Two friends in Key West, Florida use Facebook Live to broadcast their harrowing experience aboard their boat during Hurricane Irma; storm chasers capture rare footage of a deadly tornado in Mississippi on Easter Sunday, 2020.
00:00 Hurricane Irma
21:25 Mississippi Easter Tornado
Season 2 Episode 1
Credits to The Weather Channel.
00:00 Hurricane Irma
21:25 Mississippi Easter Tornado
Season 2 Episode 1
Credits to The Weather Channel.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00On a Caribbean island, a couple escapes to a neighbor's house during a Category 5 hurricane.
00:07You could hear giant timbers landing on the roof. You could hear the shriek of the wind.
00:12Suddenly, the house is no longer a shelter.
00:15One of the windows gave way. Everything was flying. It was just absolute chaos.
00:21It was like a living thing bent on tearing everything apart.
00:26A thousand miles away, two friends will ride out the hurricane on their boat,
00:31streaming their experience live on social media.
00:35I've seen a guy's solar panel get ripped off of his boat, smashed into the neighbor's boat.
00:39I'm not going to lie, it's been specking the hell out of us all night.
00:42Mother f***er! Hang in there, baby!
00:55Key West, Florida.
01:01At the southernmost tip of the continental United States,
01:05Ryan Stone and Dustin Greer, friends and business partners,
01:09enjoy the area's laid-back, freewheeling lifestyle.
01:13I like to call Key West the island of misfits.
01:17So many of us ended up here by some type of a calamity.
01:21We're all here to get away from something and to focus on something else,
01:25which is what the Keys has to offer.
01:27What's the one saying, we're all here because we're not all there?
01:30It's the world's largest outdoor insane asylum.
01:35Ryan and Dustin are living on the hook, a local expression meaning residing on a boat.
01:41Ryan owns a small fleet of sail and powerboats for rentals and tours.
01:46Boat life has pros and cons, you know. It's a really beautiful scene.
01:50It's nice to wake up in the morning and you've got dolphins right there.
01:53But it's really cramped on a small boat.
01:57And eventually I found a much bigger boat for sale, which was Andromeda.
02:01About a year or two after I got down here is when I met Dustin.
02:05I showed up and then everything went terribly wrong.
02:07Right. It's made me question our relationship since then.
02:14Eleven hundred miles from Key West lies the Caribbean island of St. John.
02:19In 2017, Rob Rodgerson retires here with his girlfriend, Michelle McConville.
02:25A lifelong sailor, Rob buys his own boat, Pepper, to charter for snorkeling and pleasure trips.
02:32And in early September, he and Michelle have just begun working as caretakers on an idyllic property.
02:39It was just a beautiful island home, perched on top of a hill about a hundred feet above Coral Bay,
02:45which is on the east end of St. John.
02:47So it had a gorgeous view of the bay.
02:50This is a monster storm. There's no other way to put it.
02:52And before it roars towards our shores, it's barreling towards the island.
02:57That's when the couple gets word of a hurricane brewing in the Atlantic called Irma.
03:04Poised to become the strongest hurricane potentially on record in the Atlantic Basin.
03:10Of course, for Rob, a native Floridian, hurricanes are nothing new.
03:14I've lived through Hurricane David and Katrina and Andrew.
03:18Either direct impacts or heartbreaking scares from those storms.
03:22So Rob and Michelle hunker down and come up with a strategy to handle the hurricane.
03:28When and if it hits St. John.
03:31We made the plan to weather the first part of the storm, the upper level of our house,
03:36where we could view the bay and the hillsides through a small window that was not shuttered up.
03:44And our plan was to go downstairs into our caretaker apartment and hide in the bathroom when the storm winds became the strongest.
03:53On Tuesday, September 5th in Key West, Ryan Stone and Dustin Greer are finalizing their own plans to ride out Irma.
04:01We were going to tie all of the boats into big long chains and take them out to Mexico
04:06with the understanding that if the worst case scenario, the hurricane comes to the keys and heads towards Mexico,
04:13we just go south because the hurricane cannot go south. It'll only go north.
04:18But with Irma's path still unclear, they're leaning against going out to sea.
04:23I thought about it. What are my other options?
04:25And that's when it hit me. The best place for me to ride out a storm is the place I already know.
04:30So Ryan and Dustin decide to tough it out right in Key West on their boat, the Andromeda.
04:37Andromeda is a steel-hulled, catch-rig sailboat. It was built in 1976, 68 feet long overall, 67 tons of displacement.
04:48Heavy.
04:49Very heavy, very strong boat.
04:51It was the safest place on that island. Of course, everyone's yelling at us.
04:55Everyone's yelling at us. We're getting phone call after phone call after message after message.
04:58Get out of there. Get out of there. Get out of there.
