The tornadoes struck near the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, where 24 people were killed by a violent tornado around two weeks ago. Oklahoma City was also hard hit, suffering from severe flooding and damaged buildings.
So far, nine people have been confirmed killed by Friday’s tornado, including two children.
“The flooding is the major problem in the Oklahoma City metro,” Lt. Jay Barnett of the Oklahoma City Police Department told reporters. “A lot of that has to do with people who, for whatever reason, instead of sheltering decided to outrun the storm and got caught in it.”
Many storm chasers tried to capture footage of the tornadoes swirling their way across Oklahoma. Below are the top five videos going viral online, and note some of the videos display strong vulgar language:
Tornado suction vortices caught on camera near El Reno
According to the video description, cameramen recorded the tornado touching down and producing a rare display of suction vortices. The footage will apparently appear on an upcoming episode of Tornado Chasers.
Riding out the Oklahoma tornado
Recorded by Dan Robinson, AP’s latest video of the violent tornado shows clips of the storm bearing down on Oklahoma farms. Watch for the broken windshield later in the video.
Storm chasers struck by debris (includes interior-car footage)
StormChasingVideo.com storm chaser Brandon Sullivan and his chase partner Brett Wright got caught in the tornado and slammed with debris northwest of Union City, OK, the video description explains. The frightening video puts you in the driver’s seat as you navigate through a deadly storm.
Weather Channel’s car tumbles across road
Meteorologists can be courageous to get the scoop, as we learn here when The Weather Channel’s Mike Bettes chases the Oklahoma tornado until his car is flung in the wind. The Weather Channel said all of the occupants were wearing safety belts and were able to walk away from the banged-up vehicle, according to media reports.
Note the camera’s view is from inside the vehicle, so the last few seconds of footage can be difficult to decipher.
Catching the El Reno tornado, as drivers speed in opposite lane
Tornadoes turn drivers to desperation. One such example is this video’s final few seconds, filming a driver on an Oklahoma highway speeding past other vehicles…going the opposite route! It’s unclear what happened to that driver after the video ends.
