. I remember for this storm how chilling it was for him to say “I’m going to say something I never wanted to say in my career, but this is May 3 exact all over again”
KFOR tornado coverage is incredible, they definitely set the standard. You can tell they are in this to save lives, they keep so focused and tell viewers exactly what to do to survive. I have nothing but gratitude and respect for all of them!
horrible day...my daughter was at our sitters house behind the warren theater....she got kids in her cellar...yes sarah..you are still my hero!!!! cant express enough.
I've had to huddle the kids I care for downstairs in the past, we're in kansas, and I'll tell you in that moment more than ever they are in fact your babies too. Thank God she was in charge.
To anyone who grew up in Oklahoma in the 90's and 00's this guy is one of our spiritual dads. Hearing his voice immediately inspires both comfort and a call to action
I have a lot of respect for the news and weather crew at KFOR Channel 4 as the Oklahoma City metro area is no doubt the most aggressive media market in the Southwestern US.
These meteorologists are heroes. They are on TV, warning, the public, and telling them to take shelter while their own homes might be getting destroyed and their own families might be getting affected. God bless you all and great job! Greetings from Pennsylvania!! ❤❤
I was in Oklahoma City when this was happening and I called my brother in Moore and told him to get away from his house immediately. He looked outside and said, "It just got quiet..." and then the call dropped. If you don't know about tornados, it will often get very quiet right before it hits. I completely flipped out, thought that was the last time I would ever hear him. The tornado ended up going just one mile north of him.
It's true! We got that same "tense quiet" with our Tuesday severe squall line coming through. Tornado sirens went off twice in St. Louis City and there was no lightning, no wind, no rain, just these ominously darkening skies. When the siren went off a second time, we got this brief, intense microburst that rattled our windows and shook the trees. Spooky stuff, but it was over in about 20 minutes because the line was moving so fast.
@@rhondahoward8025 idk if there's a scientific explanation of why, but i've heard from multiple people who've been in tornadoes and hurricanes that they could "feel" the low barometric pressure as this hard-to-explain feeling of deep uneasiness.
There's a reason people in tornado alley and the southeast don't make fun of our TV meteorologists. I have yet to hear of one leaving the broadcast until the storm is literally right about to hit their news building. I remember one in my area left the Doppler radar up, and kept the mic on so he could continue to give people updates from where he was sheltering.
facetiousbadger yup! They’re super awesome. During the hurricanes here they are always giving updates on any tornadoes and any flooding happening. They had live video of the ocean spilling over into a neighborhood and stayed calm the entire time.
@@PrincessofGIR Yep, they have no fucks to give as long as there's weather that needs reporting. The heli crews are awesome as well. The turbulence on severe weather afternoons is crazy even without a nearby tornado.
facetiousbadger this past summer (2019 summer) we had 24 tornado warning in my area in none other than philly i has to NAG my parents to the basement they take it to lightly they should be nagging me but NOPE
The meteorologist and pilot saved lives with their fantastic reporting. The pilots own neighborhood was being destroyed, yet he stayed focused, reported accurately while flying, and manages to provide life saving information. Fantastic job gents!!
If I was a meteorology student at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK; I would be torn between doing an internship under either Mike Morgan at KFOR Channel 4 or Damon Lane at KOCO Channel 5. However, I saw in the comments section of this video someone was wondering how the KFOR Channel 4's helicopter pilot Jon Welsh was able to successfully get the helicopter up into the air despite Jon's giant iron balls weighing it down.
I have never heard a newscaster say it's best to flee the area and get out of the path if you can't get into an underground shelter. However seeing the results of this monster, there is no doubt telling viewers this saved many many lives. Superior coverage. Your coverage was a blessing to many. Prayers to all those that lost loved ones and are still suffering from this horrific storm.
He most likely didn’t have google maps traffic checker pulled up pal. He was trying to save lives by telling people to get below ground or get out of its way.
I think there should be a campaign to get neighbors to let each other know about their basements so people can just go nearby to shelter. There should also be public underground shelters, it would be such a small investment compared to the potential life saving
Vince McMahon yes I'm sure it saved many..I've always been impressed with their storm coverage...you can hear it in their voice they genuinely care for the people there...one that got me was they were covering a large tornado and it was heading directly for the station and they stayed on the air until the last possible second and then ran for shelter and the camera was still on the radar and you could actually watch the huge red and black debri ball get closer and closer to them..it was so eerie.
Yeah, it gets to a point where if the tornado is strong enough, it will absolutely *level* everything on top. I've seen it. It's devastating. Like a nuclear bomb went off. We are of course talking about your EF4 and EF5 strength tornadoes but even an EF3 is no picnic. Your roof is pretty much gone even with an EF3 so below ground or basement is always best.
Oh man, I remember this well. I was still in school back then, and even though I knew there was a huge chance for a tornado, I didn't know there was a storm. Then, all of a sudden you could see the school parking lot filling up FAST. It was unlike anything I'd seen before. We didn't know why it was happening until a kid in my class got a text alert on his phone that there was a tornado warning for our county. We then turned off the movie and turned on this weather station, kfor. All of a sudden, the office just flat out said that there are so many parents in the office that everyone had to go look for theirs, and if they couldn't see them, go to the shelter immediately. Luckily I just slipped out with my friend's mom, and got to see the storm for all its glory. We eventually went to pick up his brother at the elementary school, but due to the tornado being 5 or less minutes from the school, we were instead rushed inside. Before I went in their shelter, I took one last glance at the storm. In all my years of living here and chasing storms, this was honestly the scariest storm ever. The sky was almost purple, and there was lightning flashing throughout the sky. In the distance, we heard a rumbling growing louder and louder. I knew it was the tornado, so I sprinted inside. Luckily, the tornado missed us, but it is a day that I'll never forget.
I know how scary it was I lived in Moore and like you it was just a school day but my mom got me then we went to the high school to get my brother and when we were getting our stuff gathered it was at Moore warren movie theater exactly 6 minutes from our house
Same i lived in norman right next to moore and i was in school that time and i could hear the tornado sirens u went to jackson elementary at the time it was super scary
I'm in Boston, but when I heard that a tornado was about to hit Moore, I went on the KFOR, KWTV, and KOCO websites to watch live streams of their coverage of the storm. The efforts of these three stations were outstanding; at least one thousand (possibly even several thousand) lives were saved. It was the "Finest Hour" in the history of Oklahoma television broadcasting.
Down here in Georgia I usually turn to James Spann's feed from Birmingham to see how storms heading our way are doing in Alabama. His coverage during April 27,2011 saved thousands as almost every Central Alabama county saw a strong or violent tornado that day.
Same here, I live in Fall River and once I heard about this tornado on the Weather Channel on went on my computer and went to KFOR and watched this exact live show.
In the OKC metro, the date May 3rd is as symbolic as July 4th or December 25th. You say May 3rd... they know what you're talking about. I'd wager a guess that more folks there recognize the significance of that date than they do April 19th. (The date of the OKC bombing)
This man, as a Meteorologist and a Broadcaster, is so utterly competent. He knows every street, building, piece of infrastructure, past storm track, recent radar return.... any and everything. He's also under just unbelievable pressure on air in a catastrophe like this, yet he always has his hands pointing to the exact right street intersection as he calls it out on a green screen street grid, all when his anxiety must be dialed up to 13
Looking at the helicopter coverage of the tornado and the broadcasts, I can't help but think that this kind of reporting was at least partially thanks to the heroics of Dick Gilbert. For those unfamiliar with that name, Dick Gilbert was the traffic reporter in Louisville during the Super Outbreak of '74. A tornado hit Louisville just as Gilbert was doing his traffic report from a helicopter, and he basically did a play-by-play of where the tornado was going over the radio. On a day when over 300 people died, only two died in Louisville, and many people said that either their lives or the lives of loved ones were saved thanks to Dick Gilbert's broadcast.
I was in Xenia, Ohio, on April 3rd during that outbreak. Gil Whitney from WHIO-TV in Dayton came screaming over the air that a massive tornado was on it's way and that we were to take shelter immediately! He saved a lot of lives that afternoon but we still lost 35 people.
Dick Gilbert but his balls on the line to save his city that day. My favorite part of that story was about his daughter. Dick was a Widower and his daughter was early High School, he flew by their home every day after she got home from school to check on her. That day when he saw the tornado coming he flew back to their house (reporting the whole time) and lowered the helicopter to rooftop-level to get his daughter to come outside. He was close enough that she could read his lips telling her to get in the basement. It's so cool to me that even in such a dire situation he was able to have the ability to continue his coverage as well as protect his own family.
Just think. These meteorologists, storm chasers and news anchors are reporting on this horrible tornado which, at the same time, may be heading towards their own homes and neighborhoods. I don't know what you think, but I think that's pretty heroic! "It's going right basically towards my house."
Michael Ross no not alll of them a couple of them did live in Moore one actually was reporting the tornado while his house was possibly getting destoryed and not knowing where his wife was
Koco Damon Lane lives in moore and he was broadcasting this and told his wife to grab the dogs and go to the storm shelter. He never lost his cool though.
I remember being in this Tornado. I worked at a Radio Shack at the time and after the storm, I had a lady come in, looked horrible. Asked if she was ok and as she was leaving the store with her items, she stopped and said, "I lost a child in the Moore tornado..he was in the school that was hit." Something I'll remember for the rest of my life. rip to those that lost their lives.
@@musicalhearts2879 Yeah, that one always gets to me. I graduated the same year, just days before. That storm system was supposed to hit my town but skipped over us and hit Joplin that evening instead. I came home from a grad party and saw it on the news and cried.
I was stuck in westmoore highschool during this, and to this day it is the scariest thing I have ever lived through. I lived 5 minutes away and it took me almost 3 hours to get home that day, and I didn't even know if I was going home to a house. luckily my home was safe, but across the street from me there was nothing. it cut a line right down the middle of my neighborhood.
I’m a teacher. I was at Red Oak in my classroom. My neighborhood was the same way. Houses on my street lost roofs, but my house was fine. I couldn’t get home for multiple days.😭 Tough times for sure.
I think I know which street you’re talking about (can’t remember the name) houses on one side just had some siding issues, the middle was completely leveled, and the south side was scattered.
@@Betterlattethannever307 My sister was at Kingsgate, she got picked up and were fine. I wasn't old enough to go to school yet. We are very lucky and I am truly sad every time I hear about May 3rd.
Wow! Were you guys listening to this report when he said the tornado was approaching the high school? Either way, I'm glad I don't live anywhere near tornado alley. We've had some small ones in our mountainous state, which is more than enough for me! Glad you survived!
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the KFOR coverage was absolutely amazing. The professionalism shown is unreal. almost four years later and still incredibly sad. Unreal the way mother nature can change, and unfortunately end people's lives. Yet people still try to kill other people while innocent people deal with this.
And many succeed in killing so many innocent others and it makes you wish all of these evil ones lived in Moore to take the pounding and the brutal death in place of all innocent living beings!!
You don't understand about us weather folks I have been a storm spotter and storm chaser for a long time and we don't look at our own stuff we are in this to save lives
You probably can't speak english proberly right? He said they do it to savel ifes, they don't care If their house gets destroyed, yes they will be sad afterwards, but in all they do it to save lifes in the moment. Now stfu
One of the scariest days of my life. I am in tears remembering the fear for my husband and dog stuck at the house in SW OKC while work would not let me leave. Luckily it missed our house by a couple miles . I can remember watching coverage of responders looking for those children in the school. Heartwrenching. Now in Meteorology school to pursue my passion and help save lives.
It makes me feel good to know that nowadays all the public schools in Moore, Oklahoma have tornado shelters. During the rebuilding of Plaza Towers Elementary School; a memorial to the seven children who lost their lives at Plaza Towers was built. This memorial consists of seven benches; each bench has the name of a child who lost his or her life at the school. There should be two more benches in memory of Catherine de Gay and Xavier Delgado. Catherine died seventy-three days after the tornado from a stroke brought on by brain damage she sustained in the tornado. In 2018 Xavier committed suicide from PTSD and Survivor's Guilt. Xavier was traumatized by the disaster and felt guilty knowing that he survived but his friends and classmates didn't.
@Vivian S If his workplace lets him go during a deadly storm, and then he unfortunately gets injured or dies from the storm, then the company would be responsible for his death or injury and it would be a lot of paper work and a big huge mess of legal work
@@Mster_JThe company bigwigs can take their paperwork and go get fucked sideways. Getting to my family during a disaster supersedes their unwillingness to help me.