05:00We're here in Key West still. We're not planning to go anywhere.
05:04To let friends and family know they're safe, Dustin and Ryan start posting video messages to Facebook Live.
05:11It's all empty here. Florida's in a state of emergency.
05:14We're working on getting the boats stowed away, put everything down below just in case the storm changes path,
05:18does come this way, it's going to get, it will get ugly.
05:21The next day, Wednesday, September 6th, 2017, Hurricane Irma roars into the Caribbean Sea and strikes the island of St. John.
05:31Approaching noon, we got clouds. The wind went up to 30 miles an hour.
05:36And it was exciting to look at the trees swaying in the breeze.
05:40We were actually enjoying watching the power of nature.
05:44Nervous?
05:45Doing good so far, although it's a little scary.
05:49And at about one o'clock, as the wind got up to hurricane strength, the pressure started dropping.
05:56The dropping barometric pressure had our ears popping, was giving us headaches.
06:02And we knew that we were going to be in for a really wild ride.
06:08Rob and Michelle realize they're no longer safe in the main house.
06:13They need to evacuate to the caretaker's house below them.
06:16We decided to go down to our lower level where we thought we'd be safe,
06:19and we went out in the storm and went downstairs,
06:23and there was an awning down that was blocking the door to our lower level.
06:29So with the wind swirling around them, Rob and Michelle decide their only option
06:34is to get to their neighbor's house, 150 feet away.
06:40There was flying debris, broken branches flying through the air,
06:43the rain was going sideways, and the wind was shrieking.
06:46We kept really low, and we half crawled, half ran to the neighbor's home
06:51where we could see them motioning to us to come inside and find shelter with them.
06:57Inside the house, Rob and Michelle find three of their neighbors huddled upstairs
07:02with a terrified dog and cat.
07:06The wind kept increasing, and you could hear bits of our home coming apart
07:11and crashing next to the house we could shelter in.
07:14You could hear giant timbers landing on the roof.
07:17You could hear the shriek of the wind.
07:19It was like a living thing that was just bent on tearing everything apart.
07:24And at one point, one of the vent windows gave way and blew in.
07:30And then the hurricane was in the house, and just everything was flying.
07:35It was just absolute chaos.
07:40And on Key West...
07:42We're testing the rig of the day!
07:44Ryan and Dustin will soon get hammered by Irma 2 and broadcast the experience live.
07:50We were watching the boats breaking loose from the moorings
07:53and crashing into each other, just bam, watching them sink.
07:58Oh, s***! Hang in there, baby. It's a little bit longer.
08:11In September 2017, Hurricane Irma is battering the Caribbean island of St. John.
08:17Rob Rogerson and his girlfriend Michelle have taken refuge with their next-door neighbors.
08:23But now, Irma is tearing the neighbor's house apart.
08:27We knew that our last option to save our own lives
08:31was to go to the lower level of that home,
08:35which was only accessible by an exterior staircase.
08:38So it was either go down that staircase, or stay upstairs and die.
08:45It was the six of us, and a cat, and a dog.
08:48And the dog was a very obedient dog, so you knew he was going to follow us.
08:52The cat was freaked out, and the only thing we could think of was to put him in a pillowcase.
08:56Which, try putting a cat in a pillowcase in a Category 5 hurricane,
09:00and you got yourself a party.
09:02So Rob and Michelle venture back out into the fury of the hurricane,
09:06this time with their neighbors.
09:08It was absolutely terrifying.
09:10There was no guarantees that we were going to live through that thing.
09:14We finally got down to the lower level, and we got inside,
09:18and the place was absolutely covered in blood.
09:21They find themselves in the apartment of an elderly man who's badly injured.
09:26We found out that in trying to open the door,
09:30We found out that in trying to open the door,
09:32he had cut his arm badly, and he was bleeding all over the place.
09:36So then we put furniture up against the door,
09:40deadbolted it, and then tended to his wounds.
09:45The whole time it sounded like monsters stomping around, trying to get at us.
09:50It was indescribable, the volume of the noise,
09:54and parts of homes crashing all around us.
09:56It was just crazy.
09:59After eight hours of pounding St. John,
10:02the Cat 5 storm heads northwest.
10:05The storm winds went down below hurricane strength just before sunset,
10:09and we knew we had to go outside and take a look.
10:15We got outside onto the balcony,
10:18and it was just absolute carnage.
10:22Every boat, save for two or three,
10:26was up on the rocks or sunk or up in a tree.
10:30Every structure that we could see
10:33was either partially or completely destroyed.
10:37Caretaker apartment.
10:39The caretaker apartment where Rob and Michelle were first planning to take refuge
10:43is obliterated.
10:45We all thought to ourselves,
10:47we're going to have to go door to door
10:50and go into body recovery mode.
