Year of the tornado

A breed apart: Tornado chasers
Jim Gardner: Look at this. Look at this. This is still significantly on the ground. I just hope it doesn't cross H.E. Bailey. But if this thing crosses the nearest people on H.E. Bailey, it's gonna be disastrous.

Jim Gardner (in copter): You have the knowledge to fly it around the storm to where to be and where not to be. We're dealing with a lot of elements. We're delaying with the possibility of hail, lightning, very strong winds, down drafts.

Jim Gardner: I'm Jim Gardner. I'm the helicopter pilot reporter for News Channel 4 in Oklahoma City. I've been here at this particular station since February of 1996.

Jim Gardner: When I first came back here, you know, they asked me-- they said, "Do you have a problem flying in storms?" You know, and I said, "Well, you know, I was in Los Angeles, you know, during the riots, and the floods, and the OJ Simpson chase, and the fires." And I said, "I don't think storms would be too big of a deal."

Jim Gardner: We're starting to get kicked around from the inflow...

Jim Gardner: Well, it is a dangerous profession. But I think we provide a real, true community service to the people of Oklahoma. Because it's a unique state for bad weather.

Jim Gardner: Everything is done on a calculated basis. We just don't fly out there and just, "OK, we're going to go to this storm" and we just fly into it.

Jim Gardner: We sit down with Mike Morgan, the chief meteorologist. We determine where we're going to be, where the storm -- possiblly most sever -- storm is going to be, what position, where they're going to be moving.

Mike: There's a risk involved. And we have to constantly shake hands with each other to make sure that we're all on the same page, we know where the most dangerous weather is, where we are from that dangerous weather, get close to it but not in it.

Mike: Jim, tell us what you see...

Mike: The weather can turn on a dime here. Just when you think perhaps nothing may happen, everything will happen. It's like ingredients to some violent concoction. And you add ingredients, subtract ingredients. They strengthen, they weaken. So it's our challenge to keep track of all those different elements as they change. And see if that concoction is goin' to finally brew together to make this-- this violent outbreak of severe weather possible.

Jim Gardner: Things changed in May 3 of 1999.

Jim Gardner: I don't know if they can see what we're seeing, But this is phenomenal, Mike... This is absolutely incredible - the size.

Jim Gardner: That particular tornado is the largest in recorded history, I think. It had winds of excess of 300 miles and hour. So, there was no way of really recording it. But-- we tracked that storm from the start to the-- to the end. And I made a turn to get some distance on the storm. And to look down and see the destruction that was caused. I mean, there was entire neighborhoods that were just cement slabs.

Jim Gardner: The neighborhood is gone, Mike... There must be 350 homes that are gone...

Jim Gardner: And at that point, I thought thousands of people were dead. I mean, I figured we just lost thousands of people in Oklahoma City. There's no way anybody could live through that carnage.

Jim Gardner: If you're seeing this, Mike, this is incredible damage. I mean the neighborhood is gone.

Jim Gardner: We lost 44 lives, which was still too many. But for a tornado to be that big, and to cause that much damage, and only lose 44 lives, I thought, "Man."

Jim Gardner: You know, if we hadn't really been up there, no telling how many lives we coulda lost. 'Cause the-- like the natural feeling of-- of people is they don't wanna leave their belongings, or leave their house. You know, and when they're-- when they're looking at home, and looking at a radar you see the colors. You can see the cells. They tell you which way it's moving. But you really don't get the true effect until they come to a live picture from a helicopter, and actually see what that tornado is doing. And that's what we're able to show. And I think it-- I think it saved-- thousands of lives. And any time you can help people-- I mean, there's no better feeling than that.

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