Original subtitles

We have a catastrophic tornado.

Lives are being changed right now.

Oh, God.

Everyone be aware.

There's another tornado.

My name is Kiana Lou Parsons.

I currently reside in Mayfield, Kentucky.

I work at the candle factory as a QA supervisor.

I'm on my way to work driving.

A friend calls me. He says to me, you shouldn't go to work. And I'm like, what

are you talking about?

And he says, no, you didn't hear about the weather.

I'm telling him, I'm like, I'm going to work. It's Christmas time.

I have to make this money. I got these kids. They want Christmas presents.

Walking in the building, it smells so good.

And I remember we were working on eucalyptus mint.

It's still something that is very much ingrained in my mind.

Man, it is warm, though. It's hard to believe Christmas Eve is two weeks away,

and we are still in the 70s. I'm Chris Bruin. I'm a meteorologist for The

Weather Channel. Oftentimes, we think about severe weather in the U .S., and

it's in the springtime.

When you get warmer outside, that's when we typically see our severe storms.

This outbreak is unusual in the fact it hit in December.

As we head into the late -night hours, I have this feeling that something

terrible is about to happen.

I just wrapped up my last live shot, and I go to the hotel room.

The sirens are going off outside the hotel room.

I take my phone out.

Start to document.

Wind -driven rain here. Looks like power's starting to flicker on and off.

Lightning's also flashing across the sky.

It's going to be a wild ride. Tornado warnings. It's going to be a

warning. Treat them both seriously.

Nocturnal tornadoes go from zero to 200 or 300 miles per hour in seconds.

The abruptness of it is why they are so destructive.

That looks like a

tornado.

I'm on air, and we hear word of a tornado that has touched down in

Arkansas.

There it is. Boom. There you go.

This is the tornado right there.

That is a tornado.

A little after 9 p .m., the tornado emergency was issued for Mayfield,

And when we talk about a tornado emergency, that's as bad as it gets.

a large and violent tornado is on the ground moving towards a city center like

Mayfield.

Dark, hard to even see.

You don't know what's coming.

Following the tornado's progress live on radar as it's developing towards

Mayfield, I knew that it wasn't going to end well.

549 to 531.

My name is Derek Vaughn. I'm a lieutenant with the Mayfield Police

Kentucky.

I've seen reports of a very large, significant tornado, and it's coming in

direct line towards Mayfield. And it's moving incredibly fast.

It's intimidating.

Fire start parking vehicles on the northeast corner of the police

building. The structure will maybe shield our cars from getting damaged.

I'm coming over to you guys.

I can see something.

In the sky, every time a flash of lightning goes off, I can see a large,

object. It just gets bigger.

There's a large tornado coming.

Our police department has a large basement underneath it that is storm

That's going to be our shelter.

We all make it down into the basement.

We've got 30 people at least, maybe more, in the basement.

I feel the wind, which is so thick and heavy that it's being like underwater.

And I don't know what's happening around me.

The only thing in my mind is just fear at this point.

I can hear what sounds like a bomb going off.

This may be it.

This may be the day that I die.

We have a catastrophic tornado that is in Mayfield right now.

Lives are being changed right now.

Send some prayers for folks that are dealing with this right now.

I'm in this big, huge warehouse.

There's about 50, 60 of us at work.

We can hear the thunder.

Then all of a sudden, my ears started to pop.

And I'm realizing that it's more serious.

Next thing I know, I feel like I'm lifted, and I sway right, left, right,

and then boom.

The whole building falls on her.

This is it for me.

My name is Joseph Seidel. I was formerly a deputy jailer for the Graves County

Jail in Mayfield, Kentucky.

When we saw the tornado coming up towards Graves County, we knew we were

trouble.

I was incredibly concerned for all 93 inmate lives that we have in there,

with my coworkers.

My heart kind of went into my stomach.

I have to make sure that everybody is safe.

The tornado is about to come to the jail, and these inmates are in trouble.

All of a sudden, the ceiling had collapsed.

This is unreal.

The jail's been struck.

with 93 inmates inside.

It's overwhelming.

I see extensive damage to the ceilings, to the hallways. There's debris on the

floor. There's concrete on the floor. The facility is incredibly unstable.

Our main priority was the safety of my coworkers, the safety of the inmates,

hoping that everybody's okay.

I have to wait a few agonizing minutes before I can safely make sure that the

storm has passed.

We start making our way back up, and we realize the door is now jammed shut, and

we're not able to get it open.

The wind coming down the hallway has created this suction on the door.

We had to break our way out.

And as we get out, we have birds from

the basement. We see just completely destroyed.

I'm just shocked. I'm in disbelief.

The first thing I can think of is I have to check on my family.

I was able to get in touch with my wife.

She assured me her and the kids were fine and that they were safe and

that I could focus on doing what I needed to do.

You all right, man?

Yeah, I'm good.

People coming in inside the police station to take immediate shelter.

I can see that there's a lot of very frightened people looking to us for

I'm making sure everyone is okay, making sure they're safe.

