I'd like to add: some of the most frightening footage I've seen in this tornado was shot by professional storm chaser Pecos Hank. You can find him here in TH-cam.
Pecos Hank is the absolute and undeniable bomb. Is he a filmmaker who loves storms or a storm chaser with a cinematic gift from God? Neither! He's literally a freaking guitar-totin' ROCK STAR!
@@deborahlosekelly1520 creator of Grey’s Anatomy, basically the reason half the ridiculous situations that the characters end up in like a bomb in a chest lol
When you stop and think what "a building" is supposed to do--provide shelter and protect--that's what that building did. "The building took the hit for us"...YES. That's a well designed and well built building. The building is the understated hero in the story. It did what it was supposed to do and it did it well.
I work in construction so its good to get recognition for our work. Im an electrician so the failsafes are different from what most people are going to be able to notice or recognize, but we still build things solidly nonetheless
Are you re.tarded ???😂 I guess the buliding is sentient now??? No one bult it?! The BUILDING is a hero???? Literally easiestly the dumbest comment on this video.
It’s a miracle that no one at the medical center died that day. A big part of this success is due to the center’s staff and the emergency preparedness staff. I’m sure the planning, keeping everyone calm, holding on to each other, and having a plan after tornado helped everyone stay calm. Much love and prayers to everyone ❤🙏🏼
Science and engineering saved these people. The science of meteorology and weather prediction as well as the incredible engineers who designed the hospital to withstand the power of the tornado and the people who managed and ran the hospital. Thank them. They are deserving of praise and no one else.
It wasn't a miracle from your magical sky daddy, people. It was a marvel of modern human engineering. I hate when people attribute HUMAN actions to their imaginary friend. If you want to thank someone, TRULY, then look up the people who built the hospital and designed the building, not your sky daddy who didn't do a damn thing 😂😂
@@turinggirl6432Coupled with the fact that many of the staff and patients were likely survivors of the May 3rd, 1999 tornado. I think that following the May 3rd storm; the administrative staff of Moore Medical Center decided to do better at keeping their staff and patients safe and preventing any additional injuries or loss of life the next time a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma. For example; they likely had the hospital's emergency backup generators installed below ground. Of course very few residents of Moore believed that a tornado as strong or as violent as the May 3rd, 1999 tornado could strike their city a second time; this tornado on May 20th, 2013 ultimately proved them wrong. A report from ABC News meteorologist Ginger Zee in the immediate aftermath of the May 20th tornado revealed that the website for the city of Moore, Oklahoma stated that there was a less than one percent chance of the city being struck by a tornado as strong or as violent as the May 3rd, 1999 storm.
Ive met ppl from Oklahoma and they're some of the most down to earth, resilient, caring, giving folks I've ever known. They'll give you their last dime and the shirt off their back. Utmost respect for Okies.
It's a phenomenon known as the Oklahoma Standard. This term was first coined in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and was meant to reference how average everyday citizens dropped whatever it was they were doing and raced to the site of the bombing to help the first responders.
@@scootermom1791 You're welcome! Even crew members from the 1996 movie "Twister" helped the first responders at the site of the bombing. Just thought I would put that out there for people who enjoy movies from the 90's.
@@MichaelLovely-mr6oh what? I had no idea! I didn't even realize they'd filmed in the area. That's really cool! BTW, I saw Twister in the theaters as soon as it came out. 🙂
As an RN, this, and what happened in NOLA with Katrina, is our worst nightmare that we hope never happens. You arent only responsible for yourself, but your patients, many of which may be bed bound and immobile. Terrifying
Or with what happened at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri. That hospital took a direct strike from the infamous EF5 tornado that hit Joplin on May 22nd, 2011. It was struck by the tornado at 5:41 PM and while none of the staff at St. John's were killed; five patients who were on ventilators lost their lives with a sixth person being a visitor who died from being crushed by debris. The Joplin tornado was strong enough to pull reinforced concrete stops out of the hospital's parking lot as well as tossing or crushing every car in the parking lot and blowing out all the windows. In addition; the hospital's Life Flight helicopter was blown off the helipad and destroyed by flying debris.
I read that book about what happened at mercy hospital during Katrina and I can't tell you how many times I cried listening to what all of the doctors and nurses had to do to keep as many people alive as they could.
Shayla Taylor is the mother who was unable to move due to having received an epidural. Nowadays Shayla is a nurse at Moore Medical Center as a means of giving back to the community and thanking the nurses who kept her safe. I hope that her son Braeden is friends or at least classmates with Lacey Jacobs' son Kellan. To be honest I can't imagine how frightened Lacey was as she had just given birth and was understandably afraid that she was possibly going to die.
The two Moore tornadoes and the Joplin tornado are the worst I’ve ever seen. Every single person in this video is a hero. I’m so glad that no one at the hospital was seriously injured.
@@craigusselman546There are many other legendary tornadoes from the early 2010's. Such as the following: 1.) Philadelphia, Mississippi. 2.) Smithville, Mississippi. 3.) Hackleburg/ Phil Campbell, Alabama. 4.) Tuscaloosa/ Birmingham, Alabama. 5.) Cullman, Alabama. 6.) Rainsville, Alabama. 7.) Ringgold, Georgia. 8.) Henryville, Indiana. 9.) Hattiesburg, Mississippi. 10.) El Reno, Oklahoma. 11.) Washington, Illinois. Note that the first seven tornadoes are all from the Super Outbreak of 2011. All of them were nightmares in their own way. What is particularly surprising about the Hattiesburg tornado is that no fatalities occurred and only eighty-two people were injured. That tornado badly damaged or destroyed numerous businesses and vehicles on Hardy Street and Oak Grove Road in downtown Hattiesburg along with damaging residence halls on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi. Fortunately not many students or faculty members of USM were on campus at the time because they had gone to New Orleans, Louisiana for Mardi Gras weekend. A lot of people tend to say that the reason why Henryville was struck by a tornado is because a crew from The Weather Channel lead by meteorologist Jim Cantore was in the area. There's a bit of Gallows Humor that if you see Jim Cantore in your town; bad weather is bound to happen. Of course we all know about the 2013 El Reno tornado because of its utterly nightmarish width of 2.6 miles and the fact that so many storm chasers had to flee for their lives. What many find to be so shocking about the Washington, Illinois tornado is the time of year it occurred. You really don't expect a tornado to strike in late November and as a result the residents of Washington had gone from being excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas to a sense of heartbreak, helplessness, confusion and uncertainty. To add to their misery it snowed a week after the tornado; which as you can imagine hindered cleanup efforts. A lot of people think that Mother Nature was determined to shit on the residents of Washington. By an absolute miracle the Washington tornado did not strike any of the churches in the city because it was a Sunday and many people were attending church services that day. One of those people was the mayor of Washington; Gary Manier. He was attending services at Sunnyland Christian Church.
@@craigusselman546That is so true. Aside from this tornado in Moore, Oklahoma as well as the beast of a tornado in El Reno just eleven days later; there was the Joplin, Missouri tornado on May 22, 2011 and even a few lesser known ones: for example the EF-4 tornadoes that struck Hattiesburg, Mississippi and Washington, Illinois in 2013. The tornado that struck Hattiesburg, Mississippi was a wedge tornado; just like the ones that struck Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Joplin, Missouri nearly two years earlier, but there blessedly no fatalities in the Hattiesburg tornado. Now; the tornado that struck Washington, Illinois is particularly shocking because of the time of year it occurred: November 17, 2013. You really don't expect a tornado to strike in late November and as a result the residents of Washington were caught off guard and their excitement for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays turned into a sense of heartbreak, helplessness and confusion. To add to their misery it snowed a week after the storm; which as you can imagine hindered cleanup efforts. By an absolute miracle none of the churches in Washington were hit by the tornado. This was extremely fortunate because it was a Sunday and many people were attending church services; one of them being the city's mayor Gary Manier.
I was in that hospital that day. I was supposed to be discharged that day when the tornado happened. It was the scariest day of my life. I'm so thankful for the nurses and staff that day. They were all amazing!
Hospitals and medical centers are sometimes the safest places to be in a tornado. My mind always goes back to St. Johns in Joplin. Even with how horrifically powerful that storm was, that hospital still stayed up.
This reminds me of the deadly hurricane that hit Florida and a wife was also was in the hospital giving birth to their like 6th child- all under somethin like 8?! while her husband was actually a scientist, whom was tracking the storm. The team was all on alert, til the storm took a Uturn and appeared to be going back out to sea- so much that the entire team sighed a huge relief and they all went home- with the one man heading home to his family where they were waiting on the baby to arrive and he was going to head to the hospital to be with his wife…when…the storm gained momentum and turned back around..heading straight for them. His wife whom had just given birth, told her husband to remain there with their family- all inside a little house- maybe 1500sqft? where there were like 4 adults, 6 children, a dog and like a couple kittens. They had no idea that the storm had yet again made drastic turns and headed straight to their house. The man piled his entire family, into the kitchen since it was the only place where they didn’t have to separate, and all of them-including the pets…huddled on the kitchen floor, where he placed a mattress on the sides of what appeared to be maybe 4ft wide between counters where they were. And then… he led them loudly in prayer. They prayed and then sang gospel songs,in hopes of keeping the children calm.. as the hurricane hit them and their roof lifted. This man was huddled over all of his children praying on the Lord to keep them and his wife and new baby, safe as well as everybody else. I can’t even imagine other than him spread out over them like a mother hen…trying to hold onto each and every one of them. The woman saw the helicopters going over the area hit…and saw her block… ALL HOMES FLAT; GONE. This woman was incredible. She too had prayed. And despite the hospital staff seeing her neighborhood obliterated…they didn’t know what to say to her, since it was apparent, no way they could’ve all lived; her 5 children, husband and family. But she smiled and had thanked God…telling them all that she could feel her family was safe. Obviously with her being on drugs still, the staff probably thought she was either delusional or in shock. All of the telephone lines were down and not everybody had cellphones yet so there was no way she could get ahold of them. But amongst the wreckage and carnage around them.. her husband, the scientist…and all of the children and rest of the family..along with their pets.. had climbed out from in between those mattresses- ALL alive..walking out to just flatlands; no neighbors, no nothing around them. It was all barren. The man was emotional telling the story, that he was breaking down as he recalled the event. I remember balling too. They gave all of the glory to God as it truly was a miracle. It was such an incredible story. I think it was National Geographic doc, on a vhs tape I bought from like blockbuster, since my kids were obsessed with tornados. To see the wreckage in these stories- No doubt the Lord kept all of those people safe. 🙏✝️❤️✌️
My husband and I were sitting in our living room in Colorado and watching it on TV. There was amazing TV coverage, and we sat and cried right along with those in the path. Im a retired flight nurse, and felt so helpless just watching it hit, and then not being able to do a darned thing to help.
