Two Days in Moore, Oklahoma 

gets hit by two f5's and puts up a water tower asking for moore

Just when we want Emp to give us Moore, he does

So we had another white bison born 6 days ago, and now Oklahoma is about to get rocked by a huge front that's going to produce a ton of tornados tonight...

"the neighbourhood is GONE, Mike!" the visceral emotion in that sentence really hits me

As an emplemon fan from Moore Oklahoma, this might be the greatest day ever

People in Florida when the sky turns dark: "Man, that's the third thunderstorm this week!" People in Oklahoma when the sky turns dark: "I am going to fucking die."

I'm 18 and I've lived in Moore almost my whole life. I was a 1st grader at Briarwood Elementary when the May 20, 2013 tornado hit. I can't even put into words the absolute terror I felt, even as a small child, hearing the fear in the weatherman's voice on the radio, my mom quickly rushing us all into the cramped shelter. When it was all over, it felt like walking out into another world. We were one of the lucky ones, just some roof damage and broken windows. To this day, just a couple streets down from my house, there are unnatural looking empty spaces where houses were destroyed, and just never got rebuilt. My school was leveled. The image he chose to show Briarwood wasn't the most accurate, as this one is how it looked after being rebuilt after the storm. Before, it wasn't much more than a few metal buildings connected by flimsy paths and roofing. Yeah, no surprise it was absolutely decimated. I'm so thankful my mom was able to pick me up from school early that day. Some of my childhood friends who were in the school when it happened were left with lifelong trauma after that day. Thank you for covering this.

38:20 - the poor woman hit by both (E)F-5 was Nancy E. Davis.

I just realized that this is the 25th anniversary of May 3, 1999. Well played, Emp.

My father hid behind the couch, my mom and my two sisters, and I hid in the closet on May 3rd, 1999. The tornado destroyed my home, ended my parent’s marriage, and left my dad with permanent PTSD. Our street was on the Guinness Book of World Records while it was the most damaging tornado in history until Joplin. A truck fell on the closet where I was, and my dad lifted it up through his adrenaline and pulled us all to safety. None of us had shoes on and I was only 9 months old. Hell of a life folks.

As an Okie, I wanna say thanks for making this video about Oklahoma. Our state is never talked about, so it was nice to see a video from such a big channel talk about the state and not shy away from it's awful past, and also talk about it's bizarre history and weather. EDIT: The timing of this video is insane. Oklahomas weather has been going wild like ive never seen these past few days with more to come tonight.

I love that the Fujita Scale describes F4 as Devastating and F5 as Incredible. Like it's so overwhelmingly lethal and powerful that it deserves to be marveled at.

They guy who inspired me to make tornado RU-vid videos literally made a tornado RU-vid video.. This is amazing.

Oklahoma resident here. There's 2 kinds of people in this state, and you can tell them apart when the tornado sirens start blaring: those who look like they've seen a ghost and immediately start thinking about precautions, and those who literally shrug it off because they're X years old and never been hit by one. It's night and day.

What a masterpiece of storytelling this video is.

I can't believe this YTP making gamer ended up making some of the greatest documentary content we could get on RU-vid. Thanks for your hard work EmpLemon

As an Ojibwa native, I love your empathy towards the Native Americans without needing to fall in the line with “white guilt”…I mean I know you’re Asian, but you know what I mean. Anyways, thank you Emp.

When I was a small child, I asked my mother why tornadoes always tracked north into Moore. Her response: “God loves Norman.”

This is hands down, my new favorite Emplemon documentary. What would this man be capable of on a massive budget and crew? It would rival yearly blockbuster movies in terms of box office revenue. Truly a professional, and the definition of entertainer-teacher

"What you're watching is ordinary people like you and I loosing everything. Homes, vehicles, precious keepsakes, all converted to rubble in seconds" That part hit me different

"If you tried to describe a tornado to someone who hadn't heard of one, they might not believe it was real." In college, I had a professor that grew up in the Soviet Union, and moved to the US sometime in the 80s. She would often tell us stories of how otherworldly it was there. She was telling us one day that the state media there would report on tornadoes when they happened in the US, and nobody believed any of it. They all assumed it was just state propaganda, they literally did not believe tornadoes were real. Hit the nail on the head, Emp.