That's so sad they wouldn't let you go. But I'm sure it depends on the job. For example, if medical personnel were all allowed to leave, they wouldn't be available to help the injured victims from the tornado.
13:19 (and a similar statement at 19:46 and 27:44) Mike Morgan received a lot of s*** for saying "The only way you're going to guarantee you will survive is if you are out of the way, below ground, storm cellar, or basement... safe room. That's it. Nothing else is going to do it; Do not ride this out in your home. Interior closet or bathroom, don't." However, to convey the significant level of danger to an audience who sees dozens of tornado warnings on their televisions every year, his statement was well warranted.
I for one think of him a lot more for being flat out honest. I'd much rather save a lot of lives by telling people to leave if they don't have a basement or underground shelter, vs have hundreds of deaths because I told people to stay in their interior rooms in a tornado of that intensity.
Saying that sheltering in an interior closet or bathroom (even in a well-constructed home) is "not an option" in tornadoes like this is incredibly irresponsible, as proven when Morgan repeated those comments on May 31 and contributed to mass panic and huge traffic jams that could have led to hundreds being injured or killed if the tornado hadn't turned north and dissipated. That's leaving aside the eleven people who fled their apartment building (which wasn't hit, BTW) and took shelter in a drainage tunnel after he said that people needed to be underground; five of those people drowned when the tunnel flooded. Besides, saying that this tornado was not survivable above ground (which Morgan said repeatedly in this broadcast) was a flat-out lie. Know how I know? A friend of mine lived a block south of Briarwood Elementary, which suffered EF-5 damage. Her house took EF-4 damage, basically being reduced to rubble. She sheltered in an interior closet and walked away without a scratch. Know how else I know? Approximately 100 people were above ground in residential structures that took F-4 or F-5 damage in the May 3, 1999 tornado. One died. One. Feel free to fact-check everything I just said. Bottom line: essentially telling a large community to evacuate en masse minutes before a large tornado arrives is incredibly stupid, and I frankly can't believe Morgan wasn't fired for it, especially after he repeated the mistake a week and a half later and thereby contributed to chaos on the roads and several non-tornadic fatalities.
those people were lucky Nathan.....you cannot survive strong ef-4 and ef-5 type winds in normal circumstances....IM telling you. Those people in 1999 were lucky, wana here another likely fact? All those people are religious now. xD.. but seriously.... 9/10 times youre in a building above ground....and tornado this strong comes ontop of you... the winds carry shit at super high speeds.. and beat bodies until they need dental records to be identify...fact...
Actually, no, you've got it completely backwards. If you're sheltered in a well-constructed structure above ground (a well-constructed structure, mind you, not a mobile home or a house that got haphazardly slapped together by the lowest bidder) and a tornado hits it (yes, even one with an EF-5 rating like this one), 9 times out of 10, you'll come out just fine. More than 9 times out of 10, actually; you might get a very rare situation (like the 1997 Jarrell tornado) where it genuinely is unsurvivable above ground over a large portion of its track, but, again, that's a VERY RARE situation. The vast majority of EF-5s are like the 2013 one in Moore; the EF-5 damage only happens in a small portion of the track. So do the math for somebody sheltering in a well-constructed structure in the vicinity of a violent (EF-4 or EF-5) tornado. First off, there's only a small chance that they'll actually be hit by the tornado at all. Second off, there's an even smaller chance that the tornado is actually an EF-5. (Historically, only about 1% of tornadoes have been violent, and out of that small subset, roughly 90% have been EF-4 and roughly 10% have been EF-5. So that's only a 1-in-10 shot right there, even without factoring in the 1-in-100 shot that the tornado is actually violent in the first place.) Third off, even if they are hit by the tornado and even if the tornado is an EF-5, there's an even SMALLER chance that the building that they're in will experience "unsurvivable" damage; they would have to either (a) be located in the small fraction of a "typical" EF-5 damage path that actually experiences EF-5 winds or (b) be facing a one-in-a-million situation where EF-5 damage covers a huge swath of the damage path (again, like 1997 Jarrell). So, no, the people who shelter in a well-constructed building during a violent tornado and survive being hit aren't "lucky." They're normal. That's the normal outcome, and saying otherwise is frankly hype-driven BS. Again, you have the internet at your disposal, so if you actually care about whether or not what you're saying is the truth, go ahead and look it up. There are actual statistical studies on this topic (for example, Hammer and Schmidlin [Weather and Forecasting, 2002] or the NWS study referenced in the article found here: www.news9.com/story/25470824/surviving-an-ef-5-tornado-above-ground), and they show that what I've been saying is right and that what you've been saying is wrong. I don't blame you for it up to this point, because it's typical to take the word of "trusted" media figures like Mike Morgan as gospel. However, now you have access to all the information you need, so there's no more excuse.
Hard to believe this was 6 years ago. I remember me and my mother and 4 dogs packed into a Ford Explorer and it was just PISSING down rain faster than the wipers could wipe it. We were going to my grandparents house to check on them and get into their storm shelter, but Mike (the guy on your screen) was on the radio telling us that it was crossing Telephone and 27th St. We were at Bryant and 12th St. To put that into perspective for people that don't know that area, it's the same as you being in the living room and there's a murderer in your bathroom. Too close for us to continue past 12th St. so we had to turn around and go to my dad's work in Warr Acres FD. Terrible storm. Never underestimate something like that. Always be safe and keep your head clear. Just might save your life.
Personally if I was a parent, and lived in Moore, knowing that towns history of basically being a tornado magnet, and saw a "dangerous day" forecast, I'd call and say my kid(s) would not be going to school.
if you lived here you would know that literally any day that it rains between april and june (which is damn near everyday) they say it’s a very dangerous day and high risk for tornadoes so you really just have to play it by ear
This is the man who spoke the phrase I carry with me to this day: this tornado is not survivable above ground. Words to live by. Thanks meteorologist! Thanks for dedicating your life to science and warning us.
Lot of kids got killed in this tornado. I can barely watch this without my eyes welling up. I live in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma. We had a hook echo pass over our area on May 31st. The north side of my house got significant hail damage. My wife, mother, mother-in-law, niece and her two kids, and our three dogs rode it out in our underground tornado shelter. I needed a stiff drink after that ordeal!
The guy was in a helicopter watching this monster go right over his house and he’s keeping his cool and doing his job. That’s a real dude right there, hope his family was okay.
Agree. I would have liked to have heard Mike Morgan at least acknowledge John’s concern about his family and home rather than interrupting him to switch to Emily Sutton’s frantic reporting.
@@valmarwilson3476that makes sense. There was footage from a woman weatherman (I can't remember her name) who realized a twister was headed right for her neighborhood. She understandably had to pause the report because she was starting to cry. Thankfully, one of her coworkers, in the background, jumped right in to help with the report while telling her everything was going to be okay and offering comforting words to her. It was so sweet! He "had her back" so-to-speak. She was able to return to the forecast not too long afterwards thanks to his help.
@@normamassey1000 yes for real. When a tornado is on the ground, pick a landmark on both sides. If it doesn't move past either landmark, it's moving at you.
Apparent leftward or rightward motion... any "bearing drift" implies no collision, or a near miss. No rightward or leftward apparent motion... a thing is either on a collision course or opening. Mariners use this thumb rule to avoid collisions at sea.
@@squirleyspitmonkey3926 - It's called "bearing resolution." I was a severe weather analyst and forecaster for 35 years. This is excellent information. If it doesn't drift left or right of the reference point, you're in deep danger.
The 3 May 1999 Moore tornado inspired the Tornado Emergency variant of the National Weather Service's Tornado Warning, designed to indicate a lethal threat to a densely-populated area. Fourteen years later, it came in handy for basically the exact same tornado.
The text from the May 3 1999 tornado emergency is extremely sobering and conveyed to the residents of Moore and south Oklahoma City the severity of this tornado. Here it is: "Tornado Emergency in south Oklahoma City! At 6:57 PM Central Daylight Time a large tornado was moving along Interstate 44 west of Newcastle. On its present path; this large damaging tornado will enter southwest sections of the Oklahoma City metro area between 7:15 PM and 7:30 PM. Persons in Moore and south Oklahoma City should take immediate tornado precautions! This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation! If you are in the path of this large and destructive tornado; take cover immediately! Doppler radar indicated this storm may contain destructive hail up to the size of baseballs, or larger."
@@Sj430 they're even more terrifying now. To quote one particular warning from a few years ago. "You could be killed, if not underground or in a tornado shelter
I think it was the 1999 Moore tornado that created the need for the terminology "tornado emergency," which is reserved, now, for weather systems like the one in this video. A weatherman used this term when reporting for the Greensboro (or Greensburg?) tornado in 2007. If you hear "tornado emergency," hopefully you're already underground or in a safe place.
My goodness the professionalism of this crew was top notch today. No doubt these folks saved lives from their broadcast. Real professional broadcast this tragic day....
I have a lot of respect for the staff at KFOR Channel 4 for their efforts to warn and protect the people of the Oklahoma City metro area. From Mike Morgan providing information about the path of the tornado from the weather studio, Mike Bennett and Emily Sutton for tracking the tornado on the ground, John Welsh tracking the tornado from the station's news helicopter, and Linda Cavanaugh providing information on the schools that were in the path of the tornado.
I've lived in Oklahoma all my life and saw several tornadoes but, this monster was the 1st one I ever heard. My wife & I were in our shelter in Moore and it was coming from the SW coming straight at us. It then took a right turn going east, 1/3 mile south of us. I'll never forget that day.
@OkieMikester I was in one back in 2008 in Colorado, working in a warehouse when the power went out, I looked out the door and a rain wrapped tornado was coming at us! That was one time in my life I felt face to face with the possibility of death. Like you said, terrifying!
@@julieb6512 since Colorado doesn't get many tornadoes, how in the world were you able to recognize a rain-wrapped one? I believe you, of course, but how? After watching a few videos on YT showing these, I don't think I'd be able to recognize one if it knocked on my door. 😲 I live in a place where there aren't many tornadoes, too, btw.
Watching this nearly 9 years later for the first time. Absolute chills that people were watching this go down as I was in the shelter completely unaware of how violent the tornado actually was. I remember getting out of the shelter and seeing nothing but rubble and cops running around making sure everyone was okay. So crazy it doesn’t feel real almost.
Living in OK is crazy because we dealt with tornadoes all the time. Everyone has shelters and you just learn to respect them and live with it. But I'll tell you right now - when you see the OKC weathermen get this serious, you know it's different. And that scares even people that deal with tornadoes all the time.
I've lived in OK for a good amount of my childhood, and you are absolutely correct. Even as an adult, tornado sirens scare me to death just from the amount of close calls I've had.
Bad weather headed towards my home. I’m stuck in Washington state. Called my wife in Arkansas and warned her. Her and the kids are fast asleep by now... but here I sit bouncing between this a livestream, and a weather radar making sure nothing creeps up on them... I teared up a few times watching this
@@ohnojuno not in Tulsa, but we haven’t gotten any real tornadoes since May 2019. Yeah one tornado warning in April this year, but wasn’t a confirmed tornado. Same in okc and Moore I heard
I was 14 when this happened, I live in Oklahoma but lived hours away. However my family lived in Moore and lost their home, so we’d travel to help them build it back up. The damage was absolutely insane
I have a video of the tornado on my channel. I was a first responder at Plaza Towers Elementary. Even after nearly 8 years, I'm still dealing with the Ptsd from the trauma I experienced at that school that day.. Unimaginable. We need to make changes to our schools. Every single school should have adequate shelters for situations like this. I am a Moore resident born and raised, and proud. Seeing this happen to my community broke my heart. It was extremely unexpected and happened so quick. You never truly know when something like this may happen... Call your loved ones and tell them you love them.
@@1nm1 That pisses me off. I have heard that the Moore city council has passed tougher building codes requiring all new structures in the city of Moore to have storm cellars or basements to avoid having to once again witness the horror and heartbreak of both May 20, 2013 and May 3, 1999. Never again!
@@Betterlattethannever307 Good to hear. It's tornadoes like this one in Moore, Oklahoma on May 20th, 2013 and the tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri on May 22nd, 2011 that make me a firm believer in and strong advocate for tough building codes that require all schools, nursing homes, businesses, public buildings, and places of worship to have storm shelters that can protect the people who use these places. Following the Joplin tornado; firefighters had to pull out residents and staff members of the Greenbriar Nursing Home.