As a storm chaser to see this point of view Hits hard I’ve been out chasing and ended up helping out with search and rescue after chasing but i can’t say I’ve been in a building that was destroyed by a tornado and to see there is no severe injuries is amazing
This year was crazy for tornadoes and it was a sad year for tornado chasers with the loss of Tim Samaras and the Twistex team only 11 days after this tornado in El Reno. The happy ending to this deadly tornado with no loss of life because of quick thinking hospital staff. Great Video and amazing POV from people in the hospital that day. As a weather fan and a amateur Meteorologist this makes me happy.
And it’s actually bizarre because 2013 had the least amount of tornadoes in that time period. But there was some horribly violent tornadoes, more than usual for sure.
They @@Satans.asshol3 They were talking about no loss of life in the hospital. It was heartbreaking that about half of the overall deaths from the tornado were children.
@@brodiessirenproductionsYep. Aside from the beasts in Moore and El Reno, Oklahoma in May of 2013; there were two EF-4 tornadoes that occurred in different parts of the year and in two different states: the first one struck Hattiesburg, Mississippi on February 10th and the second one hit Washington, Illinois on November 17th. What is particularly bewildering about the Hattiesburg tornado is that no fatalities occurred and only eighty-two people were injured. The storm badly damaged or destroyed numerous businesses and vehicles on Hardy Street and Oak Grove Road in downtown Hattiesburg along with damaging or destroying many houses in residential areas of the city as well as damaging residence halls on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi. Fortunately not many students of USM were on campus as they had gone to New Orleans for Mardi Gras weekend. The tornado that struck Washington, Illinois is particularly surprising to me because you really don't expect a tornado to strike in late November and as a result the residents of Washington were caught off guard. Their feelings of excitement for Thanksgiving and Christmas turned into a sense of heartbreak, helplessness and confusion. To add to their misery it snowed a week after the storm; which as you can imagine hindered cleanup efforts.
@@brodiessirenproductions Absolutely. Aside from this tornado in Moore, Oklahoma on May 20th and the absolute beast of a tornado nearby in El Reno just eleven days later on May 31st; there was an EF-4 tornado in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on February 10th and then another EF-4 in Washington, Illinois on November 17th. The tornado in Hattiesburg was a wedge tornado just like the ones in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Joplin, Missouri only two years earlier; but quite surprisingly no fatalities occurred in the Hattiesburg tornado and only eighty-two people were injured. This tornado badly damaged or destroyed numerous businesses and vehicles on Hardy Street and Oak Grove Road in downtown Hattiesburg along with damaging or destroying many houses in residential areas of the city and damaging residence halls on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi. Fortunately there weren't many students on campus that Sunday as they had gone to New Orleans for Mardi Gras weekend. With regards to the tornado in Washington, Illinois; it was extremely shocking because of the fact that you really don't expect a tornado to strike in late November. As a result the residents of Washington had gone from being excited for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays to a sense of heartbreak, helplessness and confusion. To add to their misery it snowed a week after the tornado; which as you can imagine hindered cleanup efforts. By an absolute miracle none of the churches in Washington were hit by the storm. This was fortunate because it was a Sunday and many people were attending church services. One such person was the city's mayor Gary Manier.
I live in Stillwater and watched this unfold on KWTV 9 and it was so gut wrenching to see. For a hospital to take a direct hit from a tornado and no one was critically injured or killed was amazing and says a lot about the staff and emergency procedures that were in place.
Amazing stories from dedicated professionals who followed a well-thought out corporate plan within a hospital. As a retired FF/Paramedic, a part of the story we never get to hear. Thank you for this difficult recollection of that day.
I don't understand how the hospital staff and a new mother can retell the story without crying 😢 😭 I'm a blubbering mess just hearing hearing about the tornado blowing through the hospital 😭😭
What’s so special about this event was, it was the same day my dad passed away. I’m from Missouri, but being a weather fan, this tornado will hold a very special place in my heart.
The part where the woman said I’m paranoid because I’m a may 3rd survivor always gets me! Because they were about to have the same exact thing happen a few hours later! Never been in a tornado nor do I ever want to be! (Edit really quick) it’s insane that the same exact thing happened in 2013 that happened in 1999! It took some of the same path and it had a lot of the same intensity, although the may 3rd tornado was stronger! None the less they were both very urgent situations that I’m glad weren’t taken lightly!!!
A few days later we lost tim samaras, his son, and his driver during the el reno tornado. Pecos hank caught the moment they were swallowed up by the funnel on his rear cam. He also chased this storm and joplin.
Pecos Hank did not capture it, Dan Robinson did. He was about a 1/2 mile ahead of them driving for his life. He also deleted the part where the satellite vortex hit their car in respect for the families. It wasn't very clear footage or anything but he had said you could see the headlights, then they were gone.
@@deathbloom27I can't imagine the amount of Survivor's Guilt that Dan Robinson no doubt feels on a daily basis as he wonders why did he survive but Tim and Paul Samaras and Carl Young did not. I also can't imagine the amount of grief and sorrow felt by Tim's widow Cathy Samaras as she not only had to lay her husband to rest; but also her son.
I will never forget that day. I worked for SilverStar Construction and was at 164th and Western down by the river across from Newcastle. I was fueling our equipment looking at the dark sky overhead and towards the west thinking this don't look good. And about that time my general manager pulled up and said to hurry up. That we were done and call it a day. Said we had a big one coming in. And to go ahead , and head home. But stay by the phone if we need you. Well all hell broke lose and I wasn't able to get back till the next day. I can say God was there that day, and for the next few months. We did help with emergency response and search and rescue. Along with rebuilding the town . I was shocked when I saw the hospital, and then Harkins theatre. Hospital gone. And the theatre took a direct hit. But didn't phase it! Weird things like that, and then poor kids never had a chance
Uh, the movie theatre in Moore, Oklahoma is named the Warren Theatre. I have seen photos and video footage of the Warren Theatre after the May 20th storm and aside from moderate damage to the marquee; the Warren Theatre was largely unscathed. To be honest I can't even imagine the amount of fear among the staff and moviegoers at the Warren Theatre when the tornado occurred. I have also seen footage from security cameras mounted on the exterior of the Warren Theatre that overlooked the parking lot of the Warren as well as the nearby shopping plaza and it was utterly terrifying seeing people running out of the shops and businesses nearby and sprinting across the parking lot to get to safety in the lobby of the Warren.
Thank you to everyone working at that hospital who got everyone through and to everyone impacted working together in the aftermath to grieve and rebuild.
This tornado is the first that really left me as a storm chaser shaken. It was a whole different breed of tornado. It's one of a very few that haunt me to this day. To hear the stories of what happened at this hospital at the time for the first time in over a decade is crazy. I'm glad everyone there was alright.
@@goldiloks08 Well there's only a select few. El Rino (the big one from 2013,) Joplin 2011, Jarrell, Moore OK (Both of them,) & Tuscaloosa. Those do, the reason being each one had a particular way of destroying everything. With the EF5 of Joplin, it was the fact it was completely hidden & rain wrapped to such an extent the news & media had no idea it was in town until it was over halfway through. With El Rino, its size, & the loss of great & legendary storm chasers of team TWISTEX, broke all the rules a normal tornadic storm follows, & the fact it had winds over 300mph. Tuscaloosa; while wasn't an EF5... that one behaved like it had a mind of its own almost. The fact it went straight through town. Jarrell; started as a rope tornado for minutes on end then turned into Satan suddenly without warning right when it came into town. Moore OK; That day was a day straight from a nightmare for those people. May 3rd, 1999. That F5 tornado holds the world record to this day for the highest natural wind speed ever recorded on Earth. 320mph + or - recorded by a DOW truck on sight of this tornado. Then another EF5 in 2013 hit. I remember this one the most of both of them. KFOR tv: "This is May 3rd All over again." That quote was terrifyingly accurate. It's now been 10 years since that tornado & I can remember it like it happened yesterday. People there to this day in that town hit are terrified when a tornado does touch down out of fear it will turn into another Moore OK 1999.
I remember being a nursing assistant in MO and it was part of our actual class about how to handle tornadoes on shift it was drilled into us, and every facility I worked it was further drilled into us at orientation we didn't play around for sure and this is why
I wish they would do a documentary on the medical centers in New Orleans following Katrina. I was an X-ray tech at a major hospital, but once the power went out those skills weren't needed and I simply bagged people who were on breathing machines that were no longer working. The only evacuation route was by boat since the ground floor was completely flooded to the ceiling. We had to lower bed-ridden patients down with slings made of bedsheets. I was transferred to a facility that needed my skills and I don't think I stopped for 30 hours. The news was all about the fatalities but there were hundreds of people with broken bones, legs, arms, backs and skulls. Most survived but some were permanently disabled in some way. The most important was how our hospital staff from every department from surgery to dishwashers pitched in a gave their all to help.
We lived nearby and came to help with the initial cleanup and for months afterward. So much devastation and destruction. So many lives effected that day.
Just listening to the destruction caused by the tornado and reading the words at 16:24 gave me chills. That was a miracle. I work at a nursing home as a nurse aide and to get everyone to a safe place in the building would not be easy. I hope nothing like this hits the nursing home.
Sadly during the EF-5 tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri on May 22, 2011 twenty-one fatalities occurred at the Greenbriar Nursing Home despite the efforts of the firefighters and paramedics to rescue all the staff and residents. This story isn't as well-known as some of the other stories from the Joplin tornado; such as the destruction in and around St. John's Medical Center, Franklin Technology Center, Joplin High School, St. Mary's Catholic Church and School, the Lowe's and Home Depot hardware stores, numerous businesses on Rangeline Road, et cetera.