10:53That's how bad it looked.
10:56Hurricane Irma nearly destroys St. John,
10:59and it shows no signs of weakening.
11:02As it rages toward the Florida Keys,
11:04Ryan Stone and Dustin Greer have finished rigging Andromeda.
11:09Hey guys, we're still here in Key West.
11:11Picking up winds right now.
11:13They feel definitely in excess of 40 knots.
11:16I'm going to show you the rigging that we got done on here.
11:19Sorry for the wind.
11:20Suffered through it, was it?
11:21Started running out of rope.
11:23We're pretty much tied on to anything we can get on to.
11:27Hopefully it's enough.
11:29With their preparations done,
11:31Ryan and Dustin can only hunker down and wait.
11:34Starting to get some pretty serious wind now.
11:37I think the wind gusts, they're saying they're upwards of 70 miles an hour.
11:42It definitely feels that way.
11:44If you've been keeping up on my posts,
11:46you'll see there's my boats in the harbor outside the breaker wall there
11:51Coming loose, smashing into each other.
11:55September 10th, midnight.
11:57165 miles northeast in Miami,
12:0023-year-old Tatiana Watkins, nine months pregnant,
12:04is with her boyfriend at his mother's apartment.
12:06Her baby is due tomorrow, but she was just sent home from the hospital.
12:11They say that the capacity was full.
12:13I stated that my due date was on September 11th,
12:17and she told me that, okay, everything will be okay.
12:19You can just still go home.
12:21As the night wears on, Irma is making its presence felt.
12:25We know a hurricane is coming because it's never that windy outside here.
12:30Soon as the hurricane started to roll in,
12:33I started to have contractions.
12:37Back at Key West, the wind is picking up around Ryan and Dustin.
12:41I went out to check on the lines,
12:44and I think they say the human body becomes airborne about 70 miles per hour.
12:49So I'm out there, and I'm holding on to the lifelines,
12:53pulling myself to the bow.
12:56There was things getting picked up out of the water by the winds
12:59and bringing them to us.
13:00We were hearing it, boom, boom, boom.
13:04Every time you hear it, you're like, what was that? What was that?
13:07Granted, I keep saying I'm in the safest spot I can possibly be in
13:10if I'm going to be in a boat at all.
13:12But that aside, it's still scary, you know?
13:15The best way I can describe the feeling is
13:18when you strap yourself into a roller coaster,
13:21and the roller coaster's not moving yet,
13:23but you know that this is about to get scary,
13:25and then it starts to move.
13:26You feel that go.
13:27We're locked in. There's no getting off.
13:31In Miami, Tatiana's contractions are getting closer together,
13:35but her boyfriend is sound asleep.
13:37I was throwing stuff at him to see if he'll wake up,
13:40but I couldn't move.
13:41I felt like the contraction was going to come faster,
13:43so I had to get up and punch him.
13:46I've had the contractions. It hurts.
13:48I feel like something is right there.
13:50With Irma bearing down on Miami,
13:52Tatiana and her boyfriend call 911 for an ambulance
13:56to take her to the hospital.
13:57They couldn't come get us because of the winds.
13:59It was too hot for the truck to be out.
14:03You can hear the wind.
14:04It sounded like a train coming down the street.
14:07You can actually hear it.
14:08It was whistling.
14:11But the howling wind is no match for Tatiana's screaming.
14:14Then she sees the shocked look on her boyfriend's face.
14:18He came back in the room, and he saw her head,
14:22and he really couldn't say anything to me
14:24because he just kept pointing, and his mouth was wide open.
14:26I'm like, what are you pointing at?
14:30He finally came out and was like, the baby.
14:33And I was like, what?
14:34And I put my hand there, and I was like, oh.
14:37Minutes later, Tatiana's baby girl, Destiny,
14:40is born amid a hurricane.
14:43What happened?
14:46She had the baby?
14:51We're going to watch the baby closely for three minutes,
14:54and we're going to tie the cord with a string.
14:56With Destiny bundled in her arms,
14:58Tatiana is anxious to get to the hospital,
15:01if an ambulance can reach her through the hurricane.
15:05Also battling anxiety, Ryan and Dustin in the Keys.
15:09Your biggest enemy is your fear.
15:12As soon as that grabs a hold of you,
15:14your chances of survival drops.
15:16You can't let yourself believe
15:18that you're not going to make it out of this.
15:20Looking at a category four.
15:30This September, revolutionary ideas
15:32and groundbreaking technology
15:34take center stage in New York City for Climate Week.
15:36We need to commit to drastic measures,
15:38both the long and short term.
15:40Stephanie Abrams provides you a front row pass.
15:42This year is all about getting it done.
