El Reno: The Largest Tornado

By: Amanda Whitsell

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On Friday, May 31st, 2013, at about 4:30, a blip would form over Oklahoma; this blip would soon become the El Reno, the largest tornado in recorded history. At about 6:03, a funnel would touch the ground before going back up, but soon fall back down. The beast would move southeast at around 20 mph. The tornado's vortices would move erratically into the direct path of a tornado tour group. The tornado would almost hit this group; the monster was expected to go from the west to the east, and they would escape by only 60 seconds. Hundreds of storm chasers would scrabble to escape the path of the tornado, not foreseeing its unexpected path. The roads would be blocked by the closing traffic jams. The first team of chasers would be caught in the storm. The last words we can hear from Sullivan and Wright are them screaming “debris”  before their signal would go out. The pieces of a ravaged farmhouse would shade their windshields before they would get out for the tornado. 

A team called Twistex will parallel this beast. Behind Twistex is another storm chaser team named Dominator. Two more subvortexes will form, making the tornado the most unpredictable beast in history. It would swing in front of the Twistex. A civilian, Mr. Henderson, was also caught by this devil and would drive into the tornado, but the tornado, by some miracle, would turn around. The beast would pick up speed during its turn and is now an astounding 50 mph, and in a few short minutes, it would grow in size. In its new racing speeds, it would take the lives of two people. O'Neal and Bridges would lose their lives, the first of 8 deaths. A team of Weather Channel chasers would get caught in the middle of the tornado and would miraculously all live despite the state of their car. The monster would turn north as if it were chasing Henderson the entire time; he would die, leaving a wife and two young children. Soon after, the Twistex team would be hit by the beast. Tim Samaras, his son Paul, and Carl Young would die. The tornado will once again rapidly grow in size and power. The highest winds recorded were 296+ mph. The devil would run down I-40; there were thousands on the highway. There would be only 2 deaths from the interstate: Maria Martha and her 17-day-old baby would fly out of the vehicle, killing them, leaving her husband and 2 other children in the car. It was a miracle that the tornado would rapidly reduce in size before hitting the most packed part of the interstate.