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American Morning

Powerful Storms Strike Tornado Alley

Aired June 14, 2001 - 11:06   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Eastern Nebraska cleaning up after a strong storm swept through the region yesterday, spawning as many as four tornadoes. No question about one of them, and we've got the pictures to prove it. Veteran storm chaser Jeff Piotrowski shot the video when the monster touched down in Seward, Nebraska. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF PIOTROWSKI, STORM CHASER: It's going to hit this house, I'm afraid. Wedging out really hard now. Oh, my gosh. There it is, around the road right in front of me. It's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) rotating rain currents. Tornado is right in front of me on the road. Tornado missed the house and the farm. It's going across the highway here. It's weakening. Oh my God, it's coming down the road. Holy mackerel. Moving east. Oh, my God, it's coming right down the highway! Oh, my gosh. Absolutely incredible! Just re-intensified again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLEY: We spoke with Jeff Piotrowski about an hour ago about his experience, and we wanted to know what he does when a tornado like this gets too close.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIOTROWSKI: I mean, you have to put yourself in a position where you can escape if you have to, and sometimes in those positions when you're, you know, basically at ground zero, you have to watch out what's going to happen constantly around you to be able to move. And you constantly have to keep your eye on the tornado, because you never know what it's going to do. And that's what I did.

The roads were hard to navigate, and I saw the trail on the ground about five miles west; and when I went west I (UNINTELLIGIBLE) toward me. It was trying to become rain-wrapped. You'll see rain coming over the lens of the camera. It's very hard to photograph. But, you know, after 25 years doing this, you've got to kind of get in close and -- to see it.

And I just let the tornado came right at me, and waited until the last second. And it did some really unusual things. There should be a place in the tape there as the tornado passes just north of the road. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLEY: From what we know at this point, two people were slightly injured in the Seward tornado. A portion of Nebraska highway 34, south of Seward, closed this morning for cleanup, as you can imagine.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We're lucky -- they're lucky that that's all that there is there...

KELLEY: From the way it looked, right.

HARRIS: .. that thing was huge.

Chad Myers is joining us now.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know -- and I lived in Nebraska a really long time. Went to school at the university. And, actually, I chased with Jeff back in Oklahoma City, when I worked there.

And it's not something that you should do if you're not an expert. You should not get out there and look for these things because, although it's spectacular video, this thing is on the ground with probably 150-mile-per-hour winds. So this is not something to be taken lightly. And, although they're great pictures, something under there is getting damaged, whether it's a house, a barn, a cornfield, whatever.

And this type of system is going to fire up again later on this afternoon. There are actually two areas, what we call the moderate risk areas of severe weather. One to the north heading toward Minneapolis, and another one from Tulsa to Oklahoma City. Here they are, right here. The greatest threat to the central plains.

I'll zoom in to the north one, from Fargo to Alexandria and Minneapolis all the way down to about Sioux Falls. And then to the south of there, another area of moderate risk from Tulsa to Oklahoma City, all the way through Dallas.

Now, the entire area going to be under the gun for significant severe weather today. And although it's only raining right know, the sun is coming out in many areas. That sun is going to heat the ground. That air down there by the ground is going to want to lift up into the sky. When that air lifts up, you start to get the storms firing up. You can already see just a couple firing up, just to the west of Oklahoma City.

Look at this: 39 degrees in Casper, Wyoming right now, and 82 in St. Louis. There is a significant line there; a significant cold front going to push there. And when cold air tries to bump into warm air, you get that warm air rising, and that's when you get the bubbling, and that's when you get the storms firing up -- Leon.

HARRIS: Let me ask you something real quick, if I can. At this particular point, is there any way to predict -- I know you're predicting there's a chance that something like that could happen in these areas -- that is, can you predict whether or not -- what will happen is going to be as big as the one we just saw on that tape?

MYERS: I am certain today there will be of tornadoes out there as yesterday. Yesterday there were 46 tornadoes. That was one of 46. Now, many of them were not this large. And when we talked to Jeff earlier, he said it was probably, at times, an F-3, and he said probably on the border of an F-4. Now, that's pushing 200-miles-an- hour right there. And you need to get out of the way.

And if you hear that tornado siren going off, if you have anything like that in your area, you need to get in the basement or the lowest level of your house. Many areas, especially in the rural areas around Nebraska, don't have sirens. You need to keep alert; you need to keep the radio on.

Those little alert radios you can buy from Radio Shack for $40 have saved so many lives over the years, it's amazing. And, you know, folks in Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas, they know all about this stuff, you know. And folks in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, they see a little F-0 once in a while.

But this is tornado alley, and it's going to fire up again this afternoon with more significant weather. So you just need to keep on it.

KELLEY: Get to shelter safely and quickly, as you say.

How far does that spread out, when you get that big a tornado, Chad? Like, on the bottom -- when we see those pictures that Piotrowski was getting so close to, how far away is that? Do you know?

MYERS: Well, he said he was about 150 yards, at one point, from the storm. I would say it's at least as wide as a football field and, at times, two football fields.

Now, the big tornado that, two years ago, May 3, went through Oklahoma City was literally a mile wide at times. And the winds there were over 300 miles-per-hour. So they can -- F-5s can get that large. The good news is, there are very few F-5s ever out.

KELLEY: And is there debris that swirls around when it's that far out, too? That's -- does that...

MYERS: You know, that is...

HARRIS: Like the movie?

MYERS: .. so many -- yes, when you see the cow going by in "Twister," right?

Not, probably, cows flying by, but even a shingle -- think about this: one shingle off one roof going 200 miles an hour. I mean, that's like a Frisbee doing 200. What's that going to do if it hits you, or even hits your house? That's when we see corn stalks going through telephone poles. You know, all that debris flying about -- around. You just need to be away from the windows.

The old myth was: Open the windows so the house doesn't explode. Stay away from windows. Heck no, stay away from those windows. You don't want to be anywhere near that glass.

KELLEY: Stay away from them, but should you still open the windows?

MYERS: No, you shouldn't. Just get to the lowest level. If you don't have a basement, put as many walls between you and the outside as possible. Outside wall, one. Inside wall, maybe another. Inside in the bath tub; inside in a bathroom without windows or without a lot of glass, perfect. A lot of folks have been in -- and that's -- sometimes that's all you see is the refrigerator, one wall, and the bathroom right in the middle of the house. That's all that's left...

HARRIS: Good advice. Advice that you ignored when you were out chasing these things.

MYERS: I got paid to do it, I guess, right?

HARRIS: Before we go to break, I've got to ask you, what's the biggest one you've ever seen when you were out chasing?

MYERS: Oh, probably an F-3 in Pampa, Texas, you know. And they -- I used to work for KACO in Oklahoma City, and they would send us out all the time. And one of my news directors, Maria Kinken (ph), who's now in Florida somewhere, doing -- teaching somewhere, said if you bring this truck back without hail dents on it, don't come back. Because she wanted us in the middle of that storm. And we were in the middle of that storm many, many times. So -- but you need to be careful. Don't try it at home. Don't go out there looking for them, just stay safe.

KELLEY: Yes, talking about people in the middle of storm, we actually were trying to get some folks on the phone who were in that area...

HARRIS: Really? Good.

KELLEY: ... so we may -- we're trying. We may be able to visit with some of those...

MYERS: One of my roommates from college lives in Seward, or lived in Seward when he was in college, so...

KELLEY: Maybe you can hop on the phone with him.

MYERS: Tim Gardner (ph), somewhere -- give us a call, wherever you are.

KELLEY: Thanks Chad.

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