15:44Climate Week, all week long,
15:46only on The Weather Channel and Pattern.
16:02♪
16:32♪
17:036 a.m. September 10, 2017, Key West, Florida.
17:10Irma, the most powerful hurricane in half a century,
17:13has been thrashing the island.
17:17From the harbor, Ryan Stone and Dustin Greer
17:20continue to live broadcast their experience
17:23aboard their boat, the Andromeda.
17:26Looking at a category four.
17:28It's been a wild ride, guys.
17:30I'm not going to lie.
17:32It's been specking the hell out of us all night.
17:34I seen a guy's solar panel get ripped off of his boat,
17:36smashed into the neighbor's boat.
17:38That's just right here in the harbor.
17:40Every time you see it, it puts that fear in you a little better,
17:42like that could have been you that that panel smashed into.
17:44I was just on the bow of the boat
17:46and almost got blown off.
17:48So it's getting a little bit hairy.
17:50All of the boats out in the harbor
17:52that are not in the protected harbor,
17:54those boats are smashing and crashing
17:56into each other now.
17:58At 7.30 a.m.,
18:00Ryan and Dustin lose their connection
18:02to the outside world.
18:07As the storm passes over Key West,
18:09it snakes its way north,
18:11up Florida's west coast,
18:14allowing an ambulance to finally get
18:16to Tatiana Watkins.
18:18The roads was flooded
18:20and it was like tree branches down.
18:22We're hitting them.
18:24I'm like, okay, when are we going to get to the hospital?
18:26I started to get nauseous.
18:28Upon arrival, Tatiana gives
18:30the hospital staff a first look
18:32at her daughter, Destiny,
18:34and discovers that she's a social media celebrity.
18:38Miami Rescue tweeted
18:40baby birth at home during hurricane
18:42and it just went viral
18:44and everybody from Kentucky
18:46to like everywhere was just
18:48calling the hospital like, can we talk to her?
18:50Can we see her?
18:56700 miles southeast
18:58on the island of St. John,
19:00Rob Rogerson volunteers for a search
19:02and rescue mission.
19:04The whole island made a point
19:06to go door to door and check on their neighbors
19:08and check on their friends and somebody brought out
19:10a dry erase board at a community center
19:12and we were writing the names one by one
19:14of the people that we had
19:16encountered that were safe.
19:18Then Rob and his girlfriend Michelle
19:20set out to find their newly purchased
19:22boat, Pepper.
19:26She was and there was only
19:2815 feet of her mask sticking
19:30out of the water. I felt like
19:32part of my heart was broken, but
19:34it was a thing and you can replace things.
19:36We looked at
19:38each other and we had 10 fingers and 10 toes
19:40and we knew that was
19:42the most important thing and we were so thankful
19:44to have each other
19:46after the storm and to see each other
19:48breathing.
19:50September
19:5211th, 2.57 p.m.
19:5430 hours after
19:56Ryan and Dustin's last live
19:58transmission, they're able to send
20:00a message to concerned family
20:02and some new fans. Hey guys.
20:04Hello. Made it out?
20:06Unbelievable what we just went
20:08through. One hell of a story.
20:10So horrified at what you guys
20:12must have been thinking. Sorry about that.
20:14Cell service got shut off. Power was
20:16shut off.
20:18In the end, Hurricane Irma
20:20claims 129
20:22lives in the U.S. and
20:24the Caribbean
20:26and causes
20:28$80 billion in
20:30damages.
20:38But not even Irma
20:40can chase Rob and Michelle
20:42off the island of St. John.
20:44Three years later, St. John
20:46is looking as beautiful as ever.
20:48We have salvaged
20:50our boat Pepper and have
20:52fully restored it into
20:54like new condition and we're now
20:56on the verge of starting charter trips
20:58of pursuing that dream
21:00once again.
21:06It's coming up.
21:08Where's it in? This is the biggest
21:10tornado I've ever seen in my life. A huge
21:12tornado tears through a tiny town
21:14on Easter Sunday.
21:16All we can do is brace our
21:18feet up and try not to get sucked out.
21:30A tornado
21:32more than two miles wide
21:34pulverizes a
21:36tiny town. Oh my God.
21:38Where's it in?
21:40As a father tries
21:42desperately to protect his children.
21:44The more they scream, the harder I push down
21:46on them. I just wrapped them up.
21:48The
21:50twister strengthens as
21:52they lose their grip on a mattress
21:54blocking the entrance of their storm shelter.
21:56All we can do is
21:58brace our feet up and
22:00try not to get sucked out.
22:06Saturday,
22:08April 11th, 2020.
22:10Moss, Mississippi.
22:12A small community
22:14of about a thousand people.
22:16Forty miles north of Hattiesburg.
22:18Moss is just
22:20a little hole in the wall.
