It was one year ago, June 11, 2008, when Kenny Allen and I found ourselves in a very dangerous place: inside a tornado. Not just ANY tornado, but the same tornado that leveled the Little Sioux Boy Scout Ranch in western Iowa.

On that morning, demands at work kept both of us from doing any real forecasting. Basically I pulled up the Day 1 Outlook from the Storm Prediction Center on Google Earth and told Kenny, “somewhere in there”. We consulted our meteorologist friends and we agreed the Nebraska/Iowa border area somewhere between Sioux City and Omaha looked good.

Our plan was for me to leave work in Huron, South Dakota after lunch and drive to Vermillion, SD, where Kenny was working… which just happened to be on the way to our target: Onawa, Iowa on I-29. I picked him up the minute his shift was over and we headed south.

The Chase Is On

Around 2pm as we drove, the Storm Prediction Center issued a Mesoscale Discussion (MD) stating that a Watch was likely soon due to 1500 CAPE, 70 dew points, and a cold front about to plow into that. The Tornado Watch was issued just before 3pm and included the wording “Significant risk of Tornadoes” for any storm forming ahead of the front. Spirits were high.

Minutes later, we spotted the first funnel cloud of the day near Elk Point, SD. Just off of I-29, a “sideways” funnel was dancing and rotating around in the sky over the Elk Point exit. At times it looked like a snake, other times like a wisp of cigarette smoke connected to the cloud base. It was very odd and I could tell it wasn’t going to come to the ground, but nonetheless it was there.

We videotaped the funnel and called it in to the National Weather Service. There was barely any rotation detected on radar. In fact, the cell that produced the funnel was very small and I’m not sure the NWS believed us at first. However, they put out a Tornado Warning and that group of storms eventually went on to produce tornadoes in northeast Iowa and southern Minnesota.

Kenny and I were feeling pretty good about that little “pre-show” and I thought to myself, “If that’s all we see today, I’m good with that.” Little did we know things were about to change rapidly. Storms were beginning to fire in a broken line all the way from the Sioux Falls area to west of Omaha. Some of the first Severe Thunderstorm and Tornado Warnings started to come in.

As planned, we made it to the Onawa, IA exit just as a storm a few miles west went severe. We caught up with the storm as it produced a few wall clouds but it quickly fell apart and we headed back to Onawa to plan our next move.

We could see on radar that the storms were starting to become more and more “connected” by rain in a linear fashion. Yet, you could still clearly see the individual embedded supercell structures contained in the line. Another Tornado Warning was issued for a strong storm to our southwest. We opted to make a circle around the cell to the north, then east, then southwest to get in position. This took us into some very hilly and tree-filled terrain in the Loess Hills.

Bad Area

After entering the forested area a few miles, we could tell that it was a bad place to try to view storms. We also could tell that the storm was gaining strength as the cloud-to-ground lightning was getting more frequent and concentrated every second. As Kenny and I crested a hill and pulled into an overlook area, we could see what appeared to be a rain-wrapped wedge tornado just a few miles away. We called the NWS and streamed video for a few moments and then bolted east, knowing a possibly violent tornado was on our backside.

The rain was relentless as we tried to get away. We drove out of the hills as quickly as we could safely until we came to Highway 183. At the double arrow, we had two choices, left (northeast) or right (southwest). Since we thought the tornado was moving northeast, I decided to turn right. What we didn’t know at the time was that the tornado had ALSO made a right turn and had been paralleling us on the road the whole time.

We’re in the Tornado

Tree leaves and sticks turned into large branches as debris pelted our car. A few more feet down the road and we realized what was going on. Our ears popped as we got our first glimpse of the tornado funnel emerging from the rain. All we could think to say was “we’re in the tornado”. And we were in the tornado in a Saturn, not in an armored vehicle.