Once I've determined everyone is okay, I'm beginning to go through the

in my head of people to notify.

Hey, Chief. I just tried to call the major. I couldn't get through. The PD

a direct hit. The building is destroyed. We're all okay.

We're getting reports of all kinds of buildings collapsing all over the city.

We just basically got debris in our eyes and lungs and whatnot, but we're all

moving. We're up and good to go. We're ready to rock.

This is the most destructive tornado that I've ever experienced in my life.

Something happened at the jail.

Okay. Okay.

I'm getting a report now that the jail by the courthouse is also damaged.

The jail is asking for help.

They need immediate assistance to maintain control of the inmate

there to ensure that no inmates escape out into the chaos.

I can't let my guys down.

I travel to the jail myself.

The courthouse is almost at complete loss.

Half of the jail is fairly sustainable.

The jail is compromised.

They need assistance maintaining that and evacuating them to get them to

and to make sure that they do not escape.

As I get there, I can see that the greater structure is completely

barely standing in places, them in disbelief.

The tornado

has completely destroyed the jail that housed around 100 inmates that night.

It was very nerve -wracking to get that call.

prepare for anything.

It was catastrophic. They had holes that they could see in the building. The

walls were cracked.

We knew the jail wasn't safe. We had to get the inmates somewhere else.

The last

thing I want is for dangerous inmates to get out into the community.

My level of anxiety is certainly going up at this point.

This large tornado is still on the ground.

It's an extremely complex situation.

I need to check on the inmates and make sure that they're all out of their cells

and they're safe.

We house anybody from misdemeanors to felons, but they are all humans and they

all need taken care of.

The inmates are starting to get everybody's attention, saying, hey, you

there's something going on. There's some type of medical emergency.

The inmates are on the floor in the hallway.

A fellow co -worker, he begins CPR.

He did not look good.

I noticed that he has a pulse.

And then we figure out a way to get him to the hospital.

All right, try to control that if you can, okay?

I'm going to try to help you out.

Go ahead, take a step.

So I took custody of him. We got in my car, and I took him to the hospital.

We're going to go long and slow, but just let me know if he goes to jail.

All right, we're leaving.

We've loaded the inmates into buses to ensure they get to another secure

facility.

Getting further reports from my various officers who have now dispatched all

over town trying to assess what's damaged.

A confirmed tornado, a violent tornado, a potentially deadly tornado, and it is

moving at around 60 miles per hour in the northeasterly direction to the

northeast of Mayfield.

One of the reports comes in.

The candle factory has taken a direct hit from the tornado.

Tremendous fear really sets in.

This is a very urgent situation right now in Mayfield, Kentucky, at the candle

factory. We know right now on the ground rescue efforts are underway.

Bodies and people are being pulled.

When the building came down, it came down on me.

I'm stuck.

The candle factory has taken a direct hit from the tornado and is completely

leveled with possibly over 100 employees trapped inside.

All I can think about is I've got to try to do whatever I can to get these

people out.

You just see a ball of rubble, and you just climb in it, and you start looking

around, you know, looking for any signs of life, listening for screams of help.

People are trapped.

It's a race against time.

We're all on the ground.

About 50, 60 of us, I am scared.

OK.

OK, y 'all.

I still held onto my phone.

The silence, the noise, hearing those screams, all those things are just

me more anxious and more scared.

I get on Facebook Live to keep myself calm.

I should be the one laughing because I don't want my kids to see it.

I'm really scared. I'm trying to be cool, y 'all, but I'm really scared

where I'm at, where I'm at, I'm like stuck underneath the wall, so I'll be

the last person to take it out.

But I'm going to be okay.

Ma 'am.

What's that?

I work in MCP.

I'm on the scene of speaking to several individuals who either work there or

know people that work there.

They're just in tears.

Are you okay?

Okay.

Is everybody else that you know of okay?

Yes,

ma 'am. I'm so sorry, okay?

I've never seen anything to the scale of destruction.

There's just this tremendous sense of fear for the people that are trapped

inside that structure.

It's still raining at this point.

Water is probably raining down on all these people trapped.

They're probably freezing, suffering.

I started thinking, I'm not going to make it.

Now I'm starting to worry about my children.

I have five children.

I am thinking that I may not see them again.

Yeah, we stuck up in here.

Stop moving.

We all stuck.

Do you guys say you found somebody?

We can't tell how close it is.

I think they're trying to get to us.

I hope that's people that like know what they're doing.

When finally they did come to rescue us, I was the very last person to get out.

And now I'm standing on rubble.

You would not believe that anyone survived.

This tornado is going unseen, barreling and destroying everything across the

path. And you have to be in your safe place.

This tornado is just dangerous and deadly.

I'm Courtney Stewart. I'm a mom of nine, and I'm from Bremond, Kentucky.

We've always had storms, always. But we've never been in any sort of...

I just could feel it in my bones that something wasn't right.

I was watching TV.

They said the storms were going to be really bad.

My husband goes outside to check.

His face when he came in was obvious that something was wrong.