“It takes unimaginable wisdom to savor the mundane.” Is the single greatest sentence I’ve heard in a video essay

At the time of writing, I live in Moore and tornado sirens are going off. Wonderfully eerie lemon.

Emp, i still cant believe where we are after me finding you. From old gamecube games, to cartoon sitcoms. Now you are pumping out 9.5+/10 quality long-duration-video essays. I hope you go places, man. Keep it up.

“Forget the live pictures, GO GET SAFE!” Hearing Mike’s words while watching all that debris fly.. it really just shows how small we are compared to the forces of nature.

When the Muskogee tribe is brought up you know Emp cooked a banger.

if you know Oklahoma lore, then you know that if there's ever a tornado heading towards Moore: STAY AWAY FROM THE MOVIE THEATER

You know it’s gonna be bad when your local meteorologist starts stuttering and pausing.

It truly is insane how not one, but THREE F5 tornados can touch down less than one mile from each others’ paths in less than 15 years…

The Moore hospital that was destroyed in 2013 is the same company (Norman Regional) that I work for currently. When that hospital was destroyed, they salvaged everything they could from the rubble. One of the things salvaged is a Minuteman KS35 floor sweeper. Think of it like a lawn mower but it sweeps and vacuums carpets. To this day we still use that sweeper in the norman hospitals.

diabolical timing

I went to elementary school at plaza towers and lived right by it. I always felt so safe and cared for there. It was a wonderful school. The idea that those poor kids passed away in a place that was supposed to be safe for them is so devastating. I hope they're resting in peace.

When I was 13, my church youth group took a trip to Moore (this was for the 2013 F5 tornado) to work with cleanup crews. I remember the first day, it was 110+ degrees and no one wanted to wear full coverage clothes like they recommended. Everyone was just happy to hangout with eachother on the bus ride from our camp site to the cleanup area. Once we started getting close though, everyone got quiet. We went into a suburb that looked entirely normal, but once we turned up one particular street, it looked like we were in a warzone. All around was total devastation. Our goal was to break down the homes that couldn't be rebuilt and try to recover valuables such as copper, and other personal belongings. Multiple times, I can remember taking a sledgehammer to a wall to start taking it apart, only to break it away into what used to be the room of a child. Their toys, their books, even their backpacks would still be where they left them. We would always collect this stuff for the family to come back and get, and sometimes we even met the people who lived in the homes. Nearby was a school, it was very damaged but we didn't think much about it, but later we learned that 7 children had drowned in the basement when they took shelter from the storm, and that it was very possible some of those kid's rooms we had taken apart, and the toys and valuables we found in them, were for children who had passed there.

Imagine barely surviving the first F5 just to be killed by the second one, what a horrifying event.

Watching this in Moore, Oklahoma while the thunder and winds start picking up, waiting for it all to happen again. Eeriest feeling ever

Insane. I looked up Moore OK tornado and there is currently an active tornado watch in the area

Lived in Oklahoma and Moore specifically for my entire life, and I'll never forget that day in 2013. It lives rent free in my head like a bad dream. I was just 11 in Houchin Elementary in Moore when the tornado struck. We had just recently moved and the school let me and my siblings finish out the year there instead of being transferred to another school, that school being Plaza Towers. I remember by the end of the day, everyone in class had taken shelter, kids were freaking out, scared and terrified. I'll never forget one girl in particular, a friend of mine, having a full blown panic attack because of it. Her voice and expression are forever burned into my mind, and I hope, wherever she is now, that she's okay. My stepdad managed to get all of us out of school, and none of us were taking it all too seriously until, while we're in the car, he yells and tells us that "Plaza Towers is gone!" Our new house was in the direct path, literally just a couple blocks away from the school itself, and my mom was home alone that day. We ended up going to our grandparents for a bit, before my actual dad and his wife came and took us in for awhile when things had finally calmed down. I didn't see my mom for a couple days, and I was worried. Eventually we found out she was okay, but the house was in disrepair. I don't remember how long it was after, but eventually we all went back to our house to see the damage ourselves and I just... Cried. I didn't know how else to feel seeing it all like that. I was just a kid who thought storms were such a cool thing, but the moment I saw the damage for myself and how it had almost completely destroyed our lives... It's not something you can just explain. In the end, we were lucky. We didn't lose anyone and our house could be fixed. What Emp didn't mention here was that 7 Third Grade students died in Plaza that day. My little brother and sister were in the Third Grade at the time, and if the school hadn't said we could finish the year at our current school, it's possible they wouldn't be here today. We were lucky.

