Tornado Hunt Team Takes Direct Hit by Tornado

[Valin]

The Weather Channel:

6/1/13

 

http://youtu.be/MzDucFnqlN4

 

The Weather Channel Tornado Hunt Team is safe, but shaken up after their chase vehicles took a direct hit by a violent tornado west of Oklahoma City.

 

Meteorologist Mike Bettes was chasing the monster rain-wrapped tornado near El Reno, Okla. when he says the storm picked up the heavy chase SUV and threw it an estimated 200 yards.

 

"We were ahead of the storm. We stopped to broadcast and I saw a large violent wedge tornado," Bettes said in a live phone interview after he established phone connection after the incident.

 

(Snip)

 

[Valin]

4-year-old swept away by floodwaters in tornado-hit Oklahoma

Ian Johnston and M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

6/1/13

 

A 4-year-old girl died after she was swept away by floodwaters fueled by a swarm of destructive twisters that tore through Oklahoma late Friday.

 

The girl was taking shelter with her family in a ditch when she was got caught in the storm and pulled away, Oklahoma City Police Department spokesman Lt. Jay Barnett said.

 

It is unclear whether the girl is one of the nine people who died as five tornadoes one a half-mile wide struck the Oklahoma City area Friday evening, terrorizing communities already battered by deadly storms this spring.

 

In Missouri, authorities said high waters killed three people in Lawrence, Miller and Reynolds counties.

 

(Snip)

[clearvision]

3 of the dead where from another storm chasing team....

 

Storm chasers, TV personalities among Oklahoma fatalities

Three storm chasers were among the nine people killed in powerful storms that struck Oklahoma on Friday night, relatives told CNN on Sunday.

Tim Samaras, 55, his son Paul Samaras, 24, and Carl Young, 45, died while chasing a tornado in El Reno, relatives said.