@@fireraptor6670 Someone on Quora asked why the Joplin, Missouri tornado of 2011 was deadlier and more destructive than the Moore, Oklahoma tornado of 2013 even though they were both rated as an EF-5 by the National Weather Service. It comes down to the following six key factors: 1.) The Joplin tornado formed too quickly for the National Weather Service office in Springfield, Missouri to issue a Tornado Emergency for the city of Joplin even though they had issued a Tornado Warning for both Jasper and Newton counties in southwest Missouri and Cherokee County in southeast Kansas. 2.) The tornado formed right outside of Joplin, cut through the city and dissipated upon leaving it. 3.) Prior to May 22nd, 2011; Joplin had not experienced a significant tornado since 1971, so the residents of Joplin assumed that the mountainous and hilly terrain of southwestern Missouri would function as a natural shield from tornadoes. 4.) Many residents of Joplin had ignored the tornado warnings when they were issued on May 22 due to being desensitized from the city issuing too many false alarms. 5.) When the tornado sirens in Joplin were first sounded at 5:17 PM Central Time it gave the residents of Joplin a woefully insufficient amount of seventeen minutes to take shelter. When the tornado sirens were sounded a second time at 5:34 PM it was too late to do anything because the tornado was on the ground and moving through the city. 6.) By far the biggest contributing factor is that the Joplin tornado was hidden in heavy rain and difficult to see. By comparison the residents of Moore, Oklahoma are extremely weather-wise and aware of the potential severity of tornadoes because their city is practically synonymous with large, violent and destructive tornadoes. A prime example of this is the F-5 tornado which decimated their city on May 3rd, 1999. When the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma issued a Tornado Watch for much of central and eastern Oklahoma at 1:10 PM Central Time on May 20th, 2013; three of the major TV stations in Oklahoma City (NBC affiliate KFOR channel 4, ABC affiliate KOCO channel 5 and CBS affiliate KWTV Channel 9) immediately suspended regular programming and went into wall-to-wall coverage of the weather; with the city's Fox affiliate KOKH Channel 25 and their Telemundo affiliate KTUZ Channel 30 doing so when the first thunderstorms erupted southwest of Oklahoma City.
@@fireraptor6670 It is. Like many people I saw the devastation in Joplin, Missouri through The Weather Channel and remember all too well how Mike Bettes broke down sobbing on air as he was reporting live on the scene outside of St. John's Medical Center for The Weather Channel. It caused dozens of people who were watching The Weather Channel that Sunday night to realize the severity of the tornado if it was capable of bringing a seasoned meteorologist such as Mike Bettes to tears. What I find to be extremely sweet is that following the disaster Mike had adopted a Golden Retriever who had lost her home in the storm and named her Joplyn. Aww!
When you're a nurse, and then a manager, .... this happened to me when my nursing home caught fire. All around us fire and debris was falling. I lost no one. That woman was a hero. And that makes me proud.
I was working at Convergys on 19th street in Moore when this came through (It's a Sam's Club now). It somehow missed us and completely leveled the neighborhood behind us and the library barely a block away. I think maybe it matters exactly where and what it's hitting as to how it sounds. To me, it sounded like one of those claps of thunder that shakes the whole house and rattles the windows, but it just went on and on and kept getting louder and louder. That day was totally crazy. We had some of the RFD come through, or maybe the outer bands of winds from the tornado itself that did a tiny bit of damage to the roof and flipped some cars in the parking lot, but that was it.
Looking at that pile of cars -- I know the nurse said they were from around the neighborhood nearby, but earlier they had described people trying to shelter under their drive-up, and how the (assistant director?) had gone out and pulled people into the building so they wouldn't be caught out in the tornado. So I know the pile of cars toward the end wasn't those cars, but I'm thinking the cars people drove there for shelter probably ended up in about the same condition, if not being blown an entire neighborhood over, so she saved those people's lives for sure. I'm so impressed by her willingness to put herself on the line for them, and the way all the staff and employees went above and beyond to keep their patients and visitors safe. (The linking arms story was amazing and more proof of the wisdom of those folks.) I'm so glad none of those people were hurt or killed, and so sad for the ones elsewhere who were.
This is a welcome video. The Joplin story got a lot of press, but I haven't heard this story before. My daughter is an L&D nurse, so I'm always interested these boots-on-the-ground stories. Thank you for this.
I traveled to Norman/Moore after the tornadoes and worked in an animal shelter. It was very gratifying. I went to Katrina too. The destruction of nature was just awful.
I was actually on a college club trip and we passed right through Moore OK (We were headed to Santa Fe) less than 30 minutes before the tornado touched down. Right after we got past the city everyone went through a cell dead zone that lasted for almost two hours. All of our families were freaking out because last they had heard we were just hitting Moore and then heard nothing after seeing stuff about the tornado on the news and thought we had got caught by it. None of us even knew that there was potential for a tornado, just a really bad thunderstorm. We honestly just were extremely lucky that we decided against stopping in Moore like we had originally planned because we didn't need gas yet and were running behind.
My husb and Chiweenie and I were right in the middle of moving from Ada to Tulsa at the time this tornado was hitting Moore. Very tense weather day for sure.
Even though I work at the front desk of a primary care provider office, I chose to join my Healthcare system’s HERTeam because I wanted to ensure the same level of preparedness and response to any sort of disaster. I grew up in Missouri with tornadoes, my mom worked with the Red Cross, my dad was a Naval Medical corpsman, so I am acutely aware of how critical it is to react quickly. Fortunately, I have yet to be activated outside of drills. Sadly, mass casualty events did happen near us, but there was little to no action we could have taken. One was the Marshall Fire in Superior, Colorado, the other was the King Soopers shooting in Boulder.
As a retired ER/ED nurse i have dealt with gas, severe MVAs, criminals, but I don't think I could have dealt with a EF5 tornado. Y'all have my respect, job well done. God bless.
It's bewildering to think that no patients or employees lost their lives at the Moore Medical Center when this nightmare of a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma on May 20th, 2013. Like many of the meteorologists and storm spotters were saying on air: "This is May 3rd, 1999 all over again!" By a stark (and extremely saddening) comparison five patients and a visitor at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri lost their lives during the EF-5 tornado that struck Joplin on May 22nd, 2011. The patients who lost their lives were on ventilators and they died when the tornado destroyed the hospital's emergency backup generators and the sixth fatality at St. John's was a visitor who was crushed by falling debris.
I can't even begin to wrap my head around what this must have been like. God bless the amazing staff at Norman Medical center and all the people of Moore!
This reminds me if the time i saw a spout of a tornado while i was inpatient at a mental hospital. It never touched down but to see it at night from afar really shook me up. I was a little confident that the hospital wouldn’t blow away. The tornado disbanded as quickly as it came but i ended up getting very little sleep that night. I couldn’t imagine enduring the fear that those people went through.
To imagine I was across the street above ground.... I was 6 at the time and just.... wow.... Our home was gone and we should have died but weren't even hurt except bruises.... Every time I watch these things I praise the Lord.
My family and I are from Utah and as soon as it came across the news we scrambled to get as many supplies and clothes we could get our hands on and headed that way with 10 trailers. It was the most horrific thing I’d seen and now live in Nebraska close to where the twin sisters hit and that was so hard to shelter in place and wait until we could move to go search. Everyone in the hospital is a hero ❤
So devastating that the place injured people needed to go was hit. I visited family in Lawton OK when I was 10. The first thing my great aunt and uncle showed us when we entered their house was where to go if there was a tornado. I think it was crazy they had a nice big 5 or 6 bedroom house but no basement or storm shelter. They said to go into the master bedroom closet on the main floor. Thankfully it was summer and it didnt rain at all. I was worried. My mamaw grew up in Chickasaw and never saw a tornado.
My grandparents, mom and aunt were coming back from Kansas and a tornado hit. She was 10 and my aunt was 8.They had to take shelter under an underpass and hoped for the best. The tornado went passed them but the force of it still moved there car 20 feet away. She saw 4 cows, car, truck and an 18 wheeler go by inside the tornado. She said the sound was so bad that it felt like her head was going to explode! Their eyes had dirt, grass and some concrete dust. A small stick hit my grandfather in the head. Just a deep cut. Needless to say that my mom and aunt never wanted to go back there. I cant imagine what devastation this caused. So sad. 😢
They are lucky, I've seen it said sheltering under an underpass is one of the worst things you can do cuz it actually amplifies the wind. Supposedly the safest thing is to find the lowest point of land, like a drainage ditch on the side of the road, and get as low as you can.
@@thamertanner5448 Thats the only place they had to go to at the time. I was thinking the same thing when I heard it. I guess my papaw thought that was the safest place. He'd never seen a tornado.
@@thamertanner5448 I've been on the highway in Kansas with tornado sirens going off in the town we were driving by and the crazy green black sky. The ditches were full of water because it was raining buckets. We were like "get low and drown, sounds like a plan". Sometimes there are no good options. Luckily we drove out of it and the tornado didn't hit any houses.
11:25 this moment has to be the most descriptive experience Ive heard of being in a tornado. Air pressure, sideways flying debris, and immense loud winds. Not to put it lightly but it sounds like being in a vacuum cleaner.
The air pressure is what people really don’t understand, it’s not like being on an airplane or underwater. And you feel it in your chest and lungs too. And when your basement, bathroom, storm cellar withstands it and you look around, you can’t believe it.
This is an excellent presentation, job well done! I remember driving through to Moore the day after from up in Stillwater, seeing what the tornado did to the medical center and Plaza Towers was surreal.
Don't forget about Briarwood Elementary School. In a bittersweet anecdote to the seven children losing their lives at Plaza Towers Elementary School; no fatalities occurred at Briarwood Elementary School.
@@AC_WILDCARD You're welcome. There's a show on The Weather Channel called "Tornado Alley" and it has six episodes grouped under the secondary title of "Real Time Tornado" which profiled tornadoes using audio and visual footage of the tornadoes as they were occurring. Said episodes profiled the following tornadoes: 1.) Tuscaloosa, AL (EF-4 occurred on April 27th, 2011.) 2.) Joplin, MO (EF-5 occurred on May 22nd, 2011.) 3.) Henryville, IN (EF-4 occurred on March 2nd, 2012.) 4.) Hattiesburg, MS (EF-4 occurred on February 10th, 2013.) 5.) Moore, OK (EF-5 occurred on May 20th, 2013.) 6.) Washington, IL (EF-4 occurred on November 17th, 2013.) The episode on the Moore, Oklahoma tornado was the pilot episode of the show and it featured interviews of survivors, first responders and news anchors. One story that caught my attention was the story of a man named Sam Peña. Sam displayed nearly superhuman abilities to keep his son Benji as well as several of Benji's friends and classmates safe by using all of his physical strength to hold up a cinder block wall as they took shelter from the storm in a boys bathroom of Briarwood Elementary School. Despite what people believe; Sam doesn't consider himself a hero, saying that he was doing what any parent in his position would have done. However; I believe that Sam should have been awarded a medal of valor by Glenn Lewis (the mayor of Moore) for risking his life to save the lives of not only his son but also several of his son's friends and classmates.
