Decided to change it up a bit from the usual studio video for a "Bald and Bankrupt" style on location video. Def a good change up but I'll be back with another normal video next. Thanks again for watching! Where should I go next? Special thanks to Wendall and Nancy for the interviews! Wendall is 91 (legend)
@Swegle Studios I hope you do a deep dive on the Pilger twins. I moved 15 minutes away from where they hit. Wayne nebraska a year before them had a monster side skirt the town.
The interviews made me emotional. Far too often the emotional toll of storms is overlooked. Bless these kind people and may they never have to experience this horror again. ♥️
There was a website that was up for years where you could see the various lots in town before the tornado, right after the tornado, and the most recent picture of the lot. It got taken down some time ago, but it was certainly an educational tool to use learning about the various types of damage buildings could have.
That is the QUIETEST town I've ever seen. It looked like a very peaceful walk though. I liked this new style of video! Very different yet cool! Also I wonder if the areas where homes were not rebuilt were deaths or just people not wanting to come back to the town? Nature will ALWAYS reclaim what is taken from her and this shows it. Very cool stuff!
I am from the area, and can say a lot of the towns around here are like that! Mine is just a bit smaller with about 1,000 people, but the same quiet nature. Makes for some very enjoyable walks. Most places in town can be reached by walking too
@@lorddeez1385 That's so cool! I live in a big city so you HAVE to drive to get anywhere useful and it's noisy depending on where you are. (Though my area is pretty quiet) You get used to the noise and can tune it out, but I do like the fact small towns can just walk everywhere. That sounds so nice!
I love the tornado stories about how crazy the wind can be.. You could be in the middle of an EF5 and everything obliterated but your flippy floppys are still in the same spot you left them..
Thank you for interviewing Wendall and Nancy. I'm so glad they made it out okay and that her friend had her "miracle" of flip flops and finding her rings!
Oh, also I looked up what it means when a community is StormReady! Thought I'd pop it in here for anyone who couldn't make out the URL on the sign. To be officially StormReady, a community must: 1. Establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center 2. Have more than one way to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts and to alert the public 3. Create a system that monitors weather conditions locally 4. Promote the importance of public readiness through community seminars 5. Develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises.
@@funnyusername8635 I'm gonna talk to my county EOC about this. We have a brand new full siren network, but they stopped using them in favor of just WEA and EAS.
One of the very best tornado channels on the internet. Really appreciate the great content and wish you much more growth and success with the channel! 🌪️🌪️🌪️
2008 was just a bad year for Iowa, not only the devastating tornado, but also horrible floods. Also this shows just the loving and relaxed nature of people and how much they are able to just talk. Nothing like living in a small town in Iowa. I love my state (for the most part xD)
Do more like this, you are on to something huge. Consider using people who lived through it to provide more history, context and detail, as well as proof of their resilience. The satellite mapping was awesome. You rock!
Really like the idea of visiting these places in person. If you do another one it'd be really cool to interview someone like a town official at the time or the local weather crew or something like that. Really liked the talking to the people that lived it
Top notch video, Jake, and love the first-person take on the tornado as well, both people were lovely and obviously loved talking to you! More of these in the future would be cool for sure!
I really enjoyed this style Jake. Very compelling content. Plus it's always good to highlight the positive people and stories from events like this. The gentleman and lady that you spoke were very kind and genuine to share their memories. Top work.
Do more of this content sweggle, been following u from the very beginning. And this is the kind of tornado content youtube is lacking. Interviews with survivors, and the live aspect of seing the city hit. This is something really interesting for a guy like me, living in Denmark. Thanks for the video sweggle. 🙏😁
Been a long time subscriber of yours. This is one of your best videos. Thanks for highlighting a "smaller" F-5 tornado. Hearing from the locals who lived through the storm certainly adds a new perspective.
thank you for covering what happened in this small town. i am in boone iowa and thankfully safe from alot of tornados as boone rests ontop of a valley. however we help supply alot of towns for after storm damage. The entire state is still rebuilding after 2020 derecho. its amazing that your talking to the locals and really supporting the community!
Thanks for doing this video! I was there helping clean up after the tornado and being able to see how things have improved since then is amazing. It was definitely a flattened town on the south side. I mean, everything to the foundation was gone on those houses and about the only untouched spots in the basements were underneath the stairs. Will never forget that experience, for sure. Slight side note: Wendell and Nancy remind me of the couple I met then who told me that the husband was picked up in a recliner and placed in their driveway, still in the recliner and not a scratch on him. So weird how stuff like that can happen yet half a town is blown away.