My goodness I stumbled upon this. We have our own issues in New York but this is sobering. I’d be outta my element. These guys had great coverage and surely saved lives. Well done. 🙏
I never miss the news coverage when a tornado is going through, but school and bad internet stopped me from seeing this one. Thank you for putting this up so I could see what I missed
@@breannaalger9585I live in north Texas, on the Oklahoma border. And unfortunately, not here. No basements either. If you have a storm shelter, you have to pay for it yourself. Wish they were standard for every home. Tornado season can be a very scary time of year for us.
Especially in the schools! It's unfathomable to me that schools (especially in Moore ... And especially after the 1999 tornado) don't have underground shelters available for the children and teachers!
Mike Morgan is my favorite meteorologist, "Drive south" "Sink Drain" "Maxi" "Gate to gate" "Wind shear" "Mile marker 119" "May 3rd" "Wedges" "Tornado Emergency" "Grinder" "Mezzo" "Low Level Lock" "Out of the way" "Moore" "Violent Rotation" "Debris Ball" "Double Box" The ability to rate tornadoes just by looking at them
I almost died from alcohol poisoning 6 different times in 2013 because of the tornado outbreak that year and playing the weatherman drinking game. Then me and a friend got side swiped by the El Reno tornado while we were playing the weatherman drinking game. It was exhausting. David Payne was our guy we watched. ... If I'd have watched Mike Morgan I'd be dead for sure.
I live in Boston, but when I heard that a tornado was about to hit the OKC area, I went online and was able to watch coverage from KFOR, KOCO, and KWTV, streamed online from their respective websites. All three stations did a magnificent job, and should be given special Emmy Awards for their coverage. It may have been the worst weather disaster in recent Oklahoma history, but also the finest hour in the history of Oklahoma City's television stations. Their reporting saved hundreds of lives.
Proud to live in Moore Oklahoma. We have the best weatherman in the world. Tornadoes unfortunately are going to happen. But we all come together and pick up the pieces. We are Moore strong. RIP to the 7 kids at plaza towers and all the other casualties and injuries. So sad. Lord help us.
Moore, Oklahoma seems like a nice place to live and raise a family. The people there seem like they are very kind and caring people who are very nice and helpful for their friends and neighbors.
@@snuffedtorch3683 you guys deserve that 7 year breath of peace. as an oklahoman i’d do anything for my fellow oklahomans during nature’s fury as everyone else would🙏
I was at school in Norman (10 miles from Moore ) and we went on lockdown. I almost skipped school to go see a movie at warren theatre which was in the direct path of the tornado. These storms are beyond scary. Mike Morgan is my dude.
Ryan Steinmeyer what school did you go to in Norman because I have lived in norman all my life and at that time i went to jackson elementary but now i go to longfellow
I can't imagine the amount of fear among the employees and guests at both the Warren Theater and the Newcastle Casino. At least the staff at the Warren Theater and the Newcastle Casino did as they were trained to do in the event of a tornado and got the moviegoers at the Warren Theater and the guests at the Newcastle Casino to safety. I also cannot imagine how terrified the motorists on both Interstate 44 and Interstate 35 were when they heard the weather bulletin on their car radios.
This brings back very painful/fearful memories. I live in Moore but I was in Norman at the time for work business. I was for certain my house/neighborhood was going to get hit. The direction it was going, there's just no way. The closest I was able to get to my house once I got into Moore was 19th St, so I ended up getting out of my car and walking to my house. To my surprise, everything was still intact. The tornado missed my house by half a mile ( which, by the grace of God or just plain eerie, was the case for May 3rd 1999 and May 8th 2003 ). Still, my town was torn apart. It was a horrible sight. It took awhile for us to rebuild but we did. My fondest memory after the fact was everyone getting together to help out and clean up. It was beautiful, to see everyone working with each other.
Carl West This guy is not a saint, he could have killed people... This was also the same guy who told people to take I-40 south to get out of the way of the tornado.
He went out on a limb, and told people to do something he shouldn't have. Where is it in the handbook where it says I should leave my house if a tornado is coming.
Saxie81 IIRC, he was specifically addressing those without basements or underground shelters. I heard him say that an interior room wasn't gonna cut it in this situation, and I believe it! There were probably folks who lost their lives in the '99 twister because they thought they were safe in their bathrooms. No piece of advice is 100% foolproof, and everyone learns from experience. What I took from his advice was that staying put in an above-ground structure in the path of an EF5 is pretty much a death sentence and probably not a good idea IF you have enough lead time to take other precautions.
There's no way people without a basement could have survived this, which is why they declared a tornado emergency... When he told them to get in their car and drive away, the people had 9 minutes... He gave people who had no means of safety a chance, and what's wrong with telling them to go south? The tornado/storm was moving at an east north east motion. Look at the children that passed away when their school (no shelter) took a direct hit... If it wasn't against policy, and had they had taken his advice....they may have had a better chance of survival. I mean no disrespect to anyone there by bringing up those who passed away. God bless.
The chief meteorologist there in the studio is great at directing verbal traffic from his guys in the field, while he himself is reading new info coming in. Great job!
I love and hate Reed Timmer. I love that he's always on top of these things, I hate it when I see him in my town b/c oh dear God!! But I'm glad he's on top of tornadoes.
kimdkus Imagine when Reed AND Jim Cantore show up. You know it'll get bad. I've had both of them PLUS Team Twistex (Rest in peace) in my town, all at the same time.
I called my brother Sal who lived in Moore. He lived right near the Warren theatre. My brother and his son Cap was taking shelter in the bathroom. After the tornado hit he was busy picking up debri . He was suprised to find a one hundred dollar bill in the backyard . He told me it was a powerful tornado. I'm so glad they survived. He was kind and helped his neighbors. Unfortanetly he passed 7 yrs later.
An extreme thunderstorm was passing over our home in 1994 (springtime in AR) and was putting down a tornado. We went to our basement and lightning struck outside our home, ran down that rock wall, and struck me while I was holding our children who were just born and 3 yr old daughter. To this day, I am terrified of storms and never take chances during these storms. We moved from the area (1500 miles away) where it's just hurricanes to contend with. We do at least get a 7-day warning with those and our camper is our shelter as we drive away from the danger zone. God be with everyone who still lives in tornado alley.
An earthquake springs up in seconds, triggers tsunamis, truly terrifying, and is unescapable unless you are airborne. Tornadoes are also terrifying, and fast, but you escape by going underground or fleeing fast; the latter goes for volcanoes as well, which are stationary. A tornado has only minutes of warning; a volcano has days/weeks but its effects spread far beyond its destructive range, possibly being global. A hurricane can be predicted weeks in advance and only affects the parts it hits. Hurricanes are by far the easiest natural disaster to personally deal with.
I think, even in this 45 minutes of this coverage, the sense of the longivity of the storm is incredible. Sometimes with edited footage, you miss this aspect. Humbling!
I remember getting home from school, I was in middle school and I’m fascinated with weather so I turned the weather channel on since I live in texas I couldn’t watch KFOR, but I remember they would pull up their coverage sometimes. The words that struck me the most was from the national weather service with the tornado emergency they issued that said “storm is unsurvivable above ground” chilling words
Thank you for an excellent job reporting the exact location, speed and direction of the entire tornado. Extra special thanks to your ground people and the crew in the helicopter who risked their lives by staying so close to it - making sure others would be informed enough to know when to flee. It most certainly gave a short window of time for at least some of the people to move out of its path or get to a safe place. One heck of a job - well done!
I remember this tornado vividly. I was in 1st grade and the last one to be checked out at my school (I live in Moore) the tornado was standing still in front of my house a little miles away but, it turned and went to the other part of neighborhood. Yes tornadoes do sound like freight trains. I’m still so thankful to be alive.
Anytime a Tornado Warning is issued; always listen for the sounds of a tornado. A tornado typically emits the sound of a dull roar or a scream; somewhat like a slow moving freight train or a low flying jet.
@@paige9769 also If a tornado Is stood still that's it possibly moving towards you or away that's if it's not going left or right I live in the UK and these things are crazy in OKC the worst one in the UK was in the city of Birmingham in 2005 and I think that was an EF3 Id love to hunt these down I was in a tornado area South of London that's where I'm from there was one there no where near as bad as the US one but did a fare amount of damage EF1 I think that was last year 2021
@@tikitorch1093 my mom was in the 85 Niles/Newton falls/wheatland tornado. Moved out of tornado valley to Maryland, bought a house with a basement and every tornado warning we had to sit in there. And our state has only had 2 tornados my whole life (both babies). She's just not willing to risk it
Huge Thank you To ALL at KFOR. They all did an excellent job (as always!) tracking this unbelievable storm. This helped save many lives. Unfortunate that many did not make it. RIP to them, and peace to the families who lost their loved ones.
Crazy day for sure. I was working for a realtor that day at a house a few miles north ahead of the storm. I came outside and got the most eery feeling looking up at the unstable clouds. Decided to drive south to my boss's house since she had a shelter, she lived near May & 134th. Got to her shelter just in time and will never forget the sound of it as it passed half a mile to our south. I also rode out the May 3rd tornado in Del City when I was 7, that one passed so quickly. What was terrifying about May 20 was how long it seemed to take to pass by. I will never forget the roaring.
time stamps for notable progression of the tornado, and just general footage/commentary moments that give me chills: 8:21 storm further intensified in speed and power, significant power flashes 11:12 impressive radar scans 11:51 mike warns west moore high school that it is in the tornados path 14:23 "interior closet or bathroom? don't." 18:15 "you can't be in an interior closet or bathroom. don't lose your life"
Absolutely grade A coverage by this entire team. Huge props to them. Great instruction on telling them interior rooms would not save and you need a safe room or to be underground or out of the way, with tornados this strong, that is the correct instruction.
Never lived in Oklahoma, but the word got around that this tornado was on national TV because of just how powerful the tornado was and the devastation it was leaving in its path, I was watching this live on TV here in Fresno, Califonia I wont forget what I saw and the aftermath seeing the destruction it left behind, I was 15 years old and still in High School. By the way if live news coverage of a tornado airs on national TV you know it’s horrendous.
I remember this day well. I lived in Moore Oklahoma at the time. I was for 4 years old. I remember that meteorologist and the things he said. What happened to me I didn’t feel well that day so I decided to stay home. That day we kept getting reports of tornadoes that may hit Moore ( I don’t remember exactly). We didn’t really think much of it so my dad went to the store. I ended up falling asleep. Then, I just see the sky get dark. I then hear my front door open so I go downstairs and find out my dad came home. I give him a hug and then we both walk into the living room we’re my mom is. She says turn on the tv so my dad does just that. We get a tornado warning on my parents’ phones and on my iPad and hear the wind whistling outside. So we get our supplies for survival and then we go to the storm shelter. My parents go to the storm shelter first and then go. Just as I go to the storm shelter. I look out the window and see Briarwood get hit. We then hear low roar of the tornado I cover my head and my parents clutch onto me. As the tornado is over us and my mom says “ pray just pray and then everything will ok.” The next I know the storm shelter door gets ripped off. Something hits the back of my head and I blackout. When I wake up the tornado is over and I’m underneath a bunch of debris. So I call for help and people pull me out I ask for were my parents out they say they don’t know and then they put me on an ambulance. I’m bleeding from my head and my arms. The next thing I see is my parents climbing up out of the debris my dad and my mom are both bleeding from their arms. My parents see my and both hug me. My dad says “ We survived the tornado”. That’s all I remember from that day. I survived the Moore Oklahoma and Joplin Missouri tornados. I now live in Lancaster Pennsylvania. The days when I lived in Moore and Joplin were truly terrifying.
Great coverage by the meteorologists and the helicopter pilot. I live in Illinois, and we have tornadoes, but they are baby shit compared to this. God bless the people of Moore and those who lost their lives. I couldn't imagine living through this.
Illinois gets plenty of violent tornadoes, including the deadliest tornado in the nation’s history (tri-state tornado). Oklahoma gets some of the worst and most frequent tornadoes but historically Illinois is nothing to sneeze at.
Two of the worst tornadoes to hit Illinois in the modern age are the tornadoes that tore through Plainfield, Illinois on August 28th, 1990 and Washington, Illinois on November 17th, 2013. The latter is particularly shocking to me because you never expect a tornado to strike that late in the year. Ohio (the state I live in) saw a really bad tornado hit Dayton during the Memorial Day tornado outbreak of 2019. My mom lived through the 1974 outbreak and saw the destruction of the tornado that hit Xenia, Ohio. She told me that Xenia looked like a war zone in Vietnam after the tornado.