22:22Andrew Phillips and his family moved
22:24into their new home here in 2019
22:26with the goal of buying up
22:28some old buildings and revitalizing
22:30local commerce.
22:32Back in the day, a lot of people knew
22:34where it was.
22:36They had a little town.
22:38Our goal was to bring Moss back
22:40on the map.
22:42As a volunteer firefighter, Andrew
22:44knows the importance of disaster
22:46preparedness, which is
22:48why he buys a home with a small
22:50storm shelter built into one of the
22:52kids' bedrooms.
22:54The storm shelter is probably four foot
22:56by four foot. It's all center
22:58blocks. It has rebar
23:00in it. It's got concrete
23:02poured in the center blocks, and it's
23:04two feet in the ground.
23:06On this day before Easter,
23:08having a storm shelter sounds like a good
23:10idea, with tornado warnings all
23:12across the southeast.
23:14Some of these thunderstorms could
23:16carry with them damaging winds. We may see
23:18lines of thunderstorms with maybe some embedded
23:20tornadoes, and also the possibility of
23:22long-track supercells that
23:24each one of these could carry with them that
23:26tornado risk.
23:28At the First Church of God, Pastor
23:30Paul Matt has been hearing the storm
23:32warnings. He decides to reschedule
23:34his Easter services, already
23:36a challenge in the middle of the
23:38coronavirus pandemic. We knew a storm
23:40was coming, and we were meeting outside
23:42because of the COVID restrictions. I was
23:44praying, you know, hold the storm off, and it
23:46didn't look like it would, so we moved our
23:48Easter service to Saturday.
23:50Just kind of spur-of-the-moment decision.
23:52We really had Easter service that
23:54Saturday night. Had a great time, you know, with
23:56all the fanfare of it.
23:58Easter Sunday.
24:00Jasper County Sheriff
24:02Randy Johnson wakes up to a
24:04beautiful, mild morning.
24:06Things are fine and dandy, you know,
24:08when I get up Sunday morning. We know a
24:10strong line of thunderstorms
24:12are coming, possibility of tornadoes.
24:14As the day went,
24:16we're watching the weather, and
24:18it's always getting worse and heading
24:20our way.
24:24500 miles west
24:26in Dallas, Texas, storm chaser
24:28Gage Shaw has been monitoring
24:30the weather reports for the past 72
24:32hours. For days in advance,
24:34you could see this storm system lining
24:36up in Mississippi, Alabama,
24:38Tennessee, South Carolina.
24:40All throughout the
24:42night, it was really crazy.
24:44Just 23 years
24:46old, Gage is trying to make
24:48it as a professional storm chaser,
24:50a dream since childhood.
24:52Ever since I was a little kid, I've been really
24:54intrigued by the weather.
24:56A severe storm,
24:58a mature supercell, is louder
25:00than anything you could ever hear.
25:02The tornadoes are more powerful than anything
25:04that you could ever imagine.
25:06As Gage and his chase partner
25:08prepare to head east to track these storms,
25:10they take added precautions.
25:12We were very worried about
25:14COVID-19 going into the chase.
25:16We packed 20 gallons of gas.
25:18I packed my ice chest. We had ice and
25:20drinks, and we tried to limit gas station
25:22stops as much as possible.
25:24As the storm chasers roll into
25:26Louisiana, their mission takes
25:28on new urgency.
25:30We were
25:32really nervous to stop anywhere,
25:34but we took a chance, and we stopped at the
25:36Whataburger in Shreveport.
25:38While we were there,
25:40the tornado sirens started going off.
25:42The lady gave us our food, and they promptly
25:44had to take shelter in the
25:46back area of the Whataburger.
25:48We just jumped back onto I-20 and started
25:50busting it east. All morning,
25:52we were thinking, how horrible would it be if there
25:54was a massive tornado outbreak on Easter?
25:56And it looked like that was going to happen.
25:59By late Sunday afternoon,
26:01Gage and his partner are driving
26:03into Mississippi,
26:05staying ahead of the storm from the southwest
26:07and approaching the town
26:09of Soso. Around 430, we came
26:11through Soso, and we were thinking, like,
26:13this town is in danger right now.
26:15So we get a little bit closer, we get
26:17a little bit closer. Our phones go off with
26:19the tornado warning. We know it's
26:21approaching. It's getting close.
26:23Oh, there's the left side. Watch it.
26:25Come to a stop with your hazards on and watch it.
26:27So finally, we stop at this little perch.
26:29Oh, yeah.
26:31Eight miles northeast,
26:33in Moss, lifelong resident
26:35Mike McCullough is relaxing at home
26:37and not watching TV,
26:39as word is spreading rapidly
26:41of the tornado in Soso.
26:43Watching two long-track tornadoes.