Oklahoman here. I cannot stress how accurately you encapsulated the fear and dread of a tornado in the form of a video essay. I've been living here my entire conscious life, and my fear of tornadoes stays the same. The stress of packing your things 2-3 hours before a storm in preparation for a possible tornado will never get easier. It doesn't matter how many times I hear the EAS alarm, it'll always strike a primal fear into my heart. While I've never been victim to losing anything because of a storm I'm afraid that one day I will. Everyone here has their own personal scary story about an encounter with the weather. Oklahoma isn't talked about very much online, so I'm very happy you shed light onto the state and shared the tragic stories that it holds.

Another White Bison was born a couple of weeks ago in Texas, and there's a high risk for severe weather over central Oklahoma today, May 6th, 2024.

Houston resident here. We just had an EF1 hit the town and now over 1,000,000 people are without power. The fact I watched this video at work, then began coming home, to be rocked and required to take shelter for only an EF1, it’s a terrifying reminder. What a story to know. Thanks for the amazing content, Emp.

The 2013 tornado had my dad at work watching his own house get hit on live TV with his family in it. Can you imagine? I was at Moore High School which was originally part of the path before it turned west to hit my house instead. Nobody came and got me past 6pm and none of my texts were going through. I tried to walk home in the debree, houses, and light poles. The only thing standing was the specially built cement shelter we had. I pray nobody has to experience this. I felt so bad for the elementary children, and a lot of people didn't have insurance on their homes. It came out of no where.

Tornadoes really are the closest you can get to Lovecraftian monsters.

The radar image of the 2013 tornado is truly a thing to behold. It’s hard to emphasize how perfect that hook echo is and how rare it is to see BLACK on radar. Truly one of the best essays I’ve ever seen on RU-vid, man. I hope you’re proud of it.

My Dad went to Westmoore high school. I’ll never forget when I visited my family there after 2013 and seeing the damaged theater that I used to go all the time with my grandparents, miles of stripped trees, and buildings I used to recognize completely disappear. Okies are strong and resilient people.

As someone that grew up in Tornado Alley, tornados are so normalized to me that I really never realized how ridiculous they are.

Fucking mistake to watch this today, in Oklahoma, while the NWS issues one of the worst storm predictions in years for this evening. Good luck, everyone

As a born and raised Oklahoman thank you for this. Never expected one of my favorite RU-vidrs to make a whole video about this state. 10/10, thanks emp

My father’s house was destroyed by the May 3, 1999 tornado, and my whole family saw the May 20, 2013 tornado.

As an Oklahoma resident, I was not alive for the May 3rd 1999 tornado, but I was alive for the two 2013 tornados. I would describe that week that those two historic tornadoes hit as being the week that made me really wake up to the natures of the world. It taught me that the real, natural world is brutal and unforgiving, but more importantly, it taught me that the only thing in Oklahoma stronger than it's tornadoes is the spirits of those who reside here. People tend to forget that Oklahoma is here. Thank you for remembering us.

I remember in 2013 hearing the weatherman tell us that if we needed to be underground to be safe. We didn't have a storm cellar and my family and I would normally just climb in the bathtub and throw a mattress over our heads. My Dad was standing outside in the driveway, watching the storm, like he always did. He would stay out there and let us know when we needed to take cover. Thankfully, we lived just South enough to avoid the tornado, but I knew a lot of people that lost everything. What I remember the most however was the next day, grabbing my gloves and boots and jumping in the truck with my Dad. We spent the next several days working with hundreds of other Oklahomans to clear debris and hand out food. As horrible as these tornadoes are, (and I have lived through a bunch of them now) Emp is right, I don't ever want to leave my home state. I love my people. Whether it was from a tornado, or the Bombing of the Murrah building, everybody immediately came to help. All of a sudden, you knew everyone, and everyone was your family. You helped out because you knew people would do the same for you. That's the enduring spirit of Oklahoma.

depending on how things play out today, this video could become outdated in record time…

I was born in Massachusetts and moved around a whole lot my entire life throughout the east and midwest of the country. When I was 15 I ended up in Oklahoma City, I've been here for going on 6 years. I'm only 9 minutes into the video and you've already encapsulated what it's like living in this state. I fucking hate it most of the time, but it has such an eery, haunting beauty to it. Edit: that was a masterpiece I definitely cried. Gives me a lot of perspective about where I live- it has so much history, and has seen so much tragedy even without the tornados. Great video

little did Emplemon know that when he released this video, the plains were seeing some of the worst tornado outbreaks in years and 2 days after this the NOAA put out a severe weather alert of 30% hatching risk (hatching just means we are going to see some kind of extreme weather) for tornados and guess who is in that area... Moore, Oklahoma And like 90% of Oklahoma...