In addition to what the others mentioned, there was a tornado in 1967 in northern IL that killed several children as school was getting out in Belvidere IL & Oaklawn, IL. I was in the first grade and remember the sirens that started at the end of the school day in my town and again after mom put us kids to bed. We ended up getting into our car and went to my grandma’s house and stayed in the basement awhile.
I sit here today in 2023 with tears in my eyes as I watch this and hear Mike’s urgent, worry-filled words, I cry not only for the people affected, but all the animals that were killed and injured, as well. They are typically the forgotten victims and helpless in saving themselves. 😭
I'd seen this footage on YT several years ago and had been trying to find it for a few months (off and on). I'm glad I finally found it! This is one of a few tornado warnings I've watched that took my breath away and made me cry for those people. I'm glad this weatherman emphasized the extreme importance of getting out of this monster's way and getting underground. Wow!
@@SynGates-bm5pw Pecos does such a good job. Tells a story instead of just screaming "TORNADO ON THE GROUND!!!!". I know people get excited, all of us severe weather nerds do, but I find it so distracting when people shout and repeat themselves the whole time. Pecos really is the pinnacle of storm chasing entertainment.
Dixey Alley stations need to use this as the benchmark, perhaps a training video. KFOR does an amazing job. They don't miss a beat. Well done. Clearly the best in the business.
I ran the moore/norman route for several years with a trucking company. They cared about freight over my life and I can personally attest to that. Somehow that day I was doing an out of town route. I remember being 100 miles west of the storm in New Cordell and looking at that monster thinking I could of been in that. Suddenly, the town i delivered so much freight in looked like a war zone. Some of the businesses I delivered to were gone. I helped with the cleanup a little. The response was massive. What a day. Tomorrow will be the ten year anniversary. RIP to those who didn't make it.
I can see why the ancient people thought that these disasters where gods. This tornado reminded me of something of mythology. I drove through ground zero the day after and got to film a fraction of the devistation!
Adventures of Will and Shelby From what I've heard, the "Dead Man Walking" is what the Natives called the sub-vorticies of a particularly nasty tornado for two reasons: The first is that it can look like a ghost running across the plains. The second is that if you saw one, you, too, would likely become one given that things such as "sturdy shelters" didn't exist at the time.
I witnessed the El Reno tornado on 5/31/13 from 3 miles away but I never saw anything as bad as this. The El Reno tornado was mostly over farmland and didn't cause as much damage as this one. I live in Louisiana and very rarely do we get a tornado. The last tornado I saw was on 2/23/16
I was in Moore on the 21st. It was devastating the damage that tornado caused. Made me cry for all the people that lost everything. Just horrible. I've never seen anything like that.
Dude I haven’t had cable in over 10 years but this gives me flashbacks of my childhood. My family sitting in the living room watching the news. It terrified me when I was a kid.
they always say an interior closet or closed off area like a bathroom is safe if you don't have a basement, but when they tell you that isn't safe either, and you have next to zero time to find a place underground, what the hell do you even do at that point? oh my god, that's horrifying.
I was 1 hour ahead of this. I picked up a motorcycle in Newcastle and drove it to Kansas. The old lady was freaking out in the car behind me! I got hit with a couple pieces of hail leaving Newcastle. We stopped in El Reno for some onion burgers and saw the devastation. We were lucky!
I watched this tornado live on the weather channel. I was terrified of even your normal thunderstorms at the time due to the huge scare from the 2011 tornado outbreak, but it sparked my fascination.
Yeah, they also often get rain wrapped. It's caused by RFD (Rear flank downdraft). Basically wind from the mid level of the atmosphere decends and spirals around the tornado funnel, shielding it in rain. They can be incredibly deadly in places like Alabama due to the trees, hills, and the fact that rain wrapped tornadoes are much more common East of the plains.
The victims of this tornado had worked so hard all their lives to get what they have, and then, in an instant, it was all gone. I can’t even begin to imagine the nightmares and sorrow. I hope they are all doing better now and that everything is rebuilt. ❤️❤️🇺🇸🇺🇸
Everyone on here has commended the Oklahoma City news coverage for being the best with tornado coverage and tornado warnings. It's like how the Japanese have perfected their ability to warn and keep people safe with earthquakes and tsunamis--practice makes perfect! If you get an F5 monster every decade, and smaller, less destructive tornadoes practically every spring and summer, you will get really good at reporting them and keeping the public safe.
Plus; Japan has one of the most advanced earthquake early warning systems in the world. It detects tremors, calculates the epicenter, and sends out warnings from seismographs. The Japan Meteorological Agency is responsible for issuing the warnings; and they do so by sending alerts to TV channels, radio stations, Internet sites, and mobile phone networks. When the infamous magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck eighty miles off the northeastern coast of Japan on March 11, 2011; warnings were generated in three seconds. The tsunami warnings were issued three minutes later. These take longer to issue because there are more complex calculations involved and ocean data has to be factored into the equation. Though because the first tsunami waves struck the Japanese coastline within twenty minutes of the earthquake; the advanced warning provided some residents in the area with crucial minutes to get away from coastal areas or riversides and get to high ground. The system also halted the Shinkansen bullet trains across the country, suspended operations of the Tokyo subway system, halted surgeries in progress at hospitals, and closed off all expressways as well as giving automatic shutdown orders to all factories, oil refineries, lumber mills, steel mills, and power plants. Nissan has an assembly plant in Iwaki, Japan; when the earthquake struck, the system gave automatic shutdown orders so the employees could stop the assembly lines and shut down the production equipment in order to safely evacuate the facility.
I'll never forget that day. I was headed west on Highway 33, just south of Stillwater. We got to the top of a hill with a valley below us and my wife started screaming. I looked to my left and could see that tornado 50-70 miles away and I pulled my truck over and watched it. We both cried because we knew hundreds of people were dying if we could see that tornado from that far off. I drove through Moore the next day and there was just nothing left in the line of that storm.
“Interior closet or bathroom won’t do it.” Those are some terrifying words, dang
ya lol
Other news stations covering this storm were saying “interior closet or bathroom WILL do it.”
At least one woman was killed while taking shelter in an interior closet during this storm.
Plush Man oh you bet 😰
Jimmy Ewald 😢
I can't imagine how haunting this is. The same channel, the same weatherman, 14 years since 1999. Absolutely nuts.
And the quality looks like it’s from 1999
I grew up in Moore, so I was there for both storms. I remember for this storm how chilling it was for him to say “I’m going to say something I never wanted to say in my career, but this is May 3 exact all over again”
A bag of nuts
No kidding.
You could tell he’d experienced this before, just trying to get it through to people how serious it was
“You don’t have time to think, you’ve got to act” is a absolutely terrifying statement.
ive heard that so many times
@@michaelmagic988 You ok buddy? You seem to really be having a hard time
@@michaelmagic988 Go play on a busy city highway...
@@bigschmill294 wipe my bum after i poo in the tornado
@@mattieice4689 go take a poo in a dirt road you walking toilet
KFOR tornado coverage is incredible, they definitely set the standard. You can tell they are in this to save lives, they keep so focused and tell viewers exactly what to do to survive. I have nothing but gratitude and respect for all of them!
They are the only news I watch all year round.
Michael Ross that was one big oops.
He actually gave terrible advice, could have gotten a lot of people killed.
Sydney B. Clearly you have never heard of James Spann of ABC 33/40
@@yeoscore Yes, he is top notch!
horrible day...my daughter was at our sitters house behind the warren theater....she got kids in her cellar...yes sarah..you are still my hero!!!! cant express enough.
brett brinkman Thank God for Sarah!
god bless
im glad this happened, thats why you dont call a city more
I've had to huddle the kids I care for downstairs in the past, we're in kansas, and I'll tell you in that moment more than ever they are in fact your babies too. Thank God she was in charge.
@@zzzroxyzzz the safest place to be is on the toilet taking a poo
You know it's bad when the radar runs out of colors and just does black.
Well, black is a programmed color in the color table within the radar. This particular color table, (BARON256) has black as 65+dBz.
AlabamaThingies this is the level of nerd that should be rewarded
meaning more or less the beam got deflected back at fullpower
mikemoair You do realize this is Oklahoma right? Not Alabama.
If you have GR Analyst, you can set black to be any DBZ echo return... BARON256 dramatizes storms with its color table, but it looks cool.
To anyone who grew up in Oklahoma in the 90's and 00's this guy is one of our spiritual dads. Hearing his voice immediately inspires both comfort and a call to action
I have a lot of respect for the news and weather crew at KFOR Channel 4 as the Oklahoma City metro area is no doubt the most aggressive media market in the Southwestern US.
@@michaellovely6601 Me too
Gary England, KWTV from 1972-2013.....absolute LEGEND !!!!!!!!
@@michaellovely6601What makes it the most aggressive media market?
@@mr.brenman2132 The coverage for severe weather situations.
These meteorologists are heroes. They are on TV, warning, the public, and telling them to take shelter while their own homes might be getting destroyed and their own families might be getting affected. God bless you all and great job! Greetings from Pennsylvania!! ❤❤
I was in Oklahoma City when this was happening and I called my brother in Moore and told him to get away from his house immediately. He looked outside and said, "It just got quiet..." and then the call dropped. If you don't know about tornados, it will often get very quiet right before it hits. I completely flipped out, thought that was the last time I would ever hear him. The tornado ended up going just one mile north of him.
ryuuou07 did he or you find any interesting or valuables in the debri
It's true! We got that same "tense quiet" with our Tuesday severe squall line coming through. Tornado sirens went off twice in St. Louis City and there was no lightning, no wind, no rain, just these ominously darkening skies. When the siren went off a second time, we got this brief, intense microburst that rattled our windows and shook the trees. Spooky stuff, but it was over in about 20 minutes because the line was moving so fast.
Final Minute man that’s peoples personal shit. Don’t talk like that.
Dang man good thing hes alright
@@rhondahoward8025 idk if there's a scientific explanation of why, but i've heard from multiple people who've been in tornadoes and hurricanes that they could "feel" the low barometric pressure as this hard-to-explain feeling of deep uneasiness.
There's a reason people in tornado alley and the southeast don't make fun of our TV meteorologists. I have yet to hear of one leaving the broadcast until the storm is literally right about to hit their news building. I remember one in my area left the Doppler radar up, and kept the mic on so he could continue to give people updates from where he was sheltering.
facetiousbadger yup! They’re super awesome. During the hurricanes here they are always giving updates on any tornadoes and any flooding happening. They had live video of the ocean spilling over into a neighborhood and stayed calm the entire time.
@@PrincessofGIR Yep, they have no fucks to give as long as there's weather that needs reporting. The heli crews are awesome as well. The turbulence on severe weather afternoons is crazy even without a nearby tornado.
facetiousbadger this past summer (2019 summer) we had 24 tornado warning in my area in none other than
philly
i has to NAG my parents to the basement they take it to lightly they should be nagging me but NOPE
Our meteorologist did that once. My man really kept broadcasting and we applaud these people
Broadcasting heroes save many lives!!
The meteorologist and pilot saved lives with their fantastic reporting. The pilots own neighborhood was being destroyed, yet he stayed focused, reported accurately while flying, and manages to provide life saving information. Fantastic job gents!!
If I was a meteorology student at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK; I would be torn between doing an internship under either Mike Morgan at KFOR Channel 4 or Damon Lane at KOCO Channel 5. However, I saw in the comments section of this video someone was wondering how the KFOR Channel 4's helicopter pilot Jon Welsh was able to successfully get the helicopter up into the air despite Jon's giant iron balls weighing it down.
@@michaellovely6601 Mike Morgan and Damon Lane are legends in Oklahoma
@@jamestaylor4480 Did you guys forget Gary England, who was broadcasting that day too?
@@robertbroughton1443 Yeah, he's a legend too
@@michaellovely6601 You forgot to also mention Jim Gardner from KWTV.
I have never heard a newscaster say it's best to flee the area and get out of the path if you can't get into an underground shelter. However seeing the results of this monster, there is no doubt telling viewers this saved many many lives. Superior coverage. Your coverage was a blessing to many. Prayers to all those that lost loved ones and are still suffering from this horrific storm.
That was the worst thing he ever said. I-35 south was so congested, it look like an apocalypse.
he did the best he could. because he knew that if you were still there, you would've been killed. he saved lives.
@@shanasapp6212
He most likely didn’t have google maps traffic checker pulled up pal. He was trying to save lives by telling people to get below ground or get out of its way.