@@AC_WILDCARDYou're welcome! I always enjoy watching videos like this because it's interesting to hear from the survivors of events such as this. Shayla Taylor is the mother who was in labor and had stayed with her nurses in the Maternity Ward of Moore Medical Center due to being numb from having received an epidural. To be honest I can't imagine the amount of fear and panic Shayla experienced when the tornado struck the hospital and blew out the doors to the C-section room along with ripping away a section of the wall. After being evacuated to another hospital Shayla gave birth to her son; whom she named Braeden. Learning about her story and the story of Lacy Jacobs was truly interesting. I can't imagine the amount of stress Lacy was experiencing as she had just given birth to her son Kellan and was having to deal with a tornado striking the hospital she was at. No doubt in my mind that Lacy feared she was possibly going to die. Nowadays Shayla is a nurse at Moore Medical Center as a means of giving back to her community and thanking the nurses who kept her safe. Though I can't help but wonder if Shayla's son Braeden is friends or at least classmates with Lacy's son Kellan as they are both school aged now.
@@AC_WILDCARDYou're welcome. One particular story from Briarwood that caught my attention is that of a man named Sam Peña. Sam displayed nearly superhuman abilities to keep his son Benji as well as several of Benji's friends and classmates safe by using all of his physical strength to hold up a cinder block wall as they took shelter from the storm in a boys bathroom at the school.
When my brother was remodeling Church’s Chicken in Moore. There was nothing left of that building. The freezer had a 1000 pound freezer full of chicken and it was never found and the highway was literally gone where it had crossed the highway🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️
That’s freaky to me that such large items are never found. A freezer has to go somewhere, right? I saw someone say that in another video. I don’t recall what the item was, but it was large and I kept thinking SOMEONE must have come across it SOMEWHERE and perhaps simply never reported it. Where the hell could these things go? Into the atmosphere? It’s too weird.
I lived in Moore when this tornado hit! My apartment was a mile away from all the destruction! I stood outside as the tornado hit and it was calm where I was but heard it hit and ran inside to an inside bathroom. I got lucky. Never underestimate the power of a tornado! I’m also an RN but worked in downtown OKC and had just gotten home from work. Code Black is code in a hospital for external disaster.
@@tonistark4169 2011 was just as bad cause it was around my town we never knew until the cops an fire/ems sounded there vehicles siren the main siren by the city hall didnt work an just a few years ago we got two new sirens
@@joshuaryanferguson3702 OMG! I was about a mile away OUTSIDE gawking when it hit Moore! I knew nothing and heard nothing at first until a colleague who knew where I lived called and told me to go in the BR and take cover! Can’t believe your sirens were on the fritz! We are both so lucky! Sometimes ignorance is bliss?
I was working on a hospital addition project locating the underground utilities near San Diego years ago and was wowed by a long hallway in the basement that had many, many pallets of water stored there. A hospital employee told me it was there in case of a big earthquake. They needed enough water for the patients and the employees for several weeks. That got me to thinking how much trouble millions of people along the coast would be in if there were a large earthquake. You need a gallon a day per person. Three days without water can kill you.
I gave birth 5 days after this. I cannot imagine how those moms must have felt. I had anxiety attacks because my son had bad gas pains, but what they went through was so much more.
I've always had the greatest respect for Nurses, these fine ladies along with the ones who took care of a new mother who had a C-Section as the Camp Fire approached the Feather River Hospital deserve everyones gratitude and prayers. Thanks to ALL Nurses, male and female for your Service. You are appreciated.
We actually thought it was a tornado that had caused this damage. However, we figured that, if it was a tornado, other houses would’ve been damaged as well. Our house was the only house in our neighborhood that was damaged. As a result, I figured that it was a lightning strike. However, about 25 minutes to hour west, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, there had been a confirmed EF1 tornado which, thankfully, did not injure anyone, but caused severe damage to a neighborhood in the city. I’m just so grateful that everyone is OK even though I didn’t know any of them. Still, we’re all humans and we help each other.
It wasn't just Moore that was hit so were surrounding areas and when I went to the supplies area they REFUSED to help me because my address did not say MOORE OK. That was totally mean we had no electric for over a week, my nephew was almost killed in the Moore School. His teacher, his best friend died sitting next to him. I had to beg them just to get a diaper for my granddaughter that wasn't even a year old...very sad! The stores were closed because they had no electricity either.
To think May 20th was 11 years since the last F5 tornado & it should have been broken by now is incredible Not to mention Joplin tornado is 13 years ago tomorrow
Always keep in mind that a tornado is like a vacuum cleaner so it's sucking air into it, and then shooting up into the sky, air and debris. so if you're ever looking out a window trying to figure out where the tornado might be, most of the time you want to follow where the debris is flying towards and most likely that's where the tornado will be
Luckily, me and my parents live in Pennsylvania, so we don’t get these big tornadoes. However, we just recently had an extremely severe thunderstorm and lightning struck a tree right outside our home woods collapsed and crashed, right into our living room. It took out several windows, it totally obliterated our outside deck and destroyed our air conditioning. It is all being worked on right now, and, obviously, we don’t really know when everything is gonna be fixed but hopefully soon. Luckily, no one was home because we were and still are in Sweden (Beautiful country by the way) so there were no injuries or fatalities. However, our wonderful home in Easton, Pennsylvania had significant damage, but it is being repaired. It was a tremendous shock to hear about it but we know now that we will be OK and we have the love and support the family living in our area. In fact, they said that if the air-conditioning is not fixed, we can temporally move in with them. That’s a relief.
Considering what happened at the two schools, why don’t they have shelters at schools, universities, and hospitals? It doesn’t make any sense these haven’t been built
Watching this made me go thru a Ptsd episode from this, I was in plaza towers before the tornado and got caught in it, I remember the screaming and crying and sounds, My heart goes out to the heros that saved all of us.
May 3,1999 was the worst that made it all the way to where I lived in Tulsa... I am so scared of tornadoes. Even living in NE Oklahoma my whole life has made that my biggest fear. I go from door to window all the way around my home and get extreme anxiety. I think this may be around the same time there was a dangerous tornado between Cleveland and sand springs… it touched down 2/10th’s of a mile from my home…
It varies from one hospital to the next in which emergency codes are paged for what situation. In this instance a Code Black is used for a severe weather situation. At the hospital I work at we use the following emergency codes for the following situations: Code Red= fire emergency. Code Gray= severe weather situation. Specified as either "Code Gray Watch" or "Code Gray Warning." Code Blue= medical emergency involving an adult patient. Code Pink= medical emergency involving an infant or pediatric patient. Code Crimson= severe postpartum bleeding. Code Black= bomb threat. Code Violet= combative or violent person. Code Silver= hostage or active shooter situation. Code Yellow= external or internal disaster that could stretch the hospital to its capacity. Code Orange= hazardous material spill, activate decontamination. Code Brown= lost, missing or wandering adult. Code Adam= missing or abducted child. Code Travel= evacuate the facility. Lockdown= secure the hospital and no one is allowed in or out. R.R.T.= Rapid Response Team is needed to respond to a fall emergency. Code 66= helicopter is landing, so get ready to meet the personnel and the patient. All clear= emergency situation has ended and normal operations can resume.
I live in Florida we get tornados and hurricanes we have building code laws for hurricanes but not tornados, while they are not as big or as bad as other areas it would be nice. I remember having 4 warnings in 2 night
@@thamertanner5448 I don't think there is a video about this, but you can google "children trapped and drowned in Moore Oklahoma tornado," and several articles will pull up about it. It happened at Plaza Towers Elementary school. I live in OK and saw the aftermath of this one. It was crazy.
@@thatsmynamesowhat2949 If memory serves me correctly; the children who lost their lives at Plaza Towers Elementary School ended up losing their lives because a cinder block wall collapsed inward and killed them by crushing them. It was ultimately determined that Plaza Towers Elementary School did not have a basement and the claims that the children drowned in a basement where they were trapped was untrue.
I'd like to add: some of the most frightening footage I've seen in this tornado was shot by professional storm chaser Pecos Hank. You can find him here in TH-cam.
Second this
I like him because he's nice and calm and doesn't yell.
@@RT-qd8yl That's Hank.👍
He's so chill and will stop and help animals out of the roads too 🥰
Pecos Hank is the absolute and undeniable bomb. Is he a filmmaker who loves storms or a storm chaser with a cinematic gift from God? Neither! He's literally a freaking guitar-totin' ROCK STAR!
May 20th is on a Monday this year and I bet people who lived through the 2013 tornado will have flashbacks
The story of the woman in delivery during this whole thing is absolutely wild. The nurses who stayed with her are amazing. Shonda Rhimes be damned.
I keep wondering at what point the laboring mom gave birth. I never heard them mention it. 🤔
@@BacktheBlue60 they said at 1:34 she gave birth…in this video around the 3 minute mark.
Who is Shonda rhimes?
@@deborahlosekelly1520 creator of Grey’s Anatomy, basically the reason half the ridiculous situations that the characters end up in like a bomb in a chest lol
@@Emm325 that was a different woman. the one in labor on the 2nd floor wasn't mentioned again.
When you stop and think what "a building" is supposed to do--provide shelter and protect--that's what that building did. "The building took the hit for us"...YES. That's a well designed and well built building. The building is the understated hero in the story. It did what it was supposed to do and it did it well.
I work in construction so its good to get recognition for our work. Im an electrician so the failsafes are different from what most people are going to be able to notice or recognize, but we still build things solidly nonetheless
Yes, praise to the builders! 🙂
Are you re.tarded ???😂 I guess the buliding is sentient now??? No one bult it?! The BUILDING is a hero???? Literally easiestly the dumbest comment on this video.
It’s a miracle that no one at the medical center died that day. A big part of this success is due to the center’s staff and the emergency preparedness staff. I’m sure the planning, keeping everyone calm, holding on to each other, and having a plan after tornado helped everyone stay calm. Much love and prayers to everyone ❤🙏🏼
Medical miracle. 😊
Science and engineering saved these people. The science of meteorology and weather prediction as well as the incredible engineers who designed the hospital to withstand the power of the tornado and the people who managed and ran the hospital. Thank them. They are deserving of praise and no one else.
It wasn't a miracle from your magical sky daddy, people. It was a marvel of modern human engineering. I hate when people attribute HUMAN actions to their imaginary friend.
If you want to thank someone, TRULY, then look up the people who built the hospital and designed the building, not your sky daddy who didn't do a damn thing 😂😂
@@turinggirl6432Coupled with the fact that many of the staff and patients were likely survivors of the May 3rd, 1999 tornado. I think that following the May 3rd storm; the administrative staff of Moore Medical Center decided to do better at keeping their staff and patients safe and preventing any additional injuries or loss of life the next time a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma. For example; they likely had the hospital's emergency backup generators installed below ground. Of course very few residents of Moore believed that a tornado as strong or as violent as the May 3rd, 1999 tornado could strike their city a second time; this tornado on May 20th, 2013 ultimately proved them wrong. A report from ABC News meteorologist Ginger Zee in the immediate aftermath of the May 20th tornado revealed that the website for the city of Moore, Oklahoma stated that there was a less than one percent chance of the city being struck by a tornado as strong or as violent as the May 3rd, 1999 storm.