Hello from Oklahoma lol. It's honestly pretty nice living here, most of the time. I did watch the F5 in 2013 in person though, it hit a bunch of buildings central to my life. Lucky to be alive. Watched Gary England growing up. I have a stuffed White Buffalo toy given to me by a native friend. It's certainly one of the places of all time.

Emp, this is one of your best. The emotion I felt during your narration over the may 3rd footage was terrifying. Thank you for doing what you do.

I’ve never seen one of your videos, and I’m only 5 minutes in. But let me say, your intro is one of the best context-giving/land acknowledgment/history lesson I’ve seen. Kudos, that shit is rare on RU-vid!

Almost-lifelong Moore resident here. Lived through the 2013 tornado, and got really damn lucky too. Didn't get hit, but we got roof damage from the debris, and the neighborhood just down the street from us was completely flattened. It's one thing to see images of a tornado's damage, but it's a different thing to walk right down the street you grew up on, and see house upon house leveled to their foundations, spouting water into the streets. We had no power for a week straight and school got cut short right before finals. My dad is still reminded of that tornado whenever he sees the new homes that were built where the tornado torn down the old ones; the difference in architecture is really visible if you know how to look for it. Everyone I know still clearly remembers and is affected by that day, too. The memory of the 1999 tornado has been almost entirely supplanted in the younger generations by the 2013 one. That being said, I can safely say that there's one real reason people are still moving and living here: Plain ol' economics. The cost of living in Oklahoma is drastically lower than a lot of other parts of the country, and the whole reason my family came here in the first place when I was really young was because they got jobs. Yes, the danger the sky poses is present and real, but when people have to balance the danger of getting hit by a tornado versus the danger of going hungry, they're more likely to focus on the latter, because it's easy to think tornados won't happen to you. Which is exactly how it ends up happening to you. The first chance I get, I intend to move out of this state (I've always hated it here lol), but that's way easier said than done when just about everywhere else to move would be more expensive, and finding a job is just getting harder these days. This city, but especially this whole state, is like a fucking fly trap. Once you land it it, you're stuck, whether you like it or not. That's all there is to it. They made it a rule after the 2013 tornado that every home should come with a storm shelter, so a lot of people are safer now than they were then. But that being said, it's funny you posted this at the time that you did, because we might be in for the first especially rough storm season in a while. There was already a tornado outbreak a week back that hit across the state and very nearly went into Moore; at the time that I'm typing this, the outlook for tomorrow is especially rough. So wish us the best of luck. Yes, the people here are used to it by now, but taking the dangers tornadoes pose for granted is how you become one of the victims.

I don't think my boss will mind if i take the next 42 minutes off

Good lord. I've never seen this channel before, but this came across my feed and the title intrigued me somehow. Honestly I had no idea what it would even be about but decided to "take a gamble" as it were. This is just one of the best things I've ever seen on RU-vid. I really love how it takes these tangents into separate but related subjects before very satisfyingly bringing it back to the core topic. That's really all I wanted to say, from a new fan

This has been one of the best things I have ever watched on RU-vid. Incredible video. Extremely well done documentary. Easiest subscription bell I have ever pushed…

As a resident of Moore, this is the last video I would have ever thought EmpLemon would do, but thank you. The May 20th Tornado shot a 2 mile gap between the elementary school I was attending and my house. Blessed to be alive Edit: Upon rewatch, I have noticed that it was headed straight at me at one point, but the sharp turn at 29:34 is where it shifted and passed just South. Insane

23:23 You can hear just this raw terror in his voice. Your job as a weather reporter tends to be showing splotches of red and green on a map, but no amount of science or diagrams can truly put into words how horrifying seeing the actual thing is- and watching it rip to shreds entire sections of your city effortlessly.

