Since it is Tornado season, I thought it appropriate to show this footage of the most unbelievable devastation I have ever seen. This is footage of the F5 tornado that David Payne, a meterologist and a stormtracker were filming and streaming back to the station the night of May 3, 1999, when the F5 tornado hit Oklahoma City.

This is the only tornado that ever made me want to find a hole into which to hide. In the end, SIL, Baby Granddaughter #1(who was two at the time) and I drove to Norman to the Law Center, which is half underground, where Holly was.

She was there studying for finals; I was watching Baby Granddaughter for her, and Bevan was at Tinker on duty. When he came by about 5:30 to pick up the baby, I had dinner ready. I had been watching this storm on TV for about an hour when he arrived. By 6:00 p.m. the storm was rapidly approaching Oklahoma City, projected to hit between S.W. 134th and S.W. 89th by 6:30. I lived on S.W.104th; Holly and Bevan lived on S. W. 131st.

I told Bevan that it was time for us to get the hell out of Dodge. As we drove down I-35 to Norman(about a fifteen minute drive), this tornado was tracking right up I-44(about five miles from us).

As you will see in the video, by that time the tornado was so huge that it looked as though the entire cloud was on the ground.

As it moved north/northeast, we were driving southward away from it. It cut a 20 mile swatch out of Moore, Oklahoma City, Del City, and Midwest City, destroying 10,000 homes, untold cars, and killing 44 people. Without the adequate warning we had, many more could have been killed.

It hit Holly and Bevan's neighborhood taking a half-mile swath through it from southwest to northeast. Every house on their street was leveled with the exception of four that sat down in the cul-de-sac, which was lower. Holly and Bevan's home was right in the middle of the cul-de-sac. Though their home sustained $30,000 in damage, they were able to live in it once they boarded up the windows that were broken and cleaned up one bedroom that was trashed.

As you watch this video, notice how much bigger and lower this tornado becomes as it approaches the Oklahoma City Metro.(Ignore the cosmetic brief. It goes away in seconds)