God was with them
Ive met ppl from Oklahoma and they're some of the most down to earth, resilient, caring, giving folks I've ever known. They'll give you their last dime and the shirt off their back. Utmost respect for Okies.
It's a phenomenon known as the Oklahoma Standard. This term was first coined in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and was meant to reference how average everyday citizens dropped whatever it was they were doing and raced to the site of the bombing to help the first responders.
I can't speak for all Oklahomans, but as an Oklahoman, Celia, I thank you for your kind words
@@MichaelLovely-mr6ohthat's so interesting! Thank you! 😊
@@scootermom1791 You're welcome! Even crew members from the 1996 movie "Twister" helped the first responders at the site of the bombing. Just thought I would put that out there for people who enjoy movies from the 90's.
@@MichaelLovely-mr6oh what? I had no idea! I didn't even realize they'd filmed in the area. That's really cool!
BTW, I saw Twister in the theaters as soon as it came out. 🙂
As an RN, this, and what happened in NOLA with Katrina, is our worst nightmare that we hope never happens. You arent only responsible for yourself, but your patients, many of which may be bed bound and immobile. Terrifying
Or with what happened at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri. That hospital took a direct strike from the infamous EF5 tornado that hit Joplin on May 22nd, 2011. It was struck by the tornado at 5:41 PM and while none of the staff at St. John's were killed; five patients who were on ventilators lost their lives with a sixth person being a visitor who died from being crushed by debris. The Joplin tornado was strong enough to pull reinforced concrete stops out of the hospital's parking lot as well as tossing or crushing every car in the parking lot and blowing out all the windows. In addition; the hospital's Life Flight helicopter was blown off the helipad and destroyed by flying debris.
I read that book about what happened at mercy hospital during Katrina and I can't tell you how many times I cried listening to what all of the doctors and nurses had to do to keep as many people alive as they could.
@@kcs3151 I agree. Heard what happened. Im an Rn .its tragic
That lady's baby being born probably saved their entire family.
Happy 10th birthday to that baby❤
Shayla Taylor is the mother who was unable to move due to having received an epidural. Nowadays Shayla is a nurse at Moore Medical Center as a means of giving back to the community and thanking the nurses who kept her safe. I hope that her son Braeden is friends or at least classmates with Lacey Jacobs' son Kellan. To be honest I can't imagine how frightened Lacey was as she had just given birth and was understandably afraid that she was possibly going to die.
What an incredible thought, you could very well be right.
damn, imagine being born there on that day. like what a badass way to come into the world
The two Moore tornadoes and the Joplin tornado are the worst I’ve ever seen. Every single person in this video is a hero. I’m so glad that no one at the hospital was seriously injured.
The early 2010s seemed to produce batches of legendary horrific tornadoes Tornadoes are the primal stuff of nightmares.
@@craigusselman546There are many other legendary tornadoes from the early 2010's. Such as the following:
1.) Philadelphia, Mississippi.
2.) Smithville, Mississippi.
3.) Hackleburg/ Phil Campbell, Alabama.
4.) Tuscaloosa/ Birmingham, Alabama.
5.) Cullman, Alabama.
6.) Rainsville, Alabama.
7.) Ringgold, Georgia.
8.) Henryville, Indiana.
9.) Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
10.) El Reno, Oklahoma.
11.) Washington, Illinois.
Note that the first seven tornadoes are all from the Super Outbreak of 2011. All of them were nightmares in their own way. What is particularly surprising about the Hattiesburg tornado is that no fatalities occurred and only eighty-two people were injured. That tornado badly damaged or destroyed numerous businesses and vehicles on Hardy Street and Oak Grove Road in downtown Hattiesburg along with damaging residence halls on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi. Fortunately not many students or faculty members of USM were on campus at the time because they had gone to New Orleans, Louisiana for Mardi Gras weekend. A lot of people tend to say that the reason why Henryville was struck by a tornado is because a crew from The Weather Channel lead by meteorologist Jim Cantore was in the area. There's a bit of Gallows Humor that if you see Jim Cantore in your town; bad weather is bound to happen. Of course we all know about the 2013 El Reno tornado because of its utterly nightmarish width of 2.6 miles and the fact that so many storm chasers had to flee for their lives. What many find to be so shocking about the Washington, Illinois tornado is the time of year it occurred. You really don't expect a tornado to strike in late November and as a result the residents of Washington had gone from being excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas to a sense of heartbreak, helplessness, confusion and uncertainty. To add to their misery it snowed a week after the tornado; which as you can imagine hindered cleanup efforts. A lot of people think that Mother Nature was determined to shit on the residents of Washington. By an absolute miracle the Washington tornado did not strike any of the churches in the city because it was a Sunday and many people were attending church services that day. One of those people was the mayor of Washington; Gary Manier. He was attending services at Sunnyland Christian Church.
@@craigusselman546That is so true. Aside from this tornado in Moore, Oklahoma as well as the beast of a tornado in El Reno just eleven days later; there was the Joplin, Missouri tornado on May 22, 2011 and even a few lesser known ones: for example the EF-4 tornadoes that struck Hattiesburg, Mississippi and Washington, Illinois in 2013. The tornado that struck Hattiesburg, Mississippi was a wedge tornado; just like the ones that struck Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Joplin, Missouri nearly two years earlier, but there blessedly no fatalities in the Hattiesburg tornado. Now; the tornado that struck Washington, Illinois is particularly shocking because of the time of year it occurred: November 17, 2013. You really don't expect a tornado to strike in late November and as a result the residents of Washington were caught off guard and their excitement for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays turned into a sense of heartbreak, helplessness and confusion. To add to their misery it snowed a week after the storm; which as you can imagine hindered cleanup efforts. By an absolute miracle none of the churches in Washington were hit by the tornado. This was extremely fortunate because it was a Sunday and many people were attending church services; one of them being the city's mayor Gary Manier.
Add the Jarrell, Texas tornado from 5/27/97. EF-5 that destroyed a subdivision. Nothing left but concrete slabs. Just looked like a muddy field.
And El Reno 2013. Thankfully it tracked mostly only rural land. But Oklahoma City itself was only 20 or 30 miles away.
I was in that hospital that day. I was supposed to be discharged that day when the tornado happened. It was the scariest day of my life. I'm so thankful for the nurses and staff that day. They were all amazing!
Hospitals and medical centers are sometimes the safest places to be in a tornado. My mind always goes back to St. Johns in Joplin. Even with how horrifically powerful that storm was, that hospital still stayed up.
Basically the only thing that did
This reminds me of the deadly hurricane that hit Florida and a wife was also was in the hospital giving birth to their like 6th child- all under somethin like 8?!
while her husband was actually a scientist, whom was tracking the storm. The team was all on alert, til the storm took a Uturn and appeared to be going back out to sea- so much that the entire team sighed a huge relief and they all went home- with the one man heading home to his family where they were waiting on the baby to arrive and he was going to head to the hospital to be with his wife…when…the storm gained momentum and turned back around..heading straight for them. His wife whom had just given birth, told her husband to remain there with their family- all inside a little house- maybe 1500sqft? where there were like 4 adults, 6 children, a dog and like a couple kittens.
They had no idea that the storm had yet again made drastic turns and headed straight to their house.
The man piled his entire family, into the kitchen since it was the only place where they didn’t have to separate, and all of them-including the pets…huddled on the kitchen floor, where he placed a mattress on the sides of what appeared to be maybe 4ft wide between counters where they were.
And then…
he led them loudly in prayer.
They prayed and then sang gospel songs,in hopes of keeping the children calm..
as the hurricane hit them and their roof lifted.
This man was huddled over all of his children praying on the Lord to keep them and his wife and new baby, safe as well as everybody else.
I can’t even imagine other than him spread out over them like a mother hen…trying to hold onto each and every one of them.
The woman saw the helicopters going over the area hit…and saw her block…
ALL HOMES FLAT; GONE.
This woman was incredible.
She too had prayed.
And despite the hospital staff seeing her neighborhood obliterated…they didn’t know what to say to her, since it was apparent, no way they could’ve all lived; her 5 children, husband and family.
But she smiled and had thanked God…telling them all that she could feel her family was safe.
Obviously with her being on drugs still, the staff probably thought she was either delusional or in shock.
All of the telephone lines were down and not everybody had cellphones yet so there was no way she could get ahold of them.
But amongst the wreckage and carnage around them..
her husband, the scientist…and all of the children and rest of the family..along with their pets..
had climbed out from in between those mattresses- ALL alive..walking out to just flatlands; no neighbors, no nothing around them.
It was all barren.
The man was emotional telling the story, that he was breaking down as he recalled the event.
I remember balling too.
They gave all of the glory to God as it truly was a miracle.
It was such an incredible story. I think it was National Geographic doc, on a vhs tape I bought from like blockbuster, since my kids were obsessed with tornados.
To see the wreckage in these stories-
No doubt the Lord kept all of those people safe.
🙏✝️❤️✌️
Read one comment made about St. Johns hospital, 'Still saving lives at it was itself dying'.
Yeah, quite literally it is one of the few buildings in the area that was there before, practically all the buildings there now were built after.
My daughter was in labor at St Johns that day......thank god she delivered safely both were safe
My husband and I were sitting in our living room in Colorado and watching it on TV. There was amazing TV coverage, and we sat and cried right along with those in the path. Im a retired flight nurse, and felt so helpless just watching it hit, and then not being able to do a darned thing to help.
Nurses are awesome ❤
As a storm chaser to see this point of view Hits hard I’ve been out chasing and ended up helping out with search and rescue after chasing but i can’t say I’ve been in a building that was destroyed by a tornado and to see there is no severe injuries is amazing
That was God! He was here that day
@@derekfuller8103and I noticed He got all the glory.
This year was crazy for tornadoes and it was a sad year for tornado chasers with the loss of Tim Samaras and the Twistex team only 11 days after this tornado in El Reno. The happy ending to this deadly tornado with no loss of life because of quick thinking hospital staff. Great Video and amazing POV from people in the hospital that day. As a weather fan and a amateur Meteorologist this makes me happy.
And it’s actually bizarre because 2013 had the least amount of tornadoes in that time period. But there was some horribly violent tornadoes, more than usual for sure.
a few kids died in the moore tornado.
They
@@Satans.asshol3 They were talking about no loss of life in the hospital. It was heartbreaking that about half of the overall deaths from the tornado were children.