I grew up in the Midwest and I never really understood the power of a tornado until I saw it with my own eyes. I was going to university in Pittsburg and went to Joplin the day after the 2011 tornado to try and help. The houses gone, piles of rocks that used to be buildings, cars thrown around like toys, insane stuff. The image that always stuck with me was a tree impaled into the road. It's impossible to describe.

As a meteorologist, Moore's tornado in 1999 absolutely terrifies me. Hits me on the level of fear as Jarrell, 1997. May those who passed away during this time rest easy. For those who suffer trauma from this day, please take care of yourselves.

emp might unironically be one of the best storytellers currently on the site. there simply isn't anything like the feeling of electric excitement and horror that i get when he talks about something like this.

This has to be one of your creepiest/scariest video yet. Just because it's real and so incomprehensible.

the before and after images if the elemtary schools are genuinly some of the most bone chilling scary things ive ever seen

I've lived in Oklahoma for more than 25 years. Either you're an armchair meteorologist, or you know one. And it's May 3 and May 20 that's the reason why. My brother rented a house in 2018 off 4th Street in Moore, just east of I-35. His house was built in the mid-60s. Two houses down, and every single house in the neighborhood past that point was new. There were several driveways to nowhere, too. Your actual odds of being hit by a tornado in Oklahoma are still very low. The odds that it will be a strong or violent tornado are lower still. And the odds that you will die in a tornado are incredibly thin. But sometimes, people get hit. Sometimes, these things roll into populated areas. And sometimes, they cause utter devastation like this. The 2013 tornado traumatized a lot of people. Some of the most haunting images and descriptions thereof came from the 2013 tornado. "Slab swept clean" was, for those hit by the tornado at EF5 intensity, the only way to describe it.

I live in the far south of Brazil, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. In the past week or so, the entire state is getting struck with south americas version of tornatos, floods. Yesterday, i visited one of the cities that was flooded, the entire place was underwater, nothing could be seen for miles on end. Days before, i needed to evacuate my home, but it took some hours. I needed to stay on top of our house's roof with my family, as the rain poured down and the water slowly creeped up to our feet. Houses getting moved and destroyed by the force of the flood and people still screaming inside them haunt me at night. It really is an scary and horrible feeling of inevitable doom. We fortunatelly got rescued by firefighters on boats and escaped. We are now on a ginasium, temporarely safe and trying our best to help others, out home unfortunately got swallowed and destroyed. (Sorry for bad English) Update: Me and my family will be moving to another state to live with our relatives on the far middle of Brazil, it’s sad to say goodbye to to the south and to all the friends I have here, but it really isn’t my decision and it’s the only option we have. (Thank you for all the awesome comments!)

Hearing that emergency broadcast for May 3rd, '99 sent chills down my spine and almost sent me into panic. Ill never forget this day. The first time i was in a direct tornado hit. The second was just last year on April 19th, '23. If you're unlucky enough to ever be in the path of a tornado, the sound and crushing feeling in your chest is unforgettable. RIP to all those that didnt survive.

This is one of the best made videos i've seen on RU-vid in years. So many tangents that draw a web of thematic links that gives us so much insight into the history of Oklahoma, tornadoes, the people that study them and those unlucky enough to have experienced the sheer power of nature. To capture the feelings, attitudes and fears of people, throughout centuries, with such depth is something you only see in truly excellent documentaries. Well edited, narrated and even the shot selection is insane. Finishing on an image as thematically consistent as the one at 40:45 is fucking sublime. To call this a YT video and not a documentary feels like a disservice to the amount of work and talent that has gone into it.

I get a sad feeling every time an Emp video drops. Not for what was gained, but for the fact that the clock has just been reset. “His spirit is exhausted at the peak of its achievement. His meridian is at once his darkening and the evening of his day.”

I love the way you tell stories. Great stuff.

Really enjoying the history documentaries! Real work you’ve been putting out emp!

This is the first video I ever seen on this channel. Gonna go watch the rest now. This is extremely well made content. Bravo.

As sad as it is to say, you get used to the tornados. They go from some monumental once in a lifetime disaster as they would be seen as most other places, to being just another Tuesday.

"To absolve the nation of its sins, one ill-fated town must be swallowed by the sky and witness the gates of hell." That line goes hard man.

Another fantastic video Emp. Very very well done!

As a meteorologist, watching this is kind of like watching a middle school classroom being taught about weather and just getting to sit back for once and not do the explaining 😂

"The sun may not always shine, but the weather's always fair." This, with no exaggeration, sent a chill up my spine.