26:45We continue to get reports in.
26:47The first one has gone over Soso.
26:49Large, damaging tornado, destructive. Look at the debris
26:51signature there.
26:53That's when Mike starts getting frantic phone calls
26:55from both his brother and his
26:57sons.
26:59They tell him the tornado has just hit Soso,
27:01and it's headed straight for Moss.
27:03My son told me,
27:05he said, you better get out of there.
27:07And I walked outside
27:09on the carport, and I thought it was the
27:11biggest tornado that
27:13had ever been in existence.
27:15It was basically a gray wall
27:17just boiling.
27:19Mike quickly realizes a
27:21tornado that size will be
27:23impossible to outrun.
27:25It was breathing down on me.
27:27It was actually vibrating the ground,
27:29and that house was vibrating.
27:31I didn't run.
27:33I done went to the good Lord.
27:35Mike turns and heads
27:37back towards the house.
27:39I accepted it for what it was.
27:41And then I thought, I ain't gonna give
27:43up. I'm not gonna give up.
27:45All I could see was this
27:47dark gray, black mass
27:49like a storm cloud moving.
27:51And I didn't know that was a tornado.
27:53Now,
27:5510 miles south of Moss,
27:57near the town of Laurel,
27:59Gage Shaw and his partner pull over
28:01to get a better view of the storm.
28:03We couldn't see anything except gray
28:05on the horizon and black.
28:07We were looking towards our west,
28:09looking for the tornado the entire time.
28:11Then, the storm chasers come to
28:13a terrifying realization.
28:15Is that it? Oh my God.
28:17The gray-black
28:19mass on the horizon is a tornado
28:21that's about two miles
28:23wide.
28:25Holy s***.
28:27Where's it in? I don't know.
28:29It was so large that it was
28:31the entire horizon. The biggest
28:33tornado I've ever seen in my life.
28:35The left edge was just south of the
28:37road, and the right edge was somewhere north
28:39of the road, and we couldn't even see the right edge.
28:41Around
28:435 p.m., volunteer firefighter
28:45Andrew Phillips is monitoring his
28:47fire department radio. That's when
28:49the tornado warnings take a dire
28:51tone.
28:53In his voice, I could tell it was something bad.
28:55And I stepped out on the front porch
28:57and I seen it coming. It was just like a big
28:59black cloud just coming at you.
29:01Andrew tells his wife, Amber,
29:03to gather their two young children
29:05and hurry into their storm shelter.
29:07I got some more pillows
29:09because I was going to cover our heads with it.
29:11And by
29:13the time I turned around, I heard
29:15a debris hit in the house.
29:17I still was not
29:19in a panic. I got to the
29:21storm shelter. I grabbed our
29:23son's queen-size mattress, put it over
29:25the door of it because the storm
29:27shelter didn't have a door.
29:29And I got down on my knees.
29:31My wife said,
29:33what is that? And I said, it's here.
29:35Watch the left edge. Oh, I see it!
29:37Is it moving from left to right?
29:39We realized that the left edge is not moving,
29:41which means that the tornado
29:43is coming right at us.
29:45Oh, my God.
29:47Where's it in?
29:55Oh, my God.
29:57Where's it in?
29:59Easter Sunday,
30:01April 12, 2020.
30:03Storm chaser Gage Shaw
30:05and his chase partner have pulled their car
30:07over near Moss, Mississippi.
30:09Oh, yeah.
30:11A gargantuan
30:13tornado with winds of 190
30:15miles per hour is
30:17in their sights.
30:19But it appears to be so huge
30:21that it's hard to figure out where it ends.
30:23We're looking towards
30:25our southwest. We see the left
30:27edge of the tornado. It's just straight up and down
30:29like somebody drew it with a pencil.
30:31The storm chasers are witnessing
30:33what's known as a wedge tornado
30:35that will turn out to be the third
30:37largest on record in
30:39this history. A wedge tornado is typically
30:41wider than it is tall.
30:43The sides will also have a wedge
30:45shape to them. Sometimes they could just
30:47be straight up and down, but that would be a very
30:49violent tornado. The left edge
30:51of this tornado was straight up and down,
30:53so it was indicating that it was
30:55violent.
30:57This wedge tornado is
30:59an EF4.
31:01Whenever you have an EF4, you have helms
31:03completely swept off their foundations.
31:05You have complete destruction.
31:07It barely stands anymore.
31:09Trees snapped at the base. All the
31:11walls of your home be gone.
31:13The shocking
31:15magnitude of the tornado causes
31:17the two storm chasers to panic.
31:19Holy s***!
31:21Oh, I see it!
31:25They hurry away from the path
31:27of the twister.