At that precise moment, WOWT-TV from Omaha took our feed and Kenny’s phone call live on the air. The front edge of the tornado with winds moving left-to-right went over us. For the next 20 seconds, the tornado, with winds estimated around 110mph whipped over our car, smashed corn stalks, rocks, and other unidentified objects into us, blew out the back window, turned us sideways on the road, and tried to push us into the ditch. It was slightly calm for a couple seconds, then the back edge with right-to-left motion went over us. Another barrage of debris slammed into our car in the opposite direction. It was clear that we had just been in the middle of a tornado.

To say we were stunned is an understatement. I’ve mentioned a few times that my brain just went on “auto-pilot”. We just kept talking on our phones. The thought of death did not occur to me. We had been in severe winds before, just not quite like this. I’m not sure I even realized what had just happened until 10 minutes later when I said “I think we got all of that on tape.”

There was no time to rewind and check the video at that point because as far as we knew, there was still a tornado on the ground heading for Moorhead. We spun the car around on the highway and continued after it, knowing we were behind the tornado and out of the danger for the most part. The next 2 hours are a blur: Debris raining down on us for what seemed like an eternity, not knowing exactly where the tornado was or where it was going, a steady stream of police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances going toward the area we just left.

What just happened?

Meeting all the emergency vehicles on the road gave us the feeling that something bad had just happened. Something other than our own encounter. Something big. We reported the traffic to WOWT and Kenny said “I hope there are no injuries”.

Meanwhile, we realized that, in our daze, we had driven back EAST of the storms and were once again being chased. Lightning bolts hit the ground all around us near Dunlap as sirens wailed and local residents stood around on front porches and sidewalks (not the right place to be). About this time, our power inverter gave up and we pushed forward on laptop battery just trying to get away from the storms.

We zig-zagged east and south, east and south as more areas of rotation popped up on the radar, all seeming to be heading in our direction. We had enough damage on the vehicle as well as our fill of rain-wrapped tornadoes for the day, so we found a car wash in Harlan, Iowa and dove inside. When the tornado sirens went off in Harlan, we closed the door to the stall and got back in the car. It was a few minutes after things calmed down in Harlan that I got the inverter working again and was able to pull up the report that said “Injuries reported at Boy Scout camp on Monona/Harrison county line”.

As with all tornadoes that cause damage and loss of life, we, as storm chasers, were very torn about what had just happened. Not only did we get to witness the awesome power of nature, capture it on tape, and stream it live, but we also had to come to terms with the realization that something very bad had also happened just a few miles away from us.

Media Relations

Some people have said we “went running to the media” with our video, but here’s what actually took place. Our video broker just happened to be shooting a reality TV show in the area, and had just passed through Harlan when I called to tell him what we had on tape. He came back to the car wash and had the video dubbed before I could even get plastic on the busted window. Also, an executive with the company that owns WOWT was in Omaha and watched our encounter live, as it happened, on his TV station. Word spread fast after that.

The phone started ringing before 10pm; TV networks and stations from around the world wanted to get our video for the morning news shows. We probably sat in the car wash for 3 hours while the reality TV crew interviewed us and our video was being uploaded, not knowing what do to or where to go. I did realize that I wouldn’t be at work in the morning, so I called a co-worker to let her know.

Once everyone left, we patched the hole in our car and decided to head toward I-80 for gas as it was now a little after 11 PM and I figured the Avoca truck stop was our best bet. It was only 10 miles to the truck stop.

Hi, Dave

As we pulled in to get gas, I noticed a satellite truck parked one pump over. Out of curiosity, I told Kenny to go see who they worked for. They said “CBS, we are on our way to Little Sioux”. Then we told them about our encounter. The driver of the satellite truck then said “let me go wake up Dave”. “Dave?” I thought… “Ok, whoever” and finished pumping gas and got back in the car. I managed to quickly bang out an email to our team and wives to let them know we weren’t dead. A few seconds later, I hear a knock on my window and it’s Dave. Dave Price. Meteorologist from the CBS Early Show.