I was in school at Jefferson elementary in Norman the day Moore was his in 2013. I remember hiding in the bathroom with my hands covering my head with all my classmates. My mom was in the office screaming at the teachers trying to get me home. She was forced to stay and seek cover in the school, thankfully it never touched us but I remember hearing my teacher screaming crying as she was told her house was destroyed in the storm. Such a surreal moment in my life. One I won’t ever forget

26:40 - this was the last F5 on American soil, the last F5 to be recorded was the 2007 Elie, Manitoba tornado. The Canadian weather service would switch to the EF scale in 2013, making it both the first and last F5 to be classified as such in Canada.

This is one of the greatest videos by you. As always, quality increases with time. It's enchanting and poetic, and very telling as I'm watching this as my home town in southern Brazil is being swallowed by another natural force coming from the skies: pounding rain, causing rivers to overflow. And I can somehow relate to Oklahoma people's fear and also to the questioning of why people move to such places prone to disasters.

My grandma was vice president of our indian tribe in 2001 ( kiowa ) . She grew up with kiowa as her first language and had it beat out of her in riverside indian school. She still speaks some words to me today and i speak to her too. There are still people alive who were beat for speaking their native language even here in Oklahoma. I think many people don't know this. I remember the 2013 tornado. I was hungry and just got my driver license and sat at cicis and stuffed my face full of pizza watching the tornado destroy a bunch of stuff live just 15 miles away from me. Teenage apathy at its best. Ted fujita was also one of the first japanese men who correctly understood the science between the atomic bombing as he was sent to conduct studies soon after it happened. Please come visit we have hitler's mirror on public display at a museum here . Yes , you can take a mirror selfie with it.

Goddammit dude your adjustment of tornado sirens into an ominous unearthly background noise is beyond compare. I literally shivered even though I heard the test sirens just on monday.

There’s tornados today in Oklahoma, almost always is in the first week of May. Thanks for giving us some attention, Emp!

Oklahoma native here. Storm watching is a legit pastime we do here. Lighting or tornado storms. We will sit out on the porch sometimes and watch the storms go by. It's also funny to spot a newcomer who doesn't realize that we test the tornado sirens at noon every Wednesday when it's calm out

As someone who has lived in the Norman/Moore area my entire life, and as an avid watcher of your videos, I absolutely adore this video. I still vividly remember the horror we went through on May 20th, 2013 to an extensive degree. I was fortunate enough to keep my home but so many others weren't. I frequently drive past Briarwood Elementary and can't shake the feeling of what happened there all those years ago. But this place is my home, the people here are strong. If dark clouds once again appear in the Western skies, the people of Moore will get through it together. Thank you EmpLemon, you just made my year.

The editing in these videos always give me chills. Amazing work Emp.

I remember the 2013 tornado as clear as day. We left the state of Oklahoma this morning to go to an appointment in Dallas, TX and the most dumb mistake is that we didn't watch the weather forecast before we left. At that time we lived in Oklahoma about a year (my family and I moved from North Carolina) and we never saw a tornado before. Everything went smoothly and had a good time too in Texas and as we traveled back to Oklahoma, we witnessed a very nasty dark clouds (kinda like crossing the apocalypse) crossing the border of Oklahoma state line. My Dad was like " don't worry everyone it could be a thunderstorm, we should be fine." little did we know we're going to witnessed something horrific that will be stuck into our memories forever. When my family and I went at a gas station near Riverwind Casino, it was getting uglier, darker, and humid but even worse we heard the tornado sirens. As we travel on I-35 to Moore, that's when it started raining and as we get closer to Moore it rain even worse that my dad could barely see the road. We all started panicking and anxious as we never encountered a tornado before, my mom turned on the radio and we were listening to the channel 9 and they started talking about the rotation on Moore and all us ( except for my dad because he's concentrating on the road as other drivers are driving like there in a race) saw this tornado. We all witnessed a tornado for the first time and we were terrified, we saw that thing coming down slowly and that lady on the radio started screaming " TORNADO IS ON THE GROUND!!! TORNADO IS ON THE GROUND!!! GET INTO SAFETY NOW!!! " My dad parked under the edge.of the bridge because the hail was damaging the windows and I said "DAD!! are you fu**ing crazy!!! if we don't move now we'll DIE!!" My dad says in Spanish " SON SHUT THE HELL UP!! I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING WE'LL MOVE WHEN THE HAIL DIES DOWN!!" We stayed under the edge of the bridge until we heard channel 9 announced it was going to cross the I-35 and as we were about to leave, the car couldn't move as it got stuck by mud. My older sister and I ran to the back of the suburban and pushed with all our strength until we managed to nudge it out. We barely got out of that area because other cars wouldn't let us pass thru and they're driving so fast like there lifes depends on. There we saw the tornado right beside of us and witnessing the destruction and saw lights flickering like fireworks. As we made it to the OKC Southside looking for shelter, it was still raining but only calmer and we went to Webster Middle School to shelter there; when it was over and went back home we saw the damages on Moore on Channel 9 and all of us were sad and terrified. I'll never forget the day that I encountered and witnessed a tornado for the first time. To this day we learned a valuable lesson and that lesson is... if you're going to plan on a trip and it's on a nasty cloudy day always and I mean ALWAYS check the weather first.