@@brodiessirenproductionsYep. Aside from the beasts in Moore and El Reno, Oklahoma in May of 2013; there were two EF-4 tornadoes that occurred in different parts of the year and in two different states: the first one struck Hattiesburg, Mississippi on February 10th and the second one hit Washington, Illinois on November 17th. What is particularly bewildering about the Hattiesburg tornado is that no fatalities occurred and only eighty-two people were injured. The storm badly damaged or destroyed numerous businesses and vehicles on Hardy Street and Oak Grove Road in downtown Hattiesburg along with damaging or destroying many houses in residential areas of the city as well as damaging residence halls on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi. Fortunately not many students of USM were on campus as they had gone to New Orleans for Mardi Gras weekend. The tornado that struck Washington, Illinois is particularly surprising to me because you really don't expect a tornado to strike in late November and as a result the residents of Washington were caught off guard. Their feelings of excitement for Thanksgiving and Christmas turned into a sense of heartbreak, helplessness and confusion. To add to their misery it snowed a week after the storm; which as you can imagine hindered cleanup efforts.
@@brodiessirenproductions Absolutely. Aside from this tornado in Moore, Oklahoma on May 20th and the absolute beast of a tornado nearby in El Reno just eleven days later on May 31st; there was an EF-4 tornado in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on February 10th and then another EF-4 in Washington, Illinois on November 17th. The tornado in Hattiesburg was a wedge tornado just like the ones in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Joplin, Missouri only two years earlier; but quite surprisingly no fatalities occurred in the Hattiesburg tornado and only eighty-two people were injured. This tornado badly damaged or destroyed numerous businesses and vehicles on Hardy Street and Oak Grove Road in downtown Hattiesburg along with damaging or destroying many houses in residential areas of the city and damaging residence halls on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi. Fortunately there weren't many students on campus that Sunday as they had gone to New Orleans for Mardi Gras weekend. With regards to the tornado in Washington, Illinois; it was extremely shocking because of the fact that you really don't expect a tornado to strike in late November. As a result the residents of Washington had gone from being excited for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays to a sense of heartbreak, helplessness and confusion. To add to their misery it snowed a week after the tornado; which as you can imagine hindered cleanup efforts. By an absolute miracle none of the churches in Washington were hit by the storm. This was fortunate because it was a Sunday and many people were attending church services. One such person was the city's mayor Gary Manier.
I live in Stillwater and watched this unfold on KWTV 9 and it was so gut wrenching to see. For a hospital to take a direct hit from a tornado and no one was critically injured or killed was amazing and says a lot about the staff and emergency procedures that were in place.
Wow. What a staff! Amazing people..... bravo. The nurse who got people out of their cars and into the hospital, incredibly brave!
Amazing stories from dedicated professionals who followed a well-thought out corporate plan within a hospital. As a retired FF/Paramedic, a part of the story we never get to hear. Thank you for this difficult recollection of that day.
The staff did an amazing job. They should be incredibly proud for going above and beyond.
I don't understand how the hospital staff and a new mother can retell the story without crying 😢 😭 I'm a blubbering mess just hearing hearing about the tornado blowing through the hospital 😭😭
What’s so special about this event was, it was the same day my dad passed away. I’m from Missouri, but being a weather fan, this tornado will hold a very special place in my heart.
Sorry for your loss 😢
@@stevenbuckles5983 Thank you.
@@ohaiijessieeMy condolences on your father's passing.
@@MichaelLovely-mr6oh Thank you.
The part where the woman said I’m paranoid because I’m a may 3rd survivor always gets me! Because they were about to have the same exact thing happen a few hours later! Never been in a tornado nor do I ever want to be! (Edit really quick) it’s insane that the same exact thing happened in 2013 that happened in 1999! It took some of the same path and it had a lot of the same intensity, although the may 3rd tornado was stronger! None the less they were both very urgent situations that I’m glad weren’t taken lightly!!!
A few days later we lost tim samaras, his son, and his driver during the el reno tornado. Pecos hank caught the moment they were swallowed up by the funnel on his rear cam. He also chased this storm and joplin.
Pecos Hank did not capture it, Dan Robinson did. He was about a 1/2 mile ahead of them driving for his life. He also deleted the part where the satellite vortex hit their car in respect for the families. It wasn't very clear footage or anything but he had said you could see the headlights, then they were gone.
@@deathbloom27I can't imagine the amount of Survivor's Guilt that Dan Robinson no doubt feels on a daily basis as he wonders why did he survive but Tim and Paul Samaras and Carl Young did not. I also can't imagine the amount of grief and sorrow felt by Tim's widow Cathy Samaras as she not only had to lay her husband to rest; but also her son.
I will never forget that day. I worked for SilverStar Construction and was at 164th and Western down by the river across from Newcastle. I was fueling our equipment looking at the dark sky overhead and towards the west thinking this don't look good. And about that time my general manager pulled up and said to hurry up. That we were done and call it a day. Said we had a big one coming in. And to go ahead , and head home. But stay by the phone if we need you. Well all hell broke lose and I wasn't able to get back till the next day. I can say God was there that day, and for the next few months. We did help with emergency response and search and rescue. Along with rebuilding the town . I was shocked when I saw the hospital, and then Harkins theatre. Hospital gone. And the theatre took a direct hit. But didn't phase it! Weird things like that, and then poor kids never had a chance
It was mortal men and women who worked to save everyone. There was no fictional sky wizard involved.
Uh, the movie theatre in Moore, Oklahoma is named the Warren Theatre. I have seen photos and video footage of the Warren Theatre after the May 20th storm and aside from moderate damage to the marquee; the Warren Theatre was largely unscathed. To be honest I can't even imagine the amount of fear among the staff and moviegoers at the Warren Theatre when the tornado occurred. I have also seen footage from security cameras mounted on the exterior of the Warren Theatre that overlooked the parking lot of the Warren as well as the nearby shopping plaza and it was utterly terrifying seeing people running out of the shops and businesses nearby and sprinting across the parking lot to get to safety in the lobby of the Warren.
Thank you to everyone working at that hospital who got everyone through and to everyone impacted working together in the aftermath to grieve and rebuild.
This tornado is the first that really left me as a storm chaser shaken. It was a whole different breed of tornado. It's one of a very few that haunt me to this day. To hear the stories of what happened at this hospital at the time for the first time in over a decade is crazy. I'm glad everyone there was alright.
What’s the other one that still haunts you?
Y’all storm chasers are so brave. Thank you for the work and research you’ve done and helped with. 🙂
@@goldiloks08 Well there's only a select few.
El Rino (the big one from 2013,) Joplin 2011, Jarrell, Moore OK (Both of them,) & Tuscaloosa. Those do, the reason being each one had a particular way of destroying everything.
With the EF5 of Joplin, it was the fact it was completely hidden & rain wrapped to such an extent the news & media had no idea it was in town until it was over halfway through.
With El Rino, its size, & the loss of great & legendary storm chasers of team TWISTEX, broke all the rules a normal tornadic storm follows, & the fact it had winds over 300mph.
Tuscaloosa; while wasn't an EF5... that one behaved like it had a mind of its own almost. The fact it went straight through town.
Jarrell; started as a rope tornado for minutes on end then turned into Satan suddenly without warning right when it came into town.
Moore OK; That day was a day straight from a nightmare for those people. May 3rd, 1999. That F5 tornado holds the world record to this day for the highest natural wind speed ever recorded on Earth. 320mph + or - recorded by a DOW truck on sight of this tornado. Then another EF5 in 2013 hit. I remember this one the most of both of them. KFOR tv: "This is May 3rd All over again." That quote was terrifyingly accurate. It's now been 10 years since that tornado & I can remember it like it happened yesterday. People there to this day in that town hit are terrified when a tornado does touch down out of fear it will turn into another Moore OK 1999.
1 decade since this happened.
Ya reckon?
I remember being a nursing assistant in MO and it was part of our actual class about how to handle tornadoes on shift it was drilled into us, and every facility I worked it was further drilled into us at orientation we didn't play around for sure and this is why
I wish they would do a documentary on the medical centers in New Orleans following Katrina. I was an X-ray tech at a major hospital, but once the power went out those skills weren't needed and I simply bagged people who were on breathing machines that were no longer working. The only evacuation route was by boat since the ground floor was completely flooded to the ceiling. We had to lower bed-ridden patients down with slings made of bedsheets. I was transferred to a facility that needed my skills and I don't think I stopped for 30 hours. The news was all about the fatalities but there were hundreds of people with broken bones, legs, arms, backs and skulls. Most survived but some were permanently disabled in some way. The most important was how our hospital staff from every department from surgery to dishwashers pitched in a gave their all to help.
i know this comment is from 10 months ago, but they did!! it’s on apple TV and AMAZING!! they did a great job, name is five days at memorial!
We lived nearby and came to help with the initial cleanup and for months afterward. So much devastation and destruction. So many lives effected that day.
Just listening to the destruction caused by the tornado and reading the words at 16:24 gave me chills. That was a miracle. I work at a nursing home as a nurse aide and to get everyone to a safe place in the building would not be easy. I hope nothing like this hits the nursing home.
Sadly during the EF-5 tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri on May 22, 2011 twenty-one fatalities occurred at the Greenbriar Nursing Home despite the efforts of the firefighters and paramedics to rescue all the staff and residents. This story isn't as well-known as some of the other stories from the Joplin tornado; such as the destruction in and around St. John's Medical Center, Franklin Technology Center, Joplin High School, St. Mary's Catholic Church and School, the Lowe's and Home Depot hardware stores, numerous businesses on Rangeline Road, et cetera.
@@MichaelLovely-mr6oh that's horrible
@@fireraptor6670 Someone on Quora asked why the Joplin, Missouri tornado of 2011 was deadlier and more destructive than the Moore, Oklahoma tornado of 2013 even though they were both rated as an EF-5 by the National Weather Service. It comes down to the following six key factors:
1.) The Joplin tornado formed too quickly for the National Weather Service office in Springfield, Missouri to issue a Tornado Emergency for the city of Joplin even though they had issued a Tornado Warning for both Jasper and Newton counties in southwest Missouri and Cherokee County in southeast Kansas.
2.) The tornado formed right outside of Joplin, cut through the city and dissipated upon leaving it.
3.) Prior to May 22nd, 2011; Joplin had not experienced a significant tornado since 1971, so the residents of Joplin assumed that the mountainous and hilly terrain of southwestern Missouri would function as a natural shield from tornadoes.
4.) Many residents of Joplin had ignored the tornado warnings when they were issued on May 22 due to being desensitized from the city issuing too many false alarms.
5.) When the tornado sirens in Joplin were first sounded at 5:17 PM Central Time it gave the residents of Joplin a woefully insufficient amount of seventeen minutes to take shelter. When the tornado sirens were sounded a second time at 5:34 PM it was too late to do anything because the tornado was on the ground and moving through the city.