I think there should be a campaign to get neighbors to let each other know about their basements so people can just go nearby to shelter. There should also be public underground shelters, it would be such a small investment compared to the potential life saving
@@shanasapp6212 Yeah almost caused a mass casualty situation 11 days later doing the exact same thing.
"Be below ground or out of the way". Sad, sobering, but great coverage. The poise shown by the people covering this was really extraordinary.
Very professional despite the terrible circumstances.
And yet you feel the emotion of what's happening, truly sad to see but have to believe that this coverage saved lives.
Vince McMahon yes I'm sure it saved many..I've always been impressed with their storm coverage...you can hear it in their voice they genuinely care for the people there...one that got me was they were covering a large tornado and it was heading directly for the station and they stayed on the air until the last possible second and then ran for shelter and the camera was still on the radar and you could actually watch the huge red and black debri ball get closer and closer to them..it was so eerie.
Yeah, it gets to a point where if the tornado is strong enough, it will absolutely *level* everything on top. I've seen it. It's devastating. Like a nuclear bomb went off. We are of course talking about your EF4 and EF5 strength tornadoes but even an EF3 is no picnic. Your roof is pretty much gone even with an EF3 so below ground or basement is always best.
Hes definitely improved over the years. He wasnt as composed during the may 3rd tornado at times.
Oh man, I remember this well. I was still in school back then, and even though I knew there was a huge chance for a tornado, I didn't know there was a storm. Then, all of a sudden you could see the school parking lot filling up FAST. It was unlike anything I'd seen before. We didn't know why it was happening until a kid in my class got a text alert on his phone that there was a tornado warning for our county. We then turned off the movie and turned on this weather station, kfor. All of a sudden, the office just flat out said that there are so many parents in the office that everyone had to go look for theirs, and if they couldn't see them, go to the shelter immediately. Luckily I just slipped out with my friend's mom, and got to see the storm for all its glory. We eventually went to pick up his brother at the elementary school, but due to the tornado being 5 or less minutes from the school, we were instead rushed inside. Before I went in their shelter, I took one last glance at the storm. In all my years of living here and chasing storms, this was honestly the scariest storm ever. The sky was almost purple, and there was lightning flashing throughout the sky. In the distance, we heard a rumbling growing louder and louder. I knew it was the tornado, so I sprinted inside. Luckily, the tornado missed us, but it is a day that I'll never forget.
I know how scary it was I lived in Moore and like you it was just a school day but my mom got me then we went to the high school to get my brother and when we were getting our stuff gathered it was at Moore warren movie theater exactly 6 minutes from our house
A text alert in 1999?
+Final Minute no a text alert in 2013 since he's talking about the tornado in the video. (May 20th 2013).
Your account of that day is descriptive and succinct. Nice job and thanks for sharing. Just subscribed to your channel!
Same i lived in norman right next to moore and i was in school that time and i could hear the tornado sirens u went to jackson elementary at the time it was super scary
I'm in Boston, but when I heard that a tornado was about to hit Moore, I went on the KFOR, KWTV, and KOCO websites to watch live streams of their coverage of the storm.
The efforts of these three stations were outstanding; at least one thousand (possibly even several thousand) lives were saved.
It was the "Finest Hour" in the history of Oklahoma television broadcasting.
i used to live in boston area but now i live in tornado alley
i do the same thing.... im obsessed with weather
Down here in Georgia I usually turn to James Spann's feed from Birmingham to see how storms heading our way are doing in Alabama. His coverage during April 27,2011 saved thousands as almost every Central Alabama county saw a strong or violent tornado that day.
Agree. Without Spann's (and other TV meteorologists), there likely could've been a death toll of over ten thousand!
Same here, I live in Fall River and once I heard about this tornado on the Weather Channel on went on my computer and went to KFOR and watched this exact live show.
Notice how they didn’t even call the 1999 “the May 1999”, they just called it “the May 3rd”, because everyone knew there. So tragic, again.
In the OKC metro, the date May 3rd is as symbolic as July 4th or December 25th. You say May 3rd... they know what you're talking about. I'd wager a guess that more folks there recognize the significance of that date than they do April 19th. (The date of the OKC bombing)
lol who cares what they call it.
I was 5yo. I was 2 miles from the May 3rd tornado. By golly I remember it vividly.
My first memory as a child was may 3rd.
@@michaelmagic988 alright. Next EF5, do us a favor, stand directly in its path and film. Don't move, just stay in the path.
This guy def saved people’s lives that day. A+ coverage.
This man, as a Meteorologist and a Broadcaster, is so utterly competent. He knows every street, building, piece of infrastructure, past storm track, recent radar return.... any and everything. He's also under just unbelievable pressure on air in a catastrophe like this, yet he always has his hands pointing to the exact right street intersection as he calls it out on a green screen street grid, all when his anxiety must be dialed up to 13
Looking at the helicopter coverage of the tornado and the broadcasts, I can't help but think that this kind of reporting was at least partially thanks to the heroics of Dick Gilbert. For those unfamiliar with that name, Dick Gilbert was the traffic reporter in Louisville during the Super Outbreak of '74. A tornado hit Louisville just as Gilbert was doing his traffic report from a helicopter, and he basically did a play-by-play of where the tornado was going over the radio. On a day when over 300 people died, only two died in Louisville, and many people said that either their lives or the lives of loved ones were saved thanks to Dick Gilbert's broadcast.
That's way cool. Any articles or whatever about the outbreak in general and or Dick did specifically?
Amazing. Thanks for sharing that information.
I remember him telling about the Louisville tornado. or I mean reporting it from the helicopter.
I was in Xenia, Ohio, on April 3rd during that outbreak. Gil Whitney from WHIO-TV in Dayton came screaming over the air that a massive tornado was on it's way and that we were to take shelter immediately! He saved a lot of lives that afternoon but we still lost 35 people.
Dick Gilbert but his balls on the line to save his city that day. My favorite part of that story was about his daughter. Dick was a Widower and his daughter was early High School, he flew by their home every day after she got home from school to check on her. That day when he saw the tornado coming he flew back to their house (reporting the whole time) and lowered the helicopter to rooftop-level to get his daughter to come outside. He was close enough that she could read his lips telling her to get in the basement. It's so cool to me that even in such a dire situation he was able to have the ability to continue his coverage as well as protect his own family.
This guy did amazing on his storm coverage. He kept it together and said nothing but important info. It's remarkable
He was extremely accurate, too. People had to be underground to survive this monster! 😢
I live in Kansas and all I got to say is Oklahoma weather stations are amazing covering these things.
+sllimthg
best in the nation
agreed
+sllimthg followed by my boy james spann
+Brandon Payne he is definitely better then this guy
But this Oklahoma coverage with the choppers and the spotters, following tornados street to street and intersection to intersection is amazing.
Just think. These meteorologists, storm chasers and news anchors are reporting on this horrible tornado which, at the same time, may be heading towards their own homes and neighborhoods. I don't know what you think, but I think that's pretty heroic! "It's going right basically towards my house."
Michael Ross no not alll of them a couple of them did live in Moore one actually was reporting the tornado while his house was possibly getting destoryed and not knowing where his wife was
@Michael Ross Don't forget Arcadia ..
i know, thats so sad
@@bladeserrated How they can hold it together is beyond me.
Koco Damon Lane lives in moore and he was broadcasting this and told his wife to grab the dogs and go to the storm shelter. He never lost his cool though.
I remember being in this Tornado. I worked at a Radio Shack at the time and after the storm, I had a lady come in, looked horrible. Asked if she was ok and as she was leaving the store with her items, she stopped and said, "I lost a child in the Moore tornado..he was in the school that was hit." Something I'll remember for the rest of my life. rip to those that lost their lives.
I believe an 18 year old man was killed on the way home from graduation in Moore in 2013.
@@breannaalger9585 If you’re talking about Will Norton, that was actually the Joplin Tornado.
@@musicalhearts2879 Yeah, that one always gets to me. I graduated the same year, just days before. That storm system was supposed to hit my town but skipped over us and hit Joplin that evening instead. I came home from a grad party and saw it on the news and cried.
Right that was Will Norton. He was killed driving home from high school graduation in the Joplin tornado on 5/22/2011.
I was stuck in westmoore highschool during this, and to this day it is the scariest thing I have ever lived through. I lived 5 minutes away and it took me almost 3 hours to get home that day, and I didn't even know if I was going home to a house. luckily my home was safe, but across the street from me there was nothing. it cut a line right down the middle of my neighborhood.
I’m a teacher. I was at Red Oak in my classroom. My neighborhood was the same way. Houses on my street lost roofs, but my house was fine. I couldn’t get home for multiple days.😭 Tough times for sure.
I think I know which street you’re talking about (can’t remember the name) houses on one side just had some siding issues, the middle was completely leveled, and the south side was scattered.
@@Betterlattethannever307 My sister was at Kingsgate, she got picked up and were fine. I wasn't old enough to go to school yet. We are very lucky and I am truly sad every time I hear about May 3rd.
Wow! Were you guys listening to this report when he said the tornado was approaching the high school? Either way, I'm glad I don't live anywhere near tornado alley. We've had some small ones in our mountainous state, which is more than enough for me! Glad you survived!
@@scsstopmotions989that would be horrific! Glad you weren't hurt by those trees or anything else.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the KFOR coverage was absolutely amazing. The professionalism shown is unreal. almost four years later and still incredibly sad. Unreal the way mother nature can change, and unfortunately end people's lives. Yet people still try to kill other people while innocent people deal with this.
Vince McMahon well said man well said
And many succeed in killing so many innocent others and it makes you wish all of these evil ones lived in Moore to take the pounding and the brutal death in place of all innocent living beings!!
Some people who live in the Oklahoma City metro area have called Mike Morgan at KFOR Channel 4 their spiritual dad.
Can you imagine having to be calm on the air watching your house get wiped out? There's no way I could do it!
You don't understand about us weather folks I have been a storm spotter and storm chaser for a long time and we don't look at our own stuff we are in this to save lives
Cory Sartin you don’t understand punctuations.
Read that just as he said it was going to his house
You probably can't speak english proberly right? He said they do it to savel ifes, they don't care If their house gets destroyed, yes they will be sad afterwards, but in all they do it to save lifes in the moment. Now stfu
@@jontray87 Whoopdee doo.
i survived that tornado
Armando Quintanilla no you didn't, it survived you.
Final Minute savage
Adventures of Will and Shelby Lol
Congrats!!!
Riiight. Attention whore much?
One of the scariest days of my life. I am in tears remembering the fear for my husband and dog stuck at the house in SW OKC while work would not let me leave. Luckily it missed our house by a couple miles . I can remember watching coverage of responders looking for those children in the school. Heartwrenching. Now in Meteorology school to pursue my passion and help save lives.
The workplace should NEVER have any say over you protecting yourself in this situation! Just grab your keys and GO to safety!
It makes me feel good to know that nowadays all the public schools in Moore, Oklahoma have tornado shelters. During the rebuilding of Plaza Towers Elementary School; a memorial to the seven children who lost their lives at Plaza Towers was built. This memorial consists of seven benches; each bench has the name of a child who lost his or her life at the school. There should be two more benches in memory of Catherine de Gay and Xavier Delgado. Catherine died seventy-three days after the tornado from a stroke brought on by brain damage she sustained in the tornado. In 2018 Xavier committed suicide from PTSD and Survivor's Guilt. Xavier was traumatized by the disaster and felt guilty knowing that he survived but his friends and classmates didn't.
@Vivian S
If his workplace lets him go during a deadly storm, and then he unfortunately gets injured or dies from the storm, then the company would be responsible for his death or injury and it would be a lot of paper work and a big huge mess of legal work
@@Mster_JThe company bigwigs can take their paperwork and go get fucked sideways. Getting to my family during a disaster supersedes their unwillingness to help me.
That's so sad they wouldn't let you go. But I'm sure it depends on the job. For example, if medical personnel were all allowed to leave, they wouldn't be available to help the injured victims from the tornado.
13:19 (and a similar statement at 19:46 and 27:44) Mike Morgan received a lot of s*** for saying "The only way you're going to guarantee you will survive is if you are out of the way, below ground, storm cellar, or basement... safe room. That's it. Nothing else is going to do it; Do not ride this out in your home. Interior closet or bathroom, don't." However, to convey the significant level of danger to an audience who sees dozens of tornado warnings on their televisions every year, his statement was well warranted.