This was a great video. From actually walking through the town itself, to the interviews by the awesome residents. A lot of people have some truly amazing stories, so it's great that you could share theirs.
dude great video, honestly super interesting seeing remnants and how well they’ve rebuilt - would be super cool to see you go to other towns affected by tornadoes as well!
This twister, the Rainsville EF5, and the 2011 Piedmont-El-Reno (yes 2011, not the 2013 twister) EF5 are 3 of the most violent twisters that are lesser known. This tornado produced some of the most violent damage recorded in modern history.
@@ericwatts6291 Smithville is talked about less than a lot of the other tornadoes in the 2011 outbreak, but it is more talked about than the Rainsville EF5. It's arguably the strongest tornado recorded and it looked like a fast-moving photogenic version of the Joplin tornado.
I work at a lumberyard about 15 minutes away from Parkersburg and often make deliveries there! Thanks for covering this!! Just happened to stumble across your videos and I was thrilled to see you covering this and speaking with the wonderful people of P’burg. Everyone there is so incredibly kind.
I went to Parkersburg with several nice film cameras back in 2012 also hoping to document some visual history of what was still visible of the damage, and the local people were so kind and took me around without hesitation. Parkersburg is one of those small town that thankfully we still have in the US full of real, kind-hearted, down-to-earth people.
Also, I would not categorize this tornado as a 'low grade' EF5...some of the damage in New Hartford was extremely, horrifically catastrophic, and this tornado was deservedly ranked #11 in the List of Strongest Tornadoes Ever Recorded (post 1970) in terms of damage done on Extremeplanet's list. Maximilian Hagen's list at that site is still the best-researched and most-convincing compilation of strong tornado lists of any website (and more than nearly any book), although I have some minor disagreements with his rankings.
I live about 30 minutes east of Parkersburg. I remember going with my dad to help clean up. While I know everyone has heard what the aftermath looks like, actually experiencing it is sobering. The two things burned into my memory are coming into town on Iowa 57 and seeing everything was just gone, and getting out of my dad's minivan and the smell of the earth. Thank you for making this video.
Absolutely fantastic video. Your channel is quickly becoming one of my absolute favorites. Thank you for your hard work for our entertainment & education!
I love hearing especially older people tell stories like this, idk why, even if it's about a horrifying tornado, it's still so comforting to hear. It makes me miss my grandfather. We had so many interesting stories and was a very good storyteller.
Absolutely adore this video, its nice to cycle through the in person views and the google street views, and getting to hear Wendall and Nancy's experience with storm itself is so awesome!!! I hope we get to see more videos like this ❤ TLDR: Common Swegle Studios W
I currently live in Bosnia and have seen similar patterns here... patches of abandoned homes and evidence of war, alongside older areas that were less affected and areas of active rebuilding. Often within mere blocks of each other. It's hard to take it all in. Side note: I work remotely. I would not mind living in this town. As long as I had a storm shelter. Preferably one large enough to share with neighbors and well stocked with provisions and lots of beer. Ok, not a bomb shelter. But a place that might feel safe if even for a few minutes and had an emergency generator. All joking aside.. I really like the vibe of this place. I'm also binging on your videos. Thank you for all of them!
Fantastic, well detailed & respectful video!! Videos like these are amazing yet also heartbreaking. Especially the befores & afters. Keep up the great content. You'll easily reach 100K & well beyond very soon.
THIS IS FANTASTIC!!! PLEASE visit areas that have been affected by natural disasters and get as many stories/facts that you are able to. Believe it or not, these records will be absolute treasures to future generations! Regards from Northern Indiana!
I enjoyed this video and hearing the folks in the town describing what happened during the tornado and you touring the area. It certainly was scary what they went through. 👍 Chris
I'm an engineer for the CN and the forest area by the cemetery and silos is Sinclair. I started in Iowa in the fall of 2013. When I ran trains west the sheet metal was still at the top of the debarked trees and along the track. In the past few years they've finally fell down and the tress have started to regrow foilage. The easternmost silo is a few years old plus a couple that had to be rebuilt because they were destroyed. Sheet metal is still along the right of way by the tracks. It was said the tornado tore up houses like wood chips, even knocking down basement cinder block walls and sweeping away it's contents, even a resident. Scary stuff. Great job with the ground approach. Keep up the great work 👍🏾
This was an awesome video. Back in March my home town of Little Rock was hit. Thankfully I lived about an hour away at the time, but I live here now, and the damage is extensive. You can pretty much drive along damage path through town. People are still recovering and will be rebuilding for many years to come.