6.) By far the biggest contributing factor is that the Joplin tornado was hidden in heavy rain and difficult to see.
By comparison the residents of Moore, Oklahoma are extremely weather-wise and aware of the potential severity of tornadoes because their city is practically synonymous with large, violent and destructive tornadoes. A prime example of this is the F-5 tornado which decimated their city on May 3rd, 1999. When the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma issued a Tornado Watch for much of central and eastern Oklahoma at 1:10 PM Central Time on May 20th, 2013; three of the major TV stations in Oklahoma City (NBC affiliate KFOR channel 4, ABC affiliate KOCO channel 5 and CBS affiliate KWTV Channel 9) immediately suspended regular programming and went into wall-to-wall coverage of the weather; with the city's Fox affiliate KOKH Channel 25 and their Telemundo affiliate KTUZ Channel 30 doing so when the first thunderstorms erupted southwest of Oklahoma City.
@@fireraptor6670 It is. Like many people I saw the devastation in Joplin, Missouri through The Weather Channel and remember all too well how Mike Bettes broke down sobbing on air as he was reporting live on the scene outside of St. John's Medical Center for The Weather Channel. It caused dozens of people who were watching The Weather Channel that Sunday night to realize the severity of the tornado if it was capable of bringing a seasoned meteorologist such as Mike Bettes to tears. What I find to be extremely sweet is that following the disaster Mike had adopted a Golden Retriever who had lost her home in the storm and named her Joplyn. Aww!
When you're a nurse, and then a manager, .... this happened to me when my nursing home caught fire. All around us fire and debris was falling. I lost no one. That woman was a hero. And that makes me proud.
Thank you God for having mercy on all of these people. A big thank you to all the nurses that took care of their patients. What heroes they are.
I was working at Convergys on 19th street in Moore when this came through (It's a Sam's Club now). It somehow missed us and completely leveled the neighborhood behind us and the library barely a block away. I think maybe it matters exactly where and what it's hitting as to how it sounds. To me, it sounded like one of those claps of thunder that shakes the whole house and rattles the windows, but it just went on and on and kept getting louder and louder. That day was totally crazy.
We had some of the RFD come through, or maybe the outer bands of winds from the tornado itself that did a tiny bit of damage to the roof and flipped some cars in the parking lot, but that was it.
i live in a small town it almost hit on the second day it was a 1/4 mile away from my town in caddo
Looking at that pile of cars -- I know the nurse said they were from around the neighborhood nearby, but earlier they had described people trying to shelter under their drive-up, and how the (assistant director?) had gone out and pulled people into the building so they wouldn't be caught out in the tornado. So I know the pile of cars toward the end wasn't those cars, but I'm thinking the cars people drove there for shelter probably ended up in about the same condition, if not being blown an entire neighborhood over, so she saved those people's lives for sure. I'm so impressed by her willingness to put herself on the line for them, and the way all the staff and employees went above and beyond to keep their patients and visitors safe. (The linking arms story was amazing and more proof of the wisdom of those folks.) I'm so glad none of those people were hurt or killed, and so sad for the ones elsewhere who were.
This is a welcome video. The Joplin story got a lot of press, but I haven't heard this story before. My daughter is an L&D nurse, so I'm always interested these boots-on-the-ground stories. Thank you for this.
I'm pregnant and am scared to give birth I can't imagine being in labor and having a tornado. Great job nurses ñand newly momma❤
I traveled to Norman/Moore after the tornadoes and worked in an animal shelter. It was very gratifying. I went to Katrina too. The destruction of nature was just awful.
congratulations to the Moore Medical Hospital and community family on a magnificent example of duty and love.❤❤
Tornado sirens sounding as I watch this. Great timing.
Are you okay...?????
you good my guy
Relax. It was like...a Wednesday or Thurs when that was posted. Lots of places test the sirens once a week....usually a Wednesday or Thursday.
I was actually on a college club trip and we passed right through Moore OK (We were headed to Santa Fe) less than 30 minutes before the tornado touched down. Right after we got past the city everyone went through a cell dead zone that lasted for almost two hours. All of our families were freaking out because last they had heard we were just hitting Moore and then heard nothing after seeing stuff about the tornado on the news and thought we had got caught by it. None of us even knew that there was potential for a tornado, just a really bad thunderstorm. We honestly just were extremely lucky that we decided against stopping in Moore like we had originally planned because we didn't need gas yet and were running behind.
My husb and Chiweenie and I were right in the middle of moving from Ada to Tulsa at the time this tornado was hitting Moore. Very tense weather day for sure.
Opening car doors!? You the REAL MVP!
Even though I work at the front desk of a primary care provider office, I chose to join my Healthcare system’s HERTeam because I wanted to ensure the same level of preparedness and response to any sort of disaster. I grew up in Missouri with tornadoes, my mom worked with the Red Cross, my dad was a Naval Medical corpsman, so I am acutely aware of how critical it is to react quickly. Fortunately, I have yet to be activated outside of drills. Sadly, mass casualty events did happen near us, but there was little to no action we could have taken. One was the Marshall Fire in Superior, Colorado, the other was the King Soopers shooting in Boulder.
As a retired ER/ED nurse i have dealt with gas, severe MVAs, criminals, but I don't think I could have dealt with a EF5 tornado. Y'all have my respect, job well done. God bless.
It's bewildering to think that no patients or employees lost their lives at the Moore Medical Center when this nightmare of a tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma on May 20th, 2013. Like many of the meteorologists and storm spotters were saying on air: "This is May 3rd, 1999 all over again!" By a stark (and extremely saddening) comparison five patients and a visitor at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri lost their lives during the EF-5 tornado that struck Joplin on May 22nd, 2011. The patients who lost their lives were on ventilators and they died when the tornado destroyed the hospital's emergency backup generators and the sixth fatality at St. John's was a visitor who was crushed by falling debris.
Thank you for doing that for them.. I would want you all as my care staff if I should ever have to go to hospital where you all work.
Great story of preparedness, survival, and recovery. Thanks for sharing.
I can't even begin to wrap my head around what this must have been like. God bless the amazing staff at Norman Medical center and all the people of Moore!
This reminds me if the time i saw a spout of a tornado while i was inpatient at a mental hospital. It never touched down but to see it at night from afar really shook me up. I was a little confident that the hospital wouldn’t blow away. The tornado disbanded as quickly as it came but i ended up getting very little sleep that night. I couldn’t imagine enduring the fear that those people went through.
To imagine I was across the street above ground.... I was 6 at the time and just.... wow.... Our home was gone and we should have died but weren't even hurt except bruises.... Every time I watch these things I praise the Lord.
My family and I are from Utah and as soon as it came across the news we scrambled to get as many supplies and clothes we could get our hands on and headed that way with 10 trailers. It was the most horrific thing I’d seen and now live in Nebraska close to where the twin sisters hit and that was so hard to shelter in place and wait until we could move to go search. Everyone in the hospital is a hero ❤
These doctors and nurses are the truest of true heroes!
Thank you for crediting the actual people who saved everyone, instead of a fictional sky wizard.
Major kudos to the staff. Their proactivity saved lives
So devastating that the place injured people needed to go was hit. I visited family in Lawton OK when I was 10. The first thing my great aunt and uncle showed us when we entered their house was where to go if there was a tornado. I think it was crazy they had a nice big 5 or 6 bedroom house but no basement or storm shelter. They said to go into the master bedroom closet on the main floor. Thankfully it was summer and it didnt rain at all. I was worried. My mamaw grew up in Chickasaw and never saw a tornado.
My grandparents, mom and aunt were coming back from Kansas and a tornado hit. She was 10 and my aunt was 8.They had to take shelter under an underpass and hoped for the best. The tornado went passed them but the force of it still moved there car 20 feet away. She
saw 4 cows, car, truck and an 18 wheeler go by inside the tornado. She said the sound was so bad that it felt like her head was going to explode! Their eyes had dirt, grass and some concrete dust. A small stick hit my grandfather in the head. Just a deep cut. Needless to say that my mom and aunt never wanted to go back there. I cant imagine what devastation this caused. So sad. 😢
They are lucky, I've seen it said sheltering under an underpass is one of the worst things you can do cuz it actually amplifies the wind. Supposedly the safest thing is to find the lowest point of land, like a drainage ditch on the side of the road, and get as low as you can.
@@thamertanner5448 Thats the only place they had to go to at the time. I was thinking the same thing when I heard it. I guess my papaw thought that was the safest place. He'd never seen a tornado.
@@thamertanner5448 I've been on the highway in Kansas with tornado sirens going off in the town we were driving by and the crazy green black sky. The ditches were full of water because it was raining buckets. We were like "get low and drown, sounds like a plan". Sometimes there are no good options. Luckily we drove out of it and the tornado didn't hit any houses.
Very interesting & well put together. Thanks for sharing
These are important and amazing stories. Untold stories about unsung heroes 🎉
11:25 this moment has to be the most descriptive experience Ive heard of being in a tornado. Air pressure, sideways flying debris, and immense loud winds. Not to put it lightly but it sounds like being in a vacuum cleaner.
That’s exactly it..a giant powerful vacuum
The air pressure is what people really don’t understand, it’s not like being on an airplane or underwater. And you feel it in your chest and lungs too. And when your basement, bathroom, storm cellar withstands it and you look around, you can’t believe it.
This is an excellent presentation, job well done! I remember driving through to Moore the day after from up in Stillwater, seeing what the tornado did to the medical center and Plaza Towers was surreal.
Don't forget about Briarwood Elementary School. In a bittersweet anecdote to the seven children losing their lives at Plaza Towers Elementary School; no fatalities occurred at Briarwood Elementary School.
absolutely right man, thanks for the reminder!@@MichaelLovely-mr6oh
@@AC_WILDCARD You're welcome. There's a show on The Weather Channel called "Tornado Alley" and it has six episodes grouped under the secondary title of "Real Time Tornado" which profiled tornadoes using audio and visual footage of the tornadoes as they were occurring. Said episodes profiled the following tornadoes:
1.) Tuscaloosa, AL (EF-4 occurred on April 27th, 2011.)
2.) Joplin, MO (EF-5 occurred on May 22nd, 2011.)
3.) Henryville, IN (EF-4 occurred on March 2nd, 2012.)
4.) Hattiesburg, MS (EF-4 occurred on February 10th, 2013.)
5.) Moore, OK (EF-5 occurred on May 20th, 2013.)