31:33In the Jasper County seat of Bay Springs,
31:35Sheriff Randy Johnson knows
31:37he's helpless as the storm approaches.
31:39That's a horrible feeling
31:41when you're in law enforcement. You know people are
31:43hurt or they need something, and you
31:45can't get to them.
31:47I had guys on the ground telling
31:49me the roads are totally blocked.
31:51You know, South Mississippi is full of
31:53tall, beautiful pine trees,
31:55large oak trees.
31:57But when you have a storm, they totally
31:59shut down the road system.
32:01Fifteen miles
32:03south in Moss,
32:05the huge tornado is
32:07engulfing the tiny community
32:09and blowing apart everything
32:11in its path. Resident
32:13Mike McCullough scrambles to find
32:15something to hold onto as he
32:17tries to pull himself back inside
32:19his house.
32:21I grabbed onto the door facing
32:23and I hung on, and it was
32:25progressively getting worse.
32:27And then the effect on my
32:29ears, both ears, felt like I
32:31had ice pick sticking
32:33in them.
32:35And about that instant,
32:37that glass
32:39door shot,
32:41the best way I can describe it, with
32:43the grass and leaves and sticks,
32:45it looked like an old
32:47black powder cannon.
32:49I never experienced anything with that
32:51magnitude. I remember seeing
32:53that computer flying over the
32:55counter and hitting the dish rack,
32:57just destroying
32:59everything.
33:01The only recourse I had was to go
33:03to the good Lord, and I told
33:05Him if I was due any mercy,
33:07I needed it now. With his house
33:09in danger of collapsing, Mike
33:11manages to get to the bathroom
33:13and takes cover.
33:15I was in a panic. Anybody would be
33:17staring death in the face.
33:21Just down the road, Andrew
33:23Phillips and his family are huddled in their storm
33:25shelter.
33:27I remember my wife saying,
33:29what is that? And I told her, I said,
33:31the tornado's here, hang on.
33:33It sounded like
33:35a train coming.
33:37But once it hit us
33:39and was in the storm shelter, it sounded like
33:41a big army helicopter with a double
33:43propeller just roaring over us.
33:49I'm holding the two-and-a-half-year-old
33:51down, and she's holding the
33:53eight-month-old down.
33:55Their storm shelter does not
33:57have a door, so Andrew has wedged
33:59a mattress against the opening.
34:03I think it saved
34:05a bunch of the glass from the windows
34:07exploding from coming in with it.
34:09I knew the kids'
34:11ears were popping.
34:13There was no way to keep them calm.
34:15I mean, the more they screamed, the harder
34:17I pushed down on them, trying to
34:19make sure they didn't get sucked out.
34:21Suddenly, the mattress
34:23is ripped from their storm shelter
34:25as the tornado howls
34:27inside.
34:29We didn't have much to hang on to.
34:31All we could do was brace our feet up
34:33and try not to get
34:35sucked out.
34:37On Easter Sunday, 2020,
34:39an EF4 tornado
34:41that's more than
34:43two miles wide
34:45is ripping apart
34:47tiny Moss, Mississippi.
34:49Andrew Phillips,
34:51along with his wife, Amber,
34:53and their two young children
34:55are crossing the Mississippi River
34:57in search of a new home.
34:59They're going to be
35:01a part of a new
35:03world.
35:05And their two young children
35:07are crammed inside their four-square-foot
35:09storm shelter.
35:11That's when the twister
35:13tears away the mattress they had
35:15propped up as a makeshift door.
35:17Halfway through
35:19the tornado, I knew the house
35:21was gone after I heard all the
35:23stuff busting. I turned around
35:25and I seen
35:27the tornado on the ground
35:29ripping up the rest of our house.
35:31And then after it was
35:33done, it was just quiet.
35:35It was eerie.
35:39Everything you've worked so hard for is just
35:41gone. I mean, you didn't have anything
35:43hardly. Your vehicles were gone.
35:45Place of business was gone.
35:47Your home was gone. I mean, it looked like a war
35:49zone.
35:51It was devastating.
35:53You didn't know whether to go help people or whether
35:55to stay put or what to do.
35:57It was just helpless.
35:59And then looking back at it,
36:01the storm shelter looked like a
36:03tomb.
36:05It's all that's left of the Phillips house,
36:07but it sure served its purpose.
36:13When the storm passes, Mike McCullough
36:15emerges safely from his bathroom.
36:17He takes stock of the
36:19damage to the house that his father
36:21built.
36:23Everything was gone. Windows, doors,
36:25porch, everything, gone.
36:27And the ceiling, it fell in.
36:29And I walked back to the back.
36:33I could see sky.
36:35And I could hear
36:37my neighbors and all in the distance
36:39hollering and everything.
36:419-1-1, where's your emergency?
36:43The tornado just came through.
