Chapter 3 | Tornado 1: Minco - Tuttle EF4

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It was the day of the outbreak.

Jarred got his sleep, he woke up at 7:23 A.M. He got in his car, and drove towards the metro to station himself until a storm would develop.

Then, a powerful storm began to develop just west of Minco, Oklahoma. He quickly drove to the area, he checked radar and saw a hook signature. A tornado was on the ground.

He looked up and saw it.

The tornado was dangerous

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The tornado was dangerous. It was decently sized too. The tornado hit a few structures. The first structure was a small house that was damaged on a pretty bad level, almost flattened, but it wasn't very well built.

The tornado began to ravage across the fields, and it crossed the road right in front of Jarred's car with nearly 150 mile per hour winds.

The tornado then went right onto the Main Street. It didn't do the worst damage, but it definitely wasn't good.

The tornado exited the main area of Minco and moved towards Tuttle. When it moved right into Tuttle, debris was thrown FAR. With winds in excess of 165 miles per hour!

Jarred had entered Tuttle as the tornado ravaged right in the middle of the town.

Julia snuck up on Jarred and drove around him, she began to check on people in structures while Jarred began to photograph the tornado.

"Get over here! You're just taking pictures of the tornado while I'm actually saving lives!"

"Don't start."

Jarred puts the camera back onto the dash and ran over to another building. He checked around and people were very marginally injured with some cuts and bruises, but then he saw the next alright-built building.

It was flattened. It wasn't built too well, so that was why. But he checked under all the debris and rubble, he saw 2 people, a man and woman, and a small puppy, all of them died.

Jarred looked back at the whole town, with a lot of damage across the tornado.

Though, the tornado didn't fully weaken, it had looped around, and headed toward Tuttle again.

Jarred and Julia sprinted towards their cars and drove back quickly. Debris that was already taken from homes got lofted. And homes that weren't hit, then got hit pretty hard.

Winds exceeding 175 miles per hour slammed homes and almost slabbed them all.

A large piece of debris slammed Julia's front bender, and damaged it. Though not enough to make the car not work.

Another storm spotter zoomed past the two cars, and accidentally got too close to the tornado. The car was picked up, and tossed around like a hot wheel toy. Finally the tornado threw it half a mile from the tornado.

"Get back!" Julia yells to Jarred. They both back up as the tornado quickly moved towards them.

They backed up and left Tuttle, and headed up to El Reno, where they could still see the tornado.

While driving up to El Reno, they saw the car that had gotten tossed, the driver was killed.

Jarred and Julia watched as the tornado began to rope out and lift from the ground. They quickly drove back down to Tuttle, and almost everything was slabbed.

A few houses were very close to having EF5 damage. Jarred, had quickly got out and looked for anyone. Almost everyone he saw was dead.

The tornado had done the worst damage he had ever seen.

Yet the tornado STILL wasn't over. It had touched the ground again, as it's still at its EF4 strength, but it stayed away from any structures.

The two watched the tornado maintain itself in a field for around 15 to 20 minutes.

While they watched, they called emergency management and authorities. As they watched the tornado continue to move slower, ambulances, police officers, and firefighters drove into the towns of Minco and Tuttle.

So did many storm spotters.

Jarred watched in awe as he continued to look at the photogenic tornado. It was definitely strong, but now that it had no structures to destroy, they could watch it without any more casualties occurring after what Tuttle had gone through.

The tornado began to rope out again and disappear into the rotating mesocyclone. Then the mesocyclone began to stop rotating.

Jarred and Julia began to observe the extra damage. They helped the most they could with Emergency management and the officers.

This was a destructive tornado. Everything in the path was almost completely destroyed.  It was insane how crazy the outbreak was, and it was only the first tornado.

Everyone began to leave the area and go toward their areas, as they would brace for even worse tornadoes.

The tornado status would be:

52 deaths
217 injured

832.3K in Damages.

The tornado was rated a high-end EF4. It was one of the scariest sights Julia had seen, as that was one of the first tornadoes she had chased.

They had to hurry the fastest they could to Norman, as something significant was forming.

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