Dave was very interested in seeing our video so we showed it to him on our camera. He then called New York to make sure that our video was secured for the morning show. We chatted for a few minutes about SevereStudios and then took a quick picture with him. The crew had to get on the road so we thanked them and went inside the truck stop for a minute. The TV inside was still doing wall-to-wall coverage of tornadoes in Iowa and also mentioned Kansas.

We didn’t even realize there had been other major tornadoes that night, including Chapman, Manhattan, and Soldier, KS.

Sleep? What’s That?

We made the long trip back to Sioux Falls by about 2am and decided to eat at IHOP. While we were eating “breakfast”, the phone started ringing about interviews for Kenny and I to tell our story. At first, we were reluctant to grant interviews since we didn’t want to take advantage of the story. But after talking with producers for a while, I realized they thought we were just a couple dudes who happened to drive through a tornado. We decided to do the interviews to tell the correct story as they played our video.

By the time breakfast was over, we were booked solid for interviews all day. Then it dawned on us: “We don’t have any clothes”. Not only did we not have clothes, but no razors, no shampoo, no deodorant, no hair gel, no clean underwear, nothing. We hadn’t planned an overnight trip. Off to WalMart!

Now let me mention, going to a WalMart at 3am is an experience, even in Sioux Falls, SD. We were very tired and at this point were very loopy and very LOUD. Plus, here are two guys at 3 in the morning shopping together for clothes. Needless to say, we got a few strange looks.

Once the wardrobe and hygiene products were in the bag, we called up a friend of Kenny and begged him to let us use his shower. I’m sure we woke up his wife when we rang the doorbell and knocked on the door to get in. We told him our story, got cleaned up, and had our first phone interview which was taped by ABC for later use.

Up and Down the Dial

We called the local TV station and told them we were gonna stop by so they could get the video directly from us and have it on the air by 5:30. The station put us on the weather set and interviewed us two separate times. In the control room we watched as our video was rolled by every network at the top of the 7am news.

By now, I was downing coffee like there was no tomorrow. My eyelids just wanted sleeeeeep… but we had another national interview to do, this time with CBS:

http://www.truveo.com/storm-chaser...

After another local interview, it was time to get on the road back to Blencoe, Iowa, the biggest town near the Scout Ranch. It seems that’s where most of the satellite trucks were staging for the day’s news coverage and where we were supposed to meet up with each channel.

With our tiredness, we knew it wasn’t safe to drive anymore, so we asked the TV station to drive us back to the area. We hopped in the car and a reporter drove. Kenny said he couldn’t sleep so I handed him my phone. Once when I woke up, he had a phone in each ear, confirming times and locations. Every media outlet from the Madison, SD newspaper to the BBC wanted an interview it seemed.

Retracing Our Steps

We had a little time before the first interview via satellite, so we took the reporter on the route we had driven only 18 hours prior. It was eerie to go back on the same roads and this time see the path the tornado had carved through the hills. We talked to a family who lived just up the road from where we were hit. Kenny found the road sign that was blown down in our video. We saw the scoured field where the tornado had been right before it crossed the road.

Once the reporter had a story, she had to dump us off somewhere and get back to Sioux Falls. In the mean time, the national networks had been calling every 10 minutes to make sure we were going to be on time to the interviews and to let us know the roadblock to the Scout Ranch had been opened and we were now to meet the reporters and satellite trucks at the Ranch.

We had no intentions of going to Little Sioux that day. I didn’t want to see it. Earlier, we were told we would meet in Blencoe or at the intersection just south of the Ranch where the roadblock was. As we pulled up to the entrance to the Little Sioux Scout Ranch, I remember the wooden sign was broken and hanging sideways, buildings were leveled, debris was everywhere, and the worst sight was a pair of kid’s shoes hanging in a tree. Kenny and I almost threw up. We dumped our laptop and camera off with a technician and had to walk away for a while to regain our composure.

