(Newswire.net — May 22, 2013) Cincinnati, OH — On Sunday May 19th an F4 class tornado hit the Oklahoma City area doing massive damage and killing 24 people, 9 of which were children. Nineteen of the total fatalities were in Moore, five were in Oklahoma City.
The tornado has been possibly been classed now as an F5 on the Fujita scale with winds over 210 mph and covered a path of 17 miles long and 1.3 miles wide for about 50 minutes. The estimated damage is expected to be over $3 billion.
“One of the most destructive tornados in history,” Obama said
The president has declared a major disaster in Oklahoma, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts. He is offering prayers and said there’s a long road of recovery ahead. But he said the victims won’t travel alone and will have the resources they need.
For More on the: Oklahoma Twister
As dangerous as these storms are with high winds, heavy rain, hail, trees snapping like tooth picks and entire towns being destroyed you’d think everyone would run for cover. This is true for most but not the “storm chasers”.
People have always been fascinated with storms and now in this day and age everyone has access to a video camera built right into their cell phone. So what would make someone risk their lives simply to catch a storm on video?
Some do it for the thrill of the moment, to show their friends the video tape for months to come or to just throw it up on YouTube and share with the world. This can often be very dangerous to those who have not studied the weather patterns to know that the storm might just shift on a dime and head their direction.
Professional storm chasers on the other hand use a very methodical practice that requires lots of time spent studying weather data, driving around and waiting for long periods for something to record. One could spend 12 hours and never see a storm.
Lawrence McEwen, a professional storm chaser, captures the power of the F5 tornado that hits Oklahoma City. In the video the tornado crosses the road in front of them and lets us see both the beauty of nature and also its destructive force.