I was raised in Moore, Oklahoma. Lived there for 24 years. I was living between Indian hills Rd and 19th street just next to I-35, you could throw a rock and it would land in Norman. I experienced both those tornadoes, May 3rd and May 20th. My brother, sister, and I always grew up talking about how much we wanted to get out of Moore. It was not a life for us to dodge tornadoes every year and see if we have to rebuild and lose everything. I was lucky. I never once lost my home but I remember explicitly that fateful day of May 20th. I remember being the first one to open my storm shelter, seeing the sky nothing but falling debris. The shingles fell down like snow. When I got my phone to contact relatives and friends, there was no cell service. I couldn't drive, there was no power for two days, and no one knew who was alive but what you saw in the cul-de-sac. It's a feeling that still sticks to me today. Never in my wildest dream would I see a video about my hometown, about my childhood. I thought I would never be able to fully share a story quite like mine to others to even describe the events that went on in my adolescent years. Seeing the footage of the storm, the roads, the aftermath. It's a piece of me I can't ever forget, whether I want to or not. I am happy I got my chance to finally move from Moore and made it to greener pastures out on the east coast, but I'm even happier knowing that what happened in 2013 has remained in the past. Thank you Emp. This video is more impactful than you'll ever know.

My dad was a truck driver for a long while, hauling stuff all over Canada and the US. He was chased by a tornado once in all that time; don’t remember where he said but he described it like this: Before it hit you could see the clouds gather over the minutes and become as tall as mountains. Close enough to hear the trees groan and the earth rumble. When it touched down it intensified and the rain pounded and swirled. Hail mixed in being flung like golf balls being dropped from a plane. All the while you look out your mirror and see a wall so large you would think it would swallow the ground whole if it fell over.

Very impressive work, sir. I watch far too many RU-vid videos and your writing, editing, and delivery are some of the best on the platform. I appreciate the time you take to put out high quality videos.

dude you’ve been my fav youtuber for a while. i have been pretty into tornados for a week or two because i was near one (the omaha ones a little while ago) and to see you make a vid on them is amazing. like i already will watch your videos on any topic bc you’re a great storyteller, but to see it on something i’ve been so into recently is so cool :) thank you

i was in elementary school at briarwood when the may 20th tornado hit. my dad had called the office and told them to let me ride my bike home instead of him going to get me. i had no idea there was a tornado coming, and i was just riding home in the neighborhood across the street clueless. dad was yelling for me to get home quicker so i did, and he got us in the car and to our family friend's storm shelter. it was very loud. our house was merely a block from getting leveled like the others. i didnt see the destruction until much later. that summer we had been gifted many many outings by the community. an hour of free play at an arcade here, a group painting session there, etc. it seems crazy to think that it was ten years ago now

Fun fact, there is another albino buffalo at Beaver’s Bend Safari Park in Hochatown, OK. It’s a beautiful little town in the Ozarks of south-eastern Oklahoma.

My Mother and Grandmother both lived through the events of May 3rd. They loved this video. Thank you for making this ❤

moore about to be hit again

I really appreciate how you bring in the plight of the natives. Or perhaps rather, how you follow the plight of the natives to find these stories. It's our history, and you're one of the few out here making sure it's integral to your stories.

EmpLemon talking about tornadoes is my favorite crossover of the year