6.) Washington, IL (EF-4 occurred on November 17th, 2013.) The episode on the Moore, Oklahoma tornado was the pilot episode of the show and it featured interviews of survivors, first responders and news anchors. One story that caught my attention was the story of a man named Sam Peña. Sam displayed nearly superhuman abilities to keep his son Benji as well as several of Benji's friends and classmates safe by using all of his physical strength to hold up a cinder block wall as they took shelter from the storm in a boys bathroom of Briarwood Elementary School. Despite what people believe; Sam doesn't consider himself a hero, saying that he was doing what any parent in his position would have done. However; I believe that Sam should have been awarded a medal of valor by Glenn Lewis (the mayor of Moore) for risking his life to save the lives of not only his son but also several of his son's friends and classmates.
@@AC_WILDCARDYou're welcome! I always enjoy watching videos like this because it's interesting to hear from the survivors of events such as this. Shayla Taylor is the mother who was in labor and had stayed with her nurses in the Maternity Ward of Moore Medical Center due to being numb from having received an epidural. To be honest I can't imagine the amount of fear and panic Shayla experienced when the tornado struck the hospital and blew out the doors to the C-section room along with ripping away a section of the wall. After being evacuated to another hospital Shayla gave birth to her son; whom she named Braeden. Learning about her story and the story of Lacy Jacobs was truly interesting. I can't imagine the amount of stress Lacy was experiencing as she had just given birth to her son Kellan and was having to deal with a tornado striking the hospital she was at. No doubt in my mind that Lacy feared she was possibly going to die. Nowadays Shayla is a nurse at Moore Medical Center as a means of giving back to her community and thanking the nurses who kept her safe. Though I can't help but wonder if Shayla's son Braeden is friends or at least classmates with Lacy's son Kellan as they are both school aged now.
@@AC_WILDCARDYou're welcome. One particular story from Briarwood that caught my attention is that of a man named Sam Peña. Sam displayed nearly superhuman abilities to keep his son Benji as well as several of Benji's friends and classmates safe by using all of his physical strength to hold up a cinder block wall as they took shelter from the storm in a boys bathroom at the school.
Very well done documentary.
Thank you all for this.
When my brother was remodeling Church’s Chicken in Moore. There was nothing left of that building. The freezer had a 1000 pound freezer full of chicken and it was never found and the highway was literally gone where it had crossed the highway🌪️🌪️🌪️🌪️
That’s freaky to me that such large items are never found. A freezer has to go somewhere, right? I saw someone say that in another video. I don’t recall what the item was, but it was large and I kept thinking SOMEONE must have come across it SOMEWHERE and perhaps simply never reported it. Where the hell could these things go? Into the atmosphere? It’s too weird.
Amazing documentary, very touching!
I am so glad nobody was killed by that tornado. The Nurses were amazing and strong too.
I lived in Moore when this tornado hit! My apartment was a mile away from all the destruction! I stood outside as the tornado hit and it was calm where I was but heard it hit and ran inside to an inside bathroom.
I got lucky. Never underestimate the power of a tornado!
I’m also an RN but worked in downtown OKC and had just gotten home from work. Code Black is code in a hospital for external disaster.
i live in a small town it took a turn on missing by a 1/4 mile on the second day it was there
@@joshuaryanferguson3702 we were both very lucky not to have been hurt! 👍🏼
@@tonistark4169 2011 was just as bad cause it was around my town we never knew until the cops an fire/ems sounded there vehicles siren the main siren by the city hall didnt work an just a few years ago we got two new sirens
@@joshuaryanferguson3702 OMG! I was about a mile away OUTSIDE gawking when it hit Moore! I knew nothing and heard nothing at first until a colleague who knew where I lived called and told me to go in the BR and take cover!
Can’t believe your sirens were on the fritz! We are both so lucky! Sometimes ignorance is bliss?
@@tonistark4169 more or less my towns never been hit
I was working on a hospital addition project locating the underground utilities near San Diego years ago and was wowed by a long hallway in the basement that had many, many pallets of water stored there. A hospital employee told me it was there in case of a big earthquake. They needed enough water for the patients and the employees for several weeks. That got me to thinking how much trouble millions of people along the coast would be in if there were a large earthquake. You need a gallon a day per person. Three days without water can kill you.
What a great nursing staff.
I gave birth 5 days after this. I cannot imagine how those moms must have felt. I had anxiety attacks because my son had bad gas pains, but what they went through was so much more.
I have a huge respect for the people living there. To be able to survive and then rebuild their community once again 🤗💜
20:03 is the most crazy, haunting, and eye opening part of this video. A freaking piece of lumber impaled a concrete support stand.
I swear. God makes nurses. They are blessed and touched by Him!
I've always had the greatest respect for Nurses, these fine ladies along with the ones who took care of a new mother who had a C-Section as the Camp Fire approached the Feather River Hospital deserve everyones gratitude and prayers. Thanks to ALL Nurses, male and female for your Service. You are appreciated.
Great documentary.
God bless these nurses, staff and volunteers!
We actually thought it was a tornado that had caused this damage. However, we figured that, if it was a tornado, other houses would’ve been damaged as well. Our house was the only house in our neighborhood that was damaged. As a result, I figured that it was a lightning strike. However, about 25 minutes to hour west, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, there had been a confirmed EF1 tornado which, thankfully, did not injure anyone, but caused severe damage to a neighborhood in the city. I’m just so grateful that everyone is OK even though I didn’t know any of them. Still, we’re all humans and we help each other.
What an amazing staff and brave patients. ❤❤
stories like this give me hope
We lived in Chickasha and watching this from us was one of the worst days. other then the May 3rd one
It wasn't just Moore that was hit so were surrounding areas and when I went to the supplies area they REFUSED to help me because my address did not say MOORE OK. That was totally mean we had no electric for over a week, my nephew was almost killed in the Moore School. His teacher, his best friend died sitting next to him. I had to beg them just to get a diaper for my granddaughter that wasn't even a year old...very sad! The stores were closed because they had no electricity either.
Excellent documentary! Thanks for making this!
Oh my goodness. Listening to those nurses gave me chills. And I am writing this through tears. Truly, it was a God thing.
Nurses are badass.
To think May 20th was 11 years since the last F5 tornado & it should have been broken by now is incredible
Not to mention Joplin tornado is 13 years ago tomorrow
Oh my god imagine the two babies being born to this nightmare.
Always keep in mind that a tornado is like a vacuum cleaner so it's sucking air into it, and then shooting up into the sky, air and debris. so if you're ever looking out a window trying to figure out where the tornado might be, most of the time you want to follow where the debris is flying towards and most likely that's where the tornado will be
Absolutely phenomenal medical professionals! God bless them all!
Luckily, me and my parents live in Pennsylvania, so we don’t get these big tornadoes. However, we just recently had an extremely severe thunderstorm and lightning struck a tree right outside our home woods collapsed and crashed, right into our living room. It took out several windows, it totally obliterated our outside deck and destroyed our air conditioning. It is all being worked on right now, and, obviously, we don’t really know when everything is gonna be fixed but hopefully soon. Luckily, no one was home because we were and still are in Sweden (Beautiful country by the way) so there were no injuries or fatalities. However, our wonderful home in Easton, Pennsylvania had significant damage, but it is being repaired. It was a tremendous shock to hear about it but we know now that we will be OK and we have the love and support the family living in our area. In fact, they said that if the air-conditioning is not fixed, we can temporally move in with them. That’s a relief.
Considering what happened at the two schools, why don’t they have shelters at schools, universities, and hospitals? It doesn’t make any sense these haven’t been built
The hospital I worked at called code grey for severe weather and code orange for disaster
The power of prayer
When "the wall disappears" you know you are in the shix.
And if you are watching TV during a severe weather situation and you see black on the radar; you know at that moment shit has officially hit the fan.
God bless you all🙏🙏🙏
I don’t care if it’s code black I’m instantly setting up Yellow. Go go go.
Watching this made me go thru a Ptsd episode from this, I was in plaza towers before the tornado and got caught in it, I remember the screaming and crying and sounds, My heart goes out to the heros that saved all of us.
May 3,1999 was the worst that made it all the way to where I lived in Tulsa... I am so scared of tornadoes. Even living in NE Oklahoma my whole life has made that my biggest fear. I go from door to window all the way around my home and get extreme anxiety. I think this may be around the same time there was a dangerous tornado between Cleveland and sand springs… it touched down 2/10th’s of a mile from my home…
Wow, just wow. When it's not your time, it's not your time to go home to the Lord.
It was all the prayers being sent up that saved those in the hospital! Amen!
I don't understand why its called Code Black when the code for a external threat such as a tornado in a hospital is Code Green
It varies from one hospital to the next in which emergency codes are paged for what situation. In this instance a Code Black is used for a severe weather situation. At the hospital I work at we use the following emergency codes for the following situations:
Code Red= fire emergency.
Code Gray= severe weather situation. Specified as either "Code Gray Watch" or "Code Gray Warning."
Code Blue= medical emergency involving an adult patient.
Code Pink= medical emergency involving an infant or pediatric patient.
Code Crimson= severe postpartum bleeding.
Code Black= bomb threat.
Code Violet= combative or violent person.
Code Silver= hostage or active shooter situation.
Code Yellow= external or internal disaster that could stretch the hospital to its capacity.
Code Orange= hazardous material spill, activate decontamination.
Code Brown= lost, missing or wandering adult.
Code Adam= missing or abducted child.
Code Travel= evacuate the facility.
Lockdown= secure the hospital and no one is allowed in or out.
R.R.T.= Rapid Response Team is needed to respond to a fall emergency.
Code 66= helicopter is landing, so get ready to meet the personnel and the patient.
All clear= emergency situation has ended and normal operations can resume.
Bravo!!! Well done!! 👏🏆🥇🥇🏆
The word of God says:
“PEACE TO PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL”
I live in Florida we get tornados and hurricanes we have building code laws for hurricanes but not tornados, while they are not as big or as bad as other areas it would be nice. I remember having 4 warnings in 2 night
The most chilling event when this tornado happened was the children getting trapped in the basement and drowning. Truly horrible.
Wait what? I haven't heard this before. Do you have any more info? Is there a video or documentary that mentions this?
@@thamertanner5448 I don't think there is a video about this, but you can google "children trapped and drowned in Moore Oklahoma tornado," and several articles will pull up about it. It happened at Plaza Towers Elementary school. I live in OK and saw the aftermath of this one. It was crazy.
@@thatsmynamesowhat2949 If memory serves me correctly; the children who lost their lives at Plaza Towers Elementary School ended up losing their lives because a cinder block wall collapsed inward and killed them by crushing them. It was ultimately determined that Plaza Towers Elementary School did not have a basement and the claims that the children drowned in a basement where they were trapped was untrue.