Racing to Their Deaths (ONC 2024)

🌪️ 6. Funnel of Death

The day turned to night. —Eyewitness account of tornado.

Around them, the prairie sky glowered with a sickly green, horror film menace. Nasseem looked out the passenger window and observed a large black slab had lowered from the sky.

Approaching the small town of Quintin, the eerie whine of tornado sirens reverberated through the air. Amy turned on the wipers as an immense tidal wave of rain lashed the car. From the darkened windows of surrounding residences, they determined the electricity was out. A familiar freight train roar and a deep, earth-shaking vibration accompanied the blaring warning sirens.

"Tornado on the ground!" Amy wrenched the steering wheel towards a deserted township road and floored the gas pedal with her commando boot. The Nova's engine revved as she caught up to and pulled ahead of The Interceptor, staying next to the huge churning funnel as it moved parallel to the highway. The car shimmied from a gust of wind as they punched out of the rain cloud.

"Is this twister big enough to deploy the probe?" Amy shouted. The Nova's nose vibrated with the outer edge wind shear.

"That's Jame's call. It's only several hundred yards wide, but it's powerful," Halle, answered. Beside her, she heard rapid clicks as Naseem photographed the turbulent weather phenomenon.

"There's another one!" Amy pointed towards the opposite side of the road.

As if the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk had dropped a wispy line from the heavens, a twisting rope tornado lowered to the ground and delicately teased the grass in an undulating dance. A few minutes later, the see-through funnel strengthened into an opaque silo-wide monster as dirt, grass and branches flew through the air.

"That's beautiful." Nassem swiveled towards the second twister to capture more pictures.

"Watch it, Amy," Halle warned. "It's turning."

It appeared as if the two vortexes would collide, but the larger funnel crossed the road in front of them barely missing the other vortex. Amy slowed to a crawl. To their left, the rope tornado had strengthened and was now a slate gray color. As if guided by a malicious invisible hand, it headed towards a development of high end houses.

"Oh, no." Nasseem drew in his breath as the drill-bit tornado swept into a Colonial-style house and tore off the dormer.  The roof was ripped off and exposed the second floor wooden banister. The freight train roar of the tornado superseded the sound of snapping timber as support beams gave and the house collapsed sideways. Listing precariously, the structure shuddered.

A screaming middle-aged woman waved her hands and ran into the road in front of them. Her gray-streaked hair and mud covered dress were drenched. Before they could talk to her, the Quintin Mayor's blue Cadillac pulled into the debris strewn driveway and ejected the corpulent, balding mayor like a pin striped Pez. He gently grabbed the hysterical woman by her shoulders. "Who's trapped?"

Sobbing, she pointed towards what was left of her demolished house. The exposed wooden frame shifted and pieces of crumbled drywall rained onto the ground. "My daughter, Maria, is in there! She ran inside to get her dog." The woman made small, whimpering sounds in her throat.

"It's all right. I'll get her." Slowed by the debris of the demolished house and the hindrance of his three-hundred-pound body, the mayor lumbered towards where the daughter was trapped.

Halle bit her lower lip. She ran forward and blocked his path. "We can help. You're too heavy to navigate that house frame. The whole structure will come down."

Just the way our house collapsed and killed my mother.

He brushed her aside. "I know what I'm doing. I used to be a volunteer fire fighter." It was well known the opinionated mayor considered himself to still be in his football-playing prime. Inside the structure, a dog could be heard yapping while a child screamed. The tornado exited the development and evaporated in the distance.

"Oh, my God, help her. Hurry!" The woman's cries grew urgent.

The Interceptor pulled up to the scene and Zane hopped out. "What's happening?" James exited a moment after his friend.

"A little girl's trapped in that house. We need to get her out before it collapses." Halle raced towards The Interceptor. "Do you have any rope?"

Amy nodded, "We can set up a winch system to help free her."

James looked at the sky and shook his head. "There's been multiple tornados....more could form any moment." In the distance, approaching fire truck sirens wailed. "We're not equipped to search through dangerous wreckage and find survivors. Let the professionals do that job."

"Like hell, we're not." Zane pushed past him and hurried towards the house. James reluctantly followed his taller friend.

"Please, hurry!'" The woman screamed.

Halle looked up at the ugly greenish sky. "We can't wait for the fire trucks. We have to get her out now."

(* Model for tornado image is from earthsky.org)