Awesome video, one of a kind. Its so satisfying to see you go from such a small start to this, and the videos never losing their quality and the ideas always being fresh. Perhaps sometime you can do a “top 5” (for lack of a better phrase) tornadoes outside of the us. There have been some relatively big ones in countries like Germany, china, and argentina.
@SwegleStudios, excellent video exploring the scars these storms leave. I'm fascinated by tornados and I've been loving your videos because instead being exploitative or morbid you have a respect for victims of these storms. Keep it up!
I absolutely loved this video. Giving respect to a town and actually going there to see it first hand. Hearing the local's first hand experience on the disaster.
Man this is great. Love the change up with the walkthrough of the town. Watching it now for the second time now that i can watch it listened to it earlier while driving home from work.
Honestly…it’s so awesome to see where a tornado hits one side of the road and it’s left the other life alone. Honestly, go through Tulsa OK sometime (if ya haven’t already) around the time a tornado has hit.
Greeting from Wisco! I have to say its always a good day when you upload a new video. I also want to add that I usually chase Iowa extensively when the conditions are right.
I’m from Fayette County, about 75 miles NE of Parkersburg as the crow flies. I was only 3 at the time so I don’t remember that day but many friends and family do. My Dad was a baseball coach at my high school in ‘08 and the day after the tornado he and the other coach went down to the baseball diamond for practice. They thought the seniors had pulled a prank and thrown homework and trash all over the field. They started picking it up, as practice was starting soon, and realized it wasn’t trash at all. All of the papers and items belonged to the same guy and were all addressed to the same house in Parkersburg. One of my close friends actually lived there at the time and survived because they were out of town. Their house was gone when they returned.
I walked through Parkersburg immediately following the debris cleanup as I had family in the town. Truly a chilling sight to see full exposed basements full of things in the ground as virtually nothing but flatness exists on the surface
This was... well I hate to say enjoyable about the lives impacted by tornadoes, but you know what I mean! It was really informative to see and I would love to see more like this again. The fact that even after so long, the scars are still clearly visible says it all. It's good to see how much was rebuilt, however.
Speaking of debris left years after a tornado, the tornado that hit Martinsburg, Borden and Daisy Hill Indiana in the 1974 super outbreak carried sheet metal from Martinsburg and wrapped it around trees in Borden, and a lot of that is still there today. In Martinsburg a house was completely swept away, but a small table with a fishbowl on it was untouched, and yes, the fish survived. Billy Martin's appliance store lost the 2nd story, but rather than tear it down and rebuild, they simply put on a new roof and it is still in business today. My inlaws told me about one home that was hit in Borden and they were helping the lady salvage items from her home. The curtains in the kitchen were stuck behind the cabinets. Apparently the tornado pulled out the cabinets just enough to tuck the curtains behind and then snapped them back in place. You couldn't get the curtains freed even pulling as hard as possible. The same area in Borden was hit by another tornado in 2004, and it was barely missed by the tornado that hit Henryville in 2012.
These style videos are absolutely amazing. I know how much work it must’ve been and it sure as hell was worth it! Your channel is so awesome. Tornadoes are becoming my heavy special interest and youre fueling this. Am i complaining? Nope🙃💙
Ive done something similar once on a cross country road trip in July/August 2013. We detoured a bit to stop in Joplin, El Reno and Greensburg just to see what was left of the aftermath and what once was and how things were rebuilt. Its a surreal feeling standing/walking through where you knew it was the worst and trying to re-create the events in your head. We too studied map/path damage so we could find the worst damaged parts. Ground zero if you will.
I wasn't in that tornado but I was there the day after and it was absolutely beyond words how bad the damage was. It still gives me chills. Nice video.
My aunt lives in Parkersburg, it's insane going from one side of town to the other where everything is nice old beautiful homes to almost all new construction.
I really like this style of video and the interviews with survivors and visual 360 references you gave us by walking around the debris. you should make more like this :)))
If you want a different source of aerial photography, I know ISU has a ArcGIS server with aerial photos from much earlier than what Google has of Iowa. A lot of states have aerial photo servers dotted around of much older stuff.