I for one think of him a lot more for being flat out honest. I'd much rather save a lot of lives by telling people to leave if they don't have a basement or underground shelter, vs have hundreds of deaths because I told people to stay in their interior rooms in a tornado of that intensity.
His comments saved a lot of lives that day
Saying that sheltering in an interior closet or bathroom (even in a well-constructed home) is "not an option" in tornadoes like this is incredibly irresponsible, as proven when Morgan repeated those comments on May 31 and contributed to mass panic and huge traffic jams that could have led to hundreds being injured or killed if the tornado hadn't turned north and dissipated. That's leaving aside the eleven people who fled their apartment building (which wasn't hit, BTW) and took shelter in a drainage tunnel after he said that people needed to be underground; five of those people drowned when the tunnel flooded.
Besides, saying that this tornado was not survivable above ground (which Morgan said repeatedly in this broadcast) was a flat-out lie. Know how I know? A friend of mine lived a block south of Briarwood Elementary, which suffered EF-5 damage. Her house took EF-4 damage, basically being reduced to rubble. She sheltered in an interior closet and walked away without a scratch. Know how else I know? Approximately 100 people were above ground in residential structures that took F-4 or F-5 damage in the May 3, 1999 tornado. One died. One. Feel free to fact-check everything I just said. Bottom line: essentially telling a large community to evacuate en masse minutes before a large tornado arrives is incredibly stupid, and I frankly can't believe Morgan wasn't fired for it, especially after he repeated the mistake a week and a half later and thereby contributed to chaos on the roads and several non-tornadic fatalities.
those people were lucky Nathan.....you cannot survive strong ef-4 and ef-5 type winds in normal circumstances....IM telling you. Those people in 1999 were lucky, wana here another likely fact? All those people are religious now. xD.. but seriously.... 9/10 times youre in a building above ground....and tornado this strong comes ontop of you... the winds carry shit at super high speeds.. and beat bodies until they need dental records to be identify...fact...
Actually, no, you've got it completely backwards. If you're sheltered in a well-constructed structure above ground (a well-constructed structure, mind you, not a mobile home or a house that got haphazardly slapped together by the lowest bidder) and a tornado hits it (yes, even one with an EF-5 rating like this one), 9 times out of 10, you'll come out just fine.
More than 9 times out of 10, actually; you might get a very rare situation (like the 1997 Jarrell tornado) where it genuinely is unsurvivable above ground over a large portion of its track, but, again, that's a VERY RARE situation. The vast majority of EF-5s are like the 2013 one in Moore; the EF-5 damage only happens in a small portion of the track.
So do the math for somebody sheltering in a well-constructed structure in the vicinity of a violent (EF-4 or EF-5) tornado. First off, there's only a small chance that they'll actually be hit by the tornado at all. Second off, there's an even smaller chance that the tornado is actually an EF-5. (Historically, only about 1% of tornadoes have been violent, and out of that small subset, roughly 90% have been EF-4 and roughly 10% have been EF-5. So that's only a 1-in-10 shot right there, even without factoring in the 1-in-100 shot that the tornado is actually violent in the first place.) Third off, even if they are hit by the tornado and even if the tornado is an EF-5, there's an even SMALLER chance that the building that they're in will experience "unsurvivable" damage; they would have to either (a) be located in the small fraction of a "typical" EF-5 damage path that actually experiences EF-5 winds or (b) be facing a one-in-a-million situation where EF-5 damage covers a huge swath of the damage path (again, like 1997 Jarrell).
So, no, the people who shelter in a well-constructed building during a violent tornado and survive being hit aren't "lucky." They're normal. That's the normal outcome, and saying otherwise is frankly hype-driven BS. Again, you have the internet at your disposal, so if you actually care about whether or not what you're saying is the truth, go ahead and look it up. There are actual statistical studies on this topic (for example, Hammer and Schmidlin [Weather and Forecasting, 2002] or the NWS study referenced in the article found here: www.news9.com/story/25470824/surviving-an-ef-5-tornado-above-ground), and they show that what I've been saying is right and that what you've been saying is wrong. I don't blame you for it up to this point, because it's typical to take the word of "trusted" media figures like Mike Morgan as gospel. However, now you have access to all the information you need, so there's no more excuse.
Hard to believe this was 6 years ago. I remember me and my mother and 4 dogs packed into a Ford Explorer and it was just PISSING down rain faster than the wipers could wipe it. We were going to my grandparents house to check on them and get into their storm shelter, but Mike (the guy on your screen) was on the radio telling us that it was crossing Telephone and 27th St. We were at Bryant and 12th St. To put that into perspective for people that don't know that area, it's the same as you being in the living room and there's a murderer in your bathroom.
Too close for us to continue past 12th St. so we had to turn around and go to my dad's work in Warr Acres FD. Terrible storm. Never underestimate something like that. Always be safe and keep your head clear. Just might save your life.
Your family all make it out okay I assume
Were your grandparents okay?
Personally if I was a parent, and lived in Moore, knowing that towns history of basically being a tornado magnet, and saw a "dangerous day" forecast, I'd call and say my kid(s) would not be going to school.
+Zoomer30 I hear that. 100%
Zoomer30 good ideas I agree 100 percent especially on day like this
Nah sucka I would be moving
@@gailcleveland9052
Me: You're giving me a promotion. Great news!
Boss: The new position is in Moore OK
Me: I quit.
if you lived here you would know that literally any day that it rains between april and june (which is damn near everyday) they say it’s a very dangerous day and high risk for tornadoes so you really just have to play it by ear
This is the man who spoke the phrase I carry with me to this day: this tornado is not survivable above ground. Words to live by. Thanks meteorologist! Thanks for dedicating your life to science and warning us.
Lot of kids got killed in this tornado. I can barely watch this without my eyes welling up. I live in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma. We had a hook echo pass over our area on May 31st. The north side of my house got significant hail damage. My wife, mother, mother-in-law, niece and her two kids, and our three dogs rode it out in our underground tornado shelter. I needed a stiff drink after that ordeal!
Those babies 😭
The most well-known child fatalities of the Moore, OK are those of seven students at Plaza Towers Elementary School.
@@michaellovely6601 Plaza Towers
@@aametriigraham8489 Thanks for pointing that out.
Where were the parents?
The guy was in a helicopter watching this monster go right over his house and he’s keeping his cool and doing his job. That’s a real dude right there, hope his family was okay.
Agree. I would have liked to have heard Mike Morgan at least acknowledge John’s concern about his family and home rather than interrupting him to switch to Emily Sutton’s frantic reporting.
@@LoveABunI think he did that to not make Jim think about it too much and create more panic for everyone.
@@valmarwilson3476that makes sense. There was footage from a woman weatherman (I can't remember her name) who realized a twister was headed right for her neighborhood. She understandably had to pause the report because she was starting to cry. Thankfully, one of her coworkers, in the background, jumped right in to help with the report while telling her everything was going to be okay and offering comforting words to her. It was so sweet! He "had her back" so-to-speak. She was able to return to the forecast not too long afterwards thanks to his help.
If a tornado looks like its standing still, then its coming straight for ya
For real?
@@normamassey1000 yes for real. When a tornado is on the ground, pick a landmark on both sides. If it doesn't move past either landmark, it's moving at you.
@@squirleyspitmonkey3926 Thank you!
Apparent leftward or rightward motion... any "bearing drift" implies no collision, or a near miss. No rightward or leftward apparent motion... a thing is either on a collision course or opening. Mariners use this thumb rule to avoid collisions at sea.
@@squirleyspitmonkey3926 - It's called "bearing resolution." I was a severe weather analyst and forecaster for 35 years. This is excellent information. If it doesn't drift left or right of the reference point, you're in deep danger.
14:25 This gave me chills. Rare when they tell you it’s so bad that an interior room won’t help you.
Right? That was unprecedented, I think, but his saying so saved a lot more lives.
The 3 May 1999 Moore tornado inspired the Tornado Emergency variant of the National Weather Service's Tornado Warning, designed to indicate a lethal threat to a densely-populated area. Fourteen years later, it came in handy for basically the exact same tornado.
The text from the May 3 1999 tornado emergency is extremely sobering and conveyed to the residents of Moore and south Oklahoma City the severity of this tornado. Here it is:
"Tornado Emergency in south Oklahoma City! At 6:57 PM Central Daylight Time a large tornado was moving along Interstate 44 west of Newcastle. On its present path; this large damaging tornado will enter southwest sections of the Oklahoma City metro area between 7:15 PM and 7:30 PM. Persons in Moore and south Oklahoma City should take immediate tornado precautions! This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation! If you are in the path of this large and destructive tornado; take cover immediately! Doppler radar indicated this storm may contain destructive hail up to the size of baseballs, or larger."
With the may 3rd 1999 tornado the nws wanted people to take it seriously that was why the nws started the tornado emergency.
@@Sj430 they're even more terrifying now. To quote one particular warning from a few years ago. "You could be killed, if not underground or in a tornado shelter
I think it was the 1999 Moore tornado that created the need for the terminology "tornado emergency," which is reserved, now, for weather systems like the one in this video. A weatherman used this term when reporting for the Greensboro (or Greensburg?) tornado in 2007. If you hear "tornado emergency," hopefully you're already underground or in a safe place.
Mike said this in this video. He made it very clear people needed to be underground, and not in a closet, to survive this thing.
My goodness the professionalism of this crew was top notch today. No doubt these folks saved lives from their broadcast. Real professional broadcast this tragic day....
I have a lot of respect for the staff at KFOR Channel 4 for their efforts to warn and protect the people of the Oklahoma City metro area. From Mike Morgan providing information about the path of the tornado from the weather studio, Mike Bennett and Emily Sutton for tracking the tornado on the ground, John Welsh tracking the tornado from the station's news helicopter, and Linda Cavanaugh providing information on the schools that were in the path of the tornado.
I've lived in Oklahoma all my life and saw several tornadoes but, this monster was the 1st one I ever heard. My wife & I were in our shelter in Moore and it was coming from the SW coming straight at us. It then took a right turn going east, 1/3 mile south of us. I'll never forget that day.
Wow!
That's intense! Quite the terrifying experience!
@@julieb6512- Hi Julie! Terrifying is the perfect word.
@OkieMikester I was in one back in 2008 in Colorado, working in a warehouse when the power went out, I looked out the door and a rain wrapped tornado was coming at us! That was one time in my life I felt face to face with the possibility of death. Like you said, terrifying!
@@julieb6512 since Colorado doesn't get many tornadoes, how in the world were you able to recognize a rain-wrapped one? I believe you, of course, but how? After watching a few videos on YT showing these, I don't think I'd be able to recognize one if it knocked on my door. 😲
I live in a place where there aren't many tornadoes, too, btw.
Watching this nearly 9 years later for the first time. Absolute chills that people were watching this go down as I was in the shelter completely unaware of how violent the tornado actually was. I remember getting out of the shelter and seeing nothing but rubble and cops running around making sure everyone was okay. So crazy it doesn’t feel real almost.
Living in OK is crazy because we dealt with tornadoes all the time. Everyone has shelters and you just learn to respect them and live with it. But I'll tell you right now - when you see the OKC weathermen get this serious, you know it's different. And that scares even people that deal with tornadoes all the time.
I've lived in OK for a good amount of my childhood, and you are absolutely correct. Even as an adult, tornado sirens scare me to death just from the amount of close calls I've had.
This video gave me goosebumps and made me tear up. I can't imagine being told I need to leave my home immediately or I could die.
I was in a tornado the day after christmas, and I had to resort hiding in a gas station. No one died in ours, but a lot of homes were lost
Bad weather headed towards my home. I’m stuck in Washington state. Called my wife in Arkansas and warned her. Her and the kids are fast asleep by now... but here I sit bouncing between this a livestream, and a weather radar making sure nothing creeps up on them... I teared up a few times watching this
yeah it’s i mean it’s sad
iGamerAlex Good thing youre all okay thou
And now in 2020 if you leave your house you die
I have repeated nightmares of being in a Tornado. I've never seen one in person.
Me too. Let's hope it never happens. Or if we're (un)lucky enough to see one, that it's nothing as monstrous and deadly like this
@@Lee-hk7rc dont worry were ok. No tornado since 2019
@@ohnojuno same here in Tulsa
@@neonflashsparkotron5435 yeah. The weather was really bad this morning
@@ohnojuno not in Tulsa, but we haven’t gotten any real tornadoes since May 2019. Yeah one tornado warning in April this year, but wasn’t a confirmed tornado. Same in okc and Moore I heard
I was 14 when this happened, I live in Oklahoma but lived hours away. However my family lived in Moore and lost their home, so we’d travel to help them build it back up. The damage was absolutely insane
Brilliant coverage by Mike Morgan and the KFOR storm chasers and helicopter crew.