36:45A tornado threatened our house.
36:47Your house was damaged by a tornado?
36:49It's destroyed.
36:53There was damage everywhere. It was an
36:55apocalyptic scene.
36:57The things that you see after a tornado
36:59like that are not things that you want to see.
37:01They're really horrific
37:03things that happen, and they're not necessarily
37:05things you want to be around.
37:07Kind of things that cause bad dreams and
37:09nightmares.
37:11There was a gentleman that was going around
37:13on his four-wheeler just trying to find
37:15cattle that had all been let out of their pens.
37:17It was pretty sad.
37:19As storm chasers in the middle of the
37:21coronavirus pandemic, Gage
37:23and his chase partner are not sure
37:25how to handle the aftermath.
37:27Is the immediate threat
37:29of a tornado,
37:31does that trump the
37:33immediate threat of COVID-19?
37:35Do we dive in head
37:37first and help people, or are we going to get sick?
37:39Are we going to get them sick? We didn't really know
37:41how to handle it, but we just
37:43kind of concluded that the immediate
37:45threat of a tornado was to come over
37:47the virus, so that we
37:49dove in and tried to help as much as we could.
37:51Sheriff Randy Johnson
37:53is stunned by the destruction
37:55all around him.
37:57I couldn't believe that
37:59I was looking at what I saw.
38:01It totally wiped
38:03houses out, nothing left.
38:05Totally destroyed
38:07homes,
38:09chicken farms,
38:11uprooted trees,
38:13and totally destroyed
38:15property.
38:17It was just in piles
38:19and, you know, you feel helpless.
38:21There's nothing you can do,
38:23you can't take their pain away.
38:25Remarkably,
38:27there are no deaths reported
38:29in Jasper County. But
38:31just across the county line, a
38:3342-year-old mother of three,
38:35Jessica Spradley, is reported
38:37missing after her house is destroyed.
38:39I coached Jessica's son
38:41in baseball when he was a little kid.
38:43Him and my son grew up together.
38:45Within hours, Sheriff
38:47Johnson receives word that
38:49Jessica's body has been found
38:51in a nearby pond.
38:53Anytime you deal with a death in the county,
38:55it bothers you, but I know Jessica,
38:57I knew Jessica, and I know her son.
38:59Pastor Paul
39:01Matt and his family,
39:03as well as his church,
39:05are spared the horrors
39:07so many of their neighbors experience.
39:09A hundred more yards
39:11and we would have been hit. And that's
39:13one of the things of the providence of God,
39:15I don't try to explain it,
39:17I'm just grateful.
39:19My response is to help those who were
39:21damaged, who suffered, and
39:23that was our ministry, and still
39:25is our ministry, to our community.
39:27First Church of God
39:29of Miles stepped up and was a center point
39:31for our community.
39:33They started taking in supplies, taking in
39:35donations to give the victims.
39:37They started
39:39setting up to cook for the community.
39:41Started organizing
39:43and helping
39:45the victims.
39:47I'm proud of a church that said,
39:49yeah, let's pour ourselves into this community.
39:55The tornado that hits Moss, Mississippi
39:57on Easter 2020 is part
39:59of a two-day outbreak.
40:01At least 137
40:03tornadoes in 10 states
40:05and 36 fatalities.
40:09The Moss tornado was on the ground
40:11for an hour and 16 minutes,
40:13measured two and a quarter
40:15miles wide,
40:17and carved a path
40:1968 miles long.
40:23The damage was like nothing
40:25I had ever seen.
40:27We came upon a house that had been completely destroyed.
40:29There was a dog just walking around the home,
40:31just looking at all the rubble
40:33with his tail tucked. It was just a really sad moment
40:35to watch him walk around his
40:37destroyed house.
40:41The community
40:43is still helping each other.
40:45And if you need help,
40:47all you got to do is call one of them.
40:51Oh yeah, yeah,
40:53they'll be back.
40:55May take them a while, but yeah, they'll be back.
40:59I know the way we survived.
41:01There's the storm shelter
41:03and the good Lord having
41:05His hand of protection over us.
41:07This experience is changing my life.
41:09I mean,
41:11you can't take nothing with you.
41:13All it took was two minutes
41:15for this tornado to hit us and rip us apart.
41:17So,
41:19from here on out,
41:21I live every day to the fullest.
41:23Both Andrew Phillips and Mike
41:25McCullough plan to stay in Moss
41:27and build new homes.
41:29You know, it was
41:31a lot of grief and suffering
41:33that day, but when you talk
41:35to them, they'll tell you,
41:37it wasn't my time.
41:39I saw it coming. I thought I was going to die.
41:41And they're here and they say,
41:43it just wasn't my time.
41:45I got a reason I'm still here.
41:47It's always hope.