Sweat and Sunburn

It was very sunny and warm on June 12th. As mentioned before, we didn’t plan on being on being out of town so sunblock wasn’t on the list of stuff we packed either. My face was already beet red when we got wired up for the first live shot.

I swear we did interviews with stations I never knew existed. Did you know Fox has a business channel? Well apparently they do and we talked to them. Long story short, after walking up and down a gravel road from satellite truck to satellite truck for 4 hours, we got a little toasted. Fortunately Rusty Lord from WOWT came to our rescue and we cooled off in his car for a while.

We never did shoot one second of video of the destruction at the Scout Ranch.

Larry King

One final call came in while we were doing our satellite “hits”: Larry King’s producer wanted to know if we would be interested in a one-on-two interview with Larry at 7pm that night. Again, something that we had no idea would happen to us because of a tornado. I always thought I might be running a control board for Larry someday… not appearing on his show.

We knew it would be the most watched interview of the day and that we would take a lot of grief from other chasers for being on the show. However, just three days earlier, we had officially incorporated our company and this would be big exposure. We had one stipulation: Someone would have to drive us back to Sioux Falls after the interview.

Rusty dropped us off at the Blencoe community center where CNN was camped out. We were able to rest inside and get a good meal. Earlier in the day, the center was used as a command post and shelter and a lot of people had donated food and water. I took a bottle of water and used it as a pillow and tried to sleep for a few minutes on a park bench.

Preparations for the interview began. We were fitted with microphones and earpieces so we could hear CNN. Bugs were flying all over and landing on our faces so they threw us some industrial bug repellent wipes which seemed to take care of the situation. Then Atlanta started talking in our ear. “Get ready guys, Larry’s going to talk to the reporter on the scene and then after the first break we are coming to you.”

We did our best to answer Larry’s questions but to be honest; I had no idea what I was even saying at this point. When I talked all I heard was buzzing in my head. I think we said something about staying safe, paying attention to warnings, and the standard “don’t try this at home”. Larry asked why we weren’t dead. Kenny mentioned our prayers for the Scout families.

The strangest part of the day came when it was time to finally leave Iowa. A limousine dispatched from Omaha showed up in Blencoe to take us home. Apparently when you are on Larry’s show they take care of you very well. Big thanks again to CNN for the ride.

Pain and Sorrow

In addition to the four Scouts who lost their lives, 48 other people were injured, including the family of camp ranger Nathan Dean who took shelter in the furnace room as their house collapsed on top of them.

I just can’t imagine dropping your son off at a Boy Scout leadership training retreat and picking him up later at a hospital or not seeing him again until the funeral home. The stories in the Omaha newspaper told of the pain and sorrow the families were facing.

72 For Little Sioux

After a couple days of sleep, we hit our fundraising effort hard. First, we set up accounts with PayPal to handle donations. Kenny and I sent press releases to every newspaper in the region. Then we sent emails out to everyone in our address book and put banners on weather websites. I went back on local TV morning shows to talk about “72 For Little Sioux”; Our fundraiser would last 72 hours over a weekend.

With the $1,000 we kicked things off with, we ended up with over $3,500 in donations that went directly to the Ranch and to the Dean family. We are still very proud that we were able to raise some money for the Scout Ranch and for the Dean’s. It wasn’t millions, but thanks again to everyone who donated to our Little Sioux fund raiser last year and the TV stations that helped get the word out.

In Conclusion

We still think about the Boy Scouts involved in the tornado just about every day. We’ve even called the Dean’s while chasing to tell them to keep an eye on things. We probably always will when severe weather approaches the western Iowa area. Those kids were going to perish whether we were there or not, but that is they type of thing we try to prevent and why we chase.

Our thoughts and prayers go out again to the Fennen, Thomsen, Petrzilka, and Eilerts families as well as the Dean family and everyone else affected by this tornado.

--Kory

More Coverage:

Sioux City Journal series:
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/littlesioux/

Storm Stories segment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUtBnCrwn4I