I have a video of the tornado on my channel. I was a first responder at Plaza Towers Elementary. Even after nearly 8 years, I'm still dealing with the Ptsd from the trauma I experienced at that school that day.. Unimaginable. We need to make changes to our schools. Every single school should have adequate shelters for situations like this. I am a Moore resident born and raised, and proud. Seeing this happen to my community broke my heart. It was extremely unexpected and happened so quick. You never truly know when something like this may happen... Call your loved ones and tell them you love them.
I agree, it makes NO sense that schools in tornado alley are not REQUIRED to have adequate tornado shelters.
@@1nm1 That pisses me off. I have heard that the Moore city council has passed tougher building codes requiring all new structures in the city of Moore to have storm cellars or basements to avoid having to once again witness the horror and heartbreak of both May 20, 2013 and May 3, 1999. Never again!
Thank you for your service and I am so sorry you had to experience this
I’m so glad to say that every school in Moore has a storm shelter now.
@@Betterlattethannever307 Good to hear. It's tornadoes like this one in Moore, Oklahoma on May 20th, 2013 and the tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri on May 22nd, 2011 that make me a firm believer in and strong advocate for tough building codes that require all schools, nursing homes, businesses, public buildings, and places of worship to have storm shelters that can protect the people who use these places. Following the Joplin tornado; firefighters had to pull out residents and staff members of the Greenbriar Nursing Home.
My goodness I stumbled upon this. We have our own issues in New York but this is sobering. I’d be outta my element. These guys had great coverage and surely saved lives. Well done. 🙏
I never miss the news coverage when a tornado is going through, but school and bad internet stopped me from seeing this one. Thank you for putting this up so I could see what I missed
It's absolutely stunning that tornado shelters (above or below ground) aren't building code in OKC and surrounding communities.
Agree. It’s all about the money. No one-city, state or federal governments-want to absorb the cost of them. Shameful.
According to what I've read, people with newer houses deal with this by having a downstairs bathroom made super strong.
Do the rest of the states in Tornado Alley have requirements for storm shelters?
@@breannaalger9585I live in north Texas, on the Oklahoma border. And unfortunately, not here. No basements either. If you have a storm shelter, you have to pay for it yourself. Wish they were standard for every home. Tornado season can be a very scary time of year for us.
Especially in the schools! It's unfathomable to me that schools (especially in Moore ... And especially after the 1999 tornado) don't have underground shelters available for the children and teachers!
Mike Morgan is my favorite meteorologist,
"Drive south"
"Sink Drain"
"Maxi"
"Gate to gate"
"Wind shear"
"Mile marker 119"
"May 3rd"
"Wedges"
"Tornado Emergency"
"Grinder"
"Mezzo"
"Low Level Lock"
"Out of the way"
"Moore"
"Violent Rotation"
"Debris Ball"
"Double Box"
The ability to rate tornadoes just by looking at them
Double box is actually a broadcasting term which calls for 2 shots in graphical boxes through the video switcher
I almost died from alcohol poisoning 6 different times in 2013 because of the tornado outbreak that year and playing the weatherman drinking game. Then me and a friend got side swiped by the El Reno tornado while we were playing the weatherman drinking game. It was exhausting. David Payne was our guy we watched.
... If I'd have watched Mike Morgan I'd be dead for sure.
Don't forget: "Take a Quaalude Val"
Well... We were just sitting in a house. The damn tornado came right to us. Imagine our luck!
@@bradbiggs4283 🎶 why you always lyin', stop fuckin lyin' 🎶
I live in Boston, but when I heard that a tornado was about to hit the OKC area, I went online and was able to watch coverage from KFOR, KOCO, and KWTV, streamed online from their respective websites.
All three stations did a magnificent job, and should be given special Emmy Awards for their coverage.
It may have been the worst weather disaster in recent Oklahoma history, but also the finest hour in the history of Oklahoma City's television stations.
Their reporting saved hundreds of lives.
Proud to live in Moore Oklahoma. We have the best weatherman in the world. Tornadoes unfortunately are going to happen. But we all come together and pick up the pieces. We are Moore strong. RIP to the 7 kids at plaza towers and all the other casualties and injuries. So sad. Lord help us.
Moore, Oklahoma seems like a nice place to live and raise a family. The people there seem like they are very kind and caring people who are very nice and helpful for their friends and neighbors.
@@michaellovely6601 it’s awesome here. Haven’t had a tornado in Moore in 7 years.
@@snuffedtorch3683 That's a good thing for you guys in Moore.
@@snuffedtorch3683 you guys deserve that 7 year breath of peace. as an oklahoman i’d do anything for my fellow oklahomans during nature’s fury as everyone else would🙏
@@dyphrexLike what a lot of people tend to say; it's the Oklahoma Standard. You put yourself last and those before you come first.
I was at school in Norman (10 miles from Moore ) and we went on lockdown. I almost skipped school to go see a movie at warren theatre which was in the direct path of the tornado. These storms are beyond scary. Mike Morgan is my dude.
Ryan Steinmeyer what school did you go to in Norman because I have lived in norman all my life and at that time i went to jackson elementary but now i go to longfellow
I was in Moore and we lived extremely close to the warren
I can't imagine the amount of fear among the employees and guests at both the Warren Theater and the Newcastle Casino. At least the staff at the Warren Theater and the Newcastle Casino did as they were trained to do in the event of a tornado and got the moviegoers at the Warren Theater and the guests at the Newcastle Casino to safety. I also cannot imagine how terrified the motorists on both Interstate 44 and Interstate 35 were when they heard the weather bulletin on their car radios.
Now u don't skip school?
This brings back very painful/fearful memories. I live in Moore but I was in Norman at the time for work business. I was for certain my house/neighborhood was going to get hit. The direction it was going, there's just no way. The closest I was able to get to my house once I got into Moore was 19th St, so I ended up getting out of my car and walking to my house. To my surprise, everything was still intact. The tornado missed my house by half a mile ( which, by the grace of God or just plain eerie, was the case for May 3rd 1999 and May 8th 2003 ). Still, my town was torn apart. It was a horrible sight. It took awhile for us to rebuild but we did. My fondest memory after the fact was everyone getting together to help out and clean up. It was beautiful, to see everyone working with each other.
I wonder how many lives Mike Morgan, the weatherman, saved that day? Many.
Carl West This guy is not a saint, he could have killed people... This was also the same guy who told people to take I-40 south to get out of the way of the tornado.
Saxie81 Armchair quarterbacking is easy. These guys do the best they can under extreme and unpredictable circumstances. I wouldn't want the job!
He went out on a limb, and told people to do something he shouldn't have. Where is it in the handbook where it says I should leave my house if a tornado is coming.
Saxie81 IIRC, he was specifically addressing those without basements or underground shelters. I heard him say that an interior room wasn't gonna cut it in this situation, and I believe it! There were probably folks who lost their lives in the '99 twister because they thought they were safe in their bathrooms. No piece of advice is 100% foolproof, and everyone learns from experience. What I took from his advice was that staying put in an above-ground structure in the path of an EF5 is pretty much a death sentence and probably not a good idea IF you have enough lead time to take other precautions.
There's no way people without a basement could have survived this, which is why they declared a tornado emergency... When he told them to get in their car and drive away, the people had 9 minutes... He gave people who had no means of safety a chance, and what's wrong with telling them to go south? The tornado/storm was moving at an east north east motion. Look at the children that passed away when their school (no shelter) took a direct hit... If it wasn't against policy, and had they had taken his advice....they may have had a better chance of survival. I mean no disrespect to anyone there by bringing up those who passed away. God bless.
The chief meteorologist there in the studio is great at directing verbal traffic from his guys in the field, while he himself is reading new info coming in. Great job!
I love and hate Reed Timmer. I love that he's always on top of these things, I hate it when I see him in my town b/c oh dear God!! But I'm glad he's on top of tornadoes.
kimdkus "Ahh! It's Reed! Everybody take shelter!"
superspoon LOL!! yeap, that's right.
kimdkus Imagine when Reed AND Jim Cantore show up. You know it'll get bad. I've had both of them PLUS Team Twistex (Rest in peace) in my town, all at the same time.
G Scarlatti Oh hon, that's when you RUN!!! FAST!!!! REAL FAST!!!!!
kimdkus Reed Timmer actually lives in Moore, OK if I'm not mistaken.
I called my brother Sal who lived in Moore. He lived right near the Warren theatre. My brother and his son Cap was taking shelter in the bathroom. After the tornado hit he was busy picking up debri . He was suprised to find a one hundred dollar bill in the backyard . He told me it was a powerful tornado. I'm so glad they survived. He was kind and helped his neighbors. Unfortanetly he passed 7 yrs later.
I couldn't imagine the insanity of trying to live thru such a violent storm as that was. Glad they made out ok also sorry to hear he passed away
An extreme thunderstorm was passing over our home in 1994 (springtime in AR) and was putting down a tornado. We went to our basement and lightning struck outside our home, ran down that rock wall, and struck me while I was holding our children who were just born and 3 yr old daughter. To this day, I am terrified of storms and never take chances during these storms. We moved from the area (1500 miles away) where it's just hurricanes to contend with. We do at least get a 7-day warning with those and our camper is our shelter as we drive away from the danger zone. God be with everyone who still lives in tornado alley.
In 85, My mom was 12 for the niles/wheatland tornado. and her family moved out of Ohio about a year later. Tornados still trigger her
An earthquake springs up in seconds, triggers tsunamis, truly terrifying, and is unescapable unless you are airborne. Tornadoes are also terrifying, and fast, but you escape by going underground or fleeing fast; the latter goes for volcanoes as well, which are stationary. A tornado has only minutes of warning; a volcano has days/weeks but its effects spread far beyond its destructive range, possibly being global. A hurricane can be predicted weeks in advance and only affects the parts it hits.
Hurricanes are by far the easiest natural disaster to personally deal with.
Definitely would do the same.
I think, even in this 45 minutes of this coverage, the sense of the longivity of the storm is incredible. Sometimes with edited footage, you miss this aspect. Humbling!
Kudos to these news people who keep reporting like this even when they know their own family or house might be affected.
I remember getting home from school, I was in middle school and I’m fascinated with weather so I turned the weather channel on since I live in texas I couldn’t watch KFOR, but I remember they would pull up their coverage sometimes. The words that struck me the most was from the national weather service with the tornado emergency they issued that said “storm is unsurvivable above ground” chilling words
Thank you for an excellent job reporting the exact location, speed and direction of the entire tornado. Extra special thanks to your ground people and the crew in the helicopter who risked their lives by staying so close to it - making sure others would be informed enough to know when to flee. It most certainly gave a short window of time for at least some of the people to move out of its path or get to a safe place. One heck of a job - well done!
I remember this tornado vividly. I was in 1st grade and the last one to be checked out at my school (I live in Moore) the tornado was standing still in front of my house a little miles away but, it turned and went to the other part of neighborhood. Yes tornadoes do sound like freight trains. I’m still so thankful to be alive.
Yooooooo at 19:01 is right by house!!! I had no idea it was exactly that bad!!!!!!!
Anytime a Tornado Warning is issued; always listen for the sounds of a tornado. A tornado typically emits the sound of a dull roar or a scream; somewhat like a slow moving freight train or a low flying jet.
@@paige9769 also If a tornado Is stood still that's it possibly moving towards you or away that's if it's not going left or right I live in the UK and these things are crazy in OKC the worst one in the UK was in the city of Birmingham in 2005 and I think that was an EF3 Id love to hunt these down I was in a tornado area South of London that's where I'm from there was one there no where near as bad as the US one but did a fare amount of damage EF1 I think that was last year 2021
@@paige9769 can we smash?
@@michaellovely6601Anytime a tornado warning is issued, take cover and don’t wait for the tornado before it’s too late
My boyfriend was inside of Warren Theater when this all happened. He said it was the most terrifying thing he has ever experienced.
+Tiki Torch 😔I'm sorry to hear that
@@tikitorch1093 my mom was in the 85 Niles/Newton falls/wheatland tornado. Moved out of tornado valley to Maryland, bought a house with a basement and every tornado warning we had to sit in there. And our state has only had 2 tornados my whole life (both babies). She's just not willing to risk it
Huge Thank you To ALL at KFOR. They all did an excellent job (as always!) tracking this unbelievable storm. This helped save many lives. Unfortunate that many did not make it. RIP to them, and peace to the families who lost their loved ones.
Crazy day for sure. I was working for a realtor that day at a house a few miles north ahead of the storm. I came outside and got the most eery feeling looking up at the unstable clouds. Decided to drive south to my boss's house since she had a shelter, she lived near May & 134th. Got to her shelter just in time and will never forget the sound of it as it passed half a mile to our south. I also rode out the May 3rd tornado in Del City when I was 7, that one passed so quickly. What was terrifying about May 20 was how long it seemed to take to pass by. I will never forget the roaring.
time stamps for notable progression of the tornado, and just general footage/commentary moments that give me chills:
8:21 storm further intensified in speed and power, significant power flashes
11:12 impressive radar scans
11:51 mike warns west moore high school that it is in the tornados path
14:23 "interior closet or bathroom? don't."
18:15 "you can't be in an interior closet or bathroom. don't lose your life"
Absolutely grade A coverage by this entire team. Huge props to them. Great instruction on telling them interior rooms would not save and you need a safe room or to be underground or out of the way, with tornados this strong, that is the correct instruction.
Never lived in Oklahoma, but the word got around that this tornado was on national TV because of just how powerful the tornado was and the devastation it was leaving in its path, I was watching this live on TV here in Fresno, Califonia I wont forget what I saw and the aftermath seeing the destruction it left behind, I was 15 years old and still in High School. By the way if live news coverage of a tornado airs on national TV you know it’s horrendous.
Watching this and the El Reno tornado coverage made me want to become a meteorologist. I wanna be able to go out there and save lives🙏
same. I’m studying broadcast meteorology and taking in how they handle these situations in case I ever need to work one LOL
This station has the best tornado coverage I've seen for a local TV channel.
I remember this day well. I lived in Moore Oklahoma at the time. I was for 4 years old. I remember that meteorologist and the things he said. What happened to me I didn’t feel well that day so I decided to stay home. That day we kept getting reports of tornadoes that may hit Moore ( I don’t remember exactly). We didn’t really think much of it so my dad went to the store. I ended up falling asleep. Then, I just see the sky get dark. I then hear my front door open so I go downstairs and find out my dad came home. I give him a hug and then we both walk into the living room we’re my mom is. She says turn on the tv so my dad does just that. We get a tornado warning on my parents’ phones and on my iPad and hear the wind whistling outside. So we get our supplies for survival and then we go to the storm shelter. My parents go to the storm shelter first and then go. Just as I go to the storm shelter. I look out the window and see Briarwood get hit. We then hear low roar of the tornado I cover my head and my parents clutch onto me. As the tornado is over us and my mom says “ pray just pray and then everything will ok.” The next I know the storm shelter door gets ripped off. Something hits the back of my head and I blackout. When I wake up the tornado is over and I’m underneath a bunch of debris. So I call for help and people pull me out I ask for were my parents out they say they don’t know and then they put me on an ambulance. I’m bleeding from my head and my arms. The next thing I see is my parents climbing up out of the debris my dad and my mom are both bleeding from their arms. My parents see my and both hug me. My dad says “ We survived the tornado”. That’s all I remember from that day. I survived the Moore Oklahoma and Joplin Missouri tornados. I now live in Lancaster Pennsylvania. The days when I lived in Moore and Joplin were truly terrifying.
Still as intense and scary to see after all these years. Thanks to all the people who heroically cover these events.
Great coverage by the meteorologists and the helicopter pilot. I live in Illinois, and we have tornadoes, but they are baby shit compared to this. God bless the people of Moore and those who lost their lives. I couldn't imagine living through this.
Illinois gets plenty of violent tornadoes, including the deadliest tornado in the nation’s history (tri-state tornado). Oklahoma gets some of the worst and most frequent tornadoes but historically Illinois is nothing to sneeze at.
Two of the worst tornadoes to hit Illinois in the modern age are the tornadoes that tore through Plainfield, Illinois on August 28th, 1990 and Washington, Illinois on November 17th, 2013. The latter is particularly shocking to me because you never expect a tornado to strike that late in the year. Ohio (the state I live in) saw a really bad tornado hit Dayton during the Memorial Day tornado outbreak of 2019. My mom lived through the 1974 outbreak and saw the destruction of the tornado that hit Xenia, Ohio. She told me that Xenia looked like a war zone in Vietnam after the tornado.
In addition to what the others mentioned, there was a tornado in 1967 in northern IL that killed several children as school was getting out in Belvidere IL & Oaklawn, IL. I was in the first grade and remember the sirens that started at the end of the school day in my town and again after mom put us kids to bed. We ended up getting into our car and went to my grandma’s house and stayed in the basement awhile.
I sit here today in 2023 with tears in my eyes as I watch this and hear Mike’s urgent, worry-filled words, I cry not only for the people affected, but all the animals that were killed and injured, as well. They are typically the forgotten victims and helpless in saving themselves. 😭
It’s a UA-cam video, chill.
Everybody forgets the innocent animals. Just sad all together. Amazing
@@KyleSmith-ze3vv It was a traumatic event and people died. Have some class.
@@mikejames3242What about the innocent people? People with friends and family they left behind? Hm?
@@TheManWhoAteTheWorld they literally mentioned people in the comment
I'd seen this footage on YT several years ago and had been trying to find it for a few months (off and on). I'm glad I finally found it!
This is one of a few tornado warnings I've watched that took my breath away and made me cry for those people. I'm glad this weatherman emphasized the extreme importance of getting out of this monster's way and getting underground. Wow!
Thank you to all the news and weathermen for saving countless lives. You are heroes in my opinion.
It’s amazing to watch true professionals covering this instead of storm chasers cheering on the formation of a funnel
Rob yeah
Besides the professionals on tv the only storm chaser I’ll ever watch is Pecos Hank. He’s excellent
@@SynGates-bm5pw Pecos does such a good job. Tells a story instead of just screaming "TORNADO ON THE GROUND!!!!". I know people get excited, all of us severe weather nerds do, but I find it so distracting when people shout and repeat themselves the whole time. Pecos really is the pinnacle of storm chasing entertainment.
The call out for people to flee or go underground is chilling. He was right, interior room is not enough safety.
Dixey Alley stations need to use this as the benchmark, perhaps a training video. KFOR does an amazing job. They don't miss a beat. Well done. Clearly the best in the business.
I ran the moore/norman route for several years with a trucking company. They cared about freight over my life and I can personally attest to that. Somehow that day I was doing an out of town route. I remember being 100 miles west of the storm in New Cordell and looking at that monster thinking I could of been in that. Suddenly, the town i delivered so much freight in looked like a war zone. Some of the businesses I delivered to were gone. I helped with the cleanup a little. The response was massive. What a day. Tomorrow will be the ten year anniversary. RIP to those who didn't make it.
I can see why the ancient people thought that these disasters where gods. This tornado reminded me of something of mythology. I drove through ground zero the day after and got to film a fraction of the devistation!
They call these things "fingers of God".
Bert Hutto dead man walking?
There are still some people (Jerry Falwell, while dead, comes to mind) who do. I lovingly refer to them as lunatics.
Adventures of Will and Shelby From what I've heard, the "Dead Man Walking" is what the Natives called the sub-vorticies of a particularly nasty tornado for two reasons: The first is that it can look like a ghost running across the plains. The second is that if you saw one, you, too, would likely become one given that things such as "sturdy shelters" didn't exist at the time.
@@jimmyseaver3647 An example of the term "Dead Man Walking" is the tornado that hit Jarrell, Texas on May 27, 1997.
HUGE shoutout to this meteorologist, did an excellent job of being as informative and helpful as he could be
God bless this meteorologist. I think he saved a lot of lives that day.
I witnessed the El Reno tornado on 5/31/13 from 3 miles away but I never saw anything as bad as this. The El Reno tornado was mostly over farmland and didn't cause as much damage as this one. I live in Louisiana and very rarely do we get a tornado. The last tornado I saw was on 2/23/16
If the el Reno hit a bigger city I think it could of been worst then the Moore tornado.
I was in Moore on the 21st. It was devastating the damage that tornado caused. Made me cry for all the people that lost everything. Just horrible. I've never seen anything like that.
Dude I haven’t had cable in over 10 years but this gives me flashbacks of my childhood. My family sitting in the living room watching the news. It terrified me when I was a kid.
they always say an interior closet or closed off area like a bathroom is safe if you don't have a basement, but when they tell you that isn't safe either, and you have next to zero time to find a place underground, what the hell do you even do at that point? oh my god, that's horrifying.
I was 1 hour ahead of this. I picked up a motorcycle in Newcastle and drove it to Kansas. The old lady was freaking out in the car behind me! I got hit with a couple pieces of hail leaving Newcastle.
We stopped in El Reno for some onion burgers and saw the devastation. We were lucky!
The finest severe weather coverage I've EVER seen.
This is so eerie to watch, just knowing how much destruction was actually happening in all those moments.
I watched this tornado live on the weather channel. I was terrified of even your normal thunderstorms at the time due to the huge scare from the 2011 tornado outbreak, but it sparked my fascination.
The fact that you couldn't even make out the shape of the funnel because of its size and debris radius is freaking terrifying
Yeah, they also often get rain wrapped. It's caused by RFD (Rear flank downdraft). Basically wind from the mid level of the atmosphere decends and spirals around the tornado funnel, shielding it in rain. They can be incredibly deadly in places like Alabama due to the trees, hills, and the fact that rain wrapped tornadoes are much more common East of the plains.
Also why tornadoes at night are scary as hell, because you can't see it.
spoiler alert it didn't take out the newcastle casino
If I'd know that my butt would have been hanging or by the coin scooper machine lol
Glad to here that the people in the casinos lives were spared
Spoiler alert: The Warren theater was not destroyed
Spoiler Alert: It missed KFC
@@formula1enthusiast799 Spoiler alert: Your mom.
The victims of this tornado had worked so hard all their lives to get what they have, and then, in an instant, it was all gone. I can’t even begin to imagine the nightmares and sorrow. I hope they are all doing better now and that everything is rebuilt. ❤️❤️🇺🇸🇺🇸
Everyone on here has commended the Oklahoma City news coverage for being the best with tornado coverage and tornado warnings. It's like how the Japanese have perfected their ability to warn and keep people safe with earthquakes and tsunamis--practice makes perfect! If you get an F5 monster every decade, and smaller, less destructive tornadoes practically every spring and summer, you will get really good at reporting them and keeping the public safe.
Plus; Japan has one of the most advanced earthquake early warning systems in the world. It detects tremors, calculates the epicenter, and sends out warnings from seismographs. The Japan Meteorological Agency is responsible for issuing the warnings; and they do so by sending alerts to TV channels, radio stations, Internet sites, and mobile phone networks. When the infamous magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck eighty miles off the northeastern coast of Japan on March 11, 2011; warnings were generated in three seconds. The tsunami warnings were issued three minutes later. These take longer to issue because there are more complex calculations involved and ocean data has to be factored into the equation. Though because the first tsunami waves struck the Japanese coastline within twenty minutes of the earthquake; the advanced warning provided some residents in the area with crucial minutes to get away from coastal areas or riversides and get to high ground. The system also halted the Shinkansen bullet trains across the country, suspended operations of the Tokyo subway system, halted surgeries in progress at hospitals, and closed off all expressways as well as giving automatic shutdown orders to all factories, oil refineries, lumber mills, steel mills, and power plants. Nissan has an assembly plant in Iwaki, Japan; when the earthquake struck, the system gave automatic shutdown orders so the employees could stop the assembly lines and shut down the production equipment in order to safely evacuate the facility.
I remember watching this unfold live, some of the best reporting of a storm I have seen. Those heli cams were amazing!!!
I remember watching this storm go from small rain shower to massive supercell in about 15 minutes. Crazy
omg you and that picture :D
Pologonzo LOL. I wonder how many people spazzed out and hit their computer screen.
me to
Me too. I watched it explode from my backyard.
@@ilovethetampabaylightning92 No one
I'll never forget that day. I was headed west on Highway 33, just south of Stillwater. We got to the top of a hill with a valley below us and my wife started screaming. I looked to my left and could see that tornado 50-70 miles away and I pulled my truck over and watched it. We both cried because we knew hundreds of people were dying if we could see that tornado from that far off. I drove through Moore the next day and there was just nothing left in the line of that storm.