The tornado's coming.

I mean, you could just hear it.

Almost like a train, just really loud.

I'm trying to grab all the kids I can get in my hand and go get in the car.

We knew if we stayed that we wouldn't have made it.

The stuff that was hitting the car.

I almost felt like he was being shot at.

Everything's piping so fast.

It just didn't seem real.

You know, we survived in that car, but it was the worst night ever of my entire

life.

There's been more tornado warnings that have popped up, and so we're going to

zoom out to just show you how large this system is. This is really tracking, you

know, about two lines of storm.

Yeah, 78 tornado warnings so far already this evening.

There's another threat coming. I'm watching this tornado -worn storm on

and I'm very concerned because it seems to be intensifying in Arkansas.

This is from Jonesboro, Arkansas, and so this is, I believe...

A video that's confirming, yes, you can see that tornado. Gene, I couldn't even

see the tornado until the lightning flashed.

Catching up to it. Just ahead.

Just left of the road.

My name is Jordan Hall, and I'm a full -time storm chaser.

Come on, lightning, light it up again. I didn't have the phone recording.

I'm with my buddy Scott.

It's way more dangerous chasing at nighttime because you can only see this

tornado when the lightning illuminates.

I knew it was a very strong tornado.

What do we got going on here?

The initial feeling in my gut is fear. That's what it's all about. So I just

pointed my camera to the beltway and started rolling.

We get on the highway, and our plan is to let this tornado cross the road as

close as possible, but safely in front of us. All it takes is 30 seconds to be

off on radar to really get yourself hurt.

We realize this tornado is actually coming directly at us.

Out of the way. Go, go, go.

Go!

Back up, back up, back up. Go!

We're right in the path of this tornado, and we're flying backwards, trying to

get out of the way.

There it is, right there. Oh, my God.

That's the closest tornado.

Can you see the size of it?

It's still on the ground right there.

I see it's going towards the small town of Manat, Arkansas. People are in

danger.

There it is, right there.

Right there.

As we got in a town, that's when we come across the damage.

It was like a war zone.

The former firefighter in me is like, we got to do search and rescue.

I began hearing the screams for help.

We got more first responders coming.

You okay?

I am.

It's an elderly home.

I made my way back out into the parking lot where

residents had been rescued.

That's somebody's mom, that's somebody's grandpa.

It gets really hard to hide your emotions.

I got you a chair.

You're very welcome.

You have a seat and get comfortable, all right?

Okay.

It's heartbreaking, and that's when I started thinking about my own family and

ended up crying a little bit.

I had never experienced anything like that.

As we continue to update this, we'll see that debris tracker right over

Barnsley, Kentucky.

And so when you have these towns, that means it can pick up even more debris as

it moves through and create even more damage.

There was still an active tornado.

People are going to die if they don't take this stress seriously.

My name is Trent Arnold. I'm a former deputy with Hopkins County Sheriff's

Office.

Hello?

Yeah, if you can hear me.

We're looking for people.

Deputy Troy Blue and I, we began searching these residences and looking

anybody that may need help.

Our flashlight's the only light.

that we have, and we're looking around.

There's no houses there anymore, and there's debris everywhere.

I thought to myself, this is bad. Like, there's going to be some people hurt.

We're hearing on the

radio that we're looking for two infants.

It puts you in shock.

This is a disaster.

Hello?

We hear somebody scream in the distance.

Trent and I take off to the sound.

Over here, over here.

329, can you get down here? We need help. We've got some debris.

In the bathtub.

We kind of push up what feels like a wall.

We revealed a bathtub.

Good deal.

Good deal. You okay?

Both of these children were right

there in the front yard, but covered in debris.

That's both of them.

That's both of them.

As I picked this

child up, Hearing those cries, it's a sense of relief.

You have to have hope in that moment

that you may get to reunite this child with their family.

You got both of them?

Yeah, we got both of them.

Okay, Grandma's down here.

Minutes before this, she thought that she had lost everything.

Here's one of them. Both of them are okay now. Praise God. Lord Jesus.

Oh, thank you, Jesus.

Get in the car with him.

Get him dry, okay?

Look here. Here's the little one.

Right here.

I told you we'd get him.

I was the guy in the truck.

We were able to reunite these kids with the grandmother. They made it through in

nothing more than a bathtub, some blankets, and a Bible.

It was nothing short of a miracle that both of these children made it through

this event unharmed.

still ongoing through so much of western and southern Kentucky.

It continues to track towards the northeast, towards the town of Dawson

It's becoming increasingly violent.

My name's John Martin. I live with my wife, Desiree, and my two kids, Shayla

Jeremy.

I'm worried about this storm. I'm watching this heading our way.

I don't want them to worry.

I don't like to tell them anything, you know, bad's coming, unless I think,

well, it's time they're going to have to be prepared.

Suddenly I hear the sirens go

off.

My wife, she's in a wheelchair.

I tell Shayla to go ahead and get her mom, go ahead and take her into the

bathroom, because it seems to be the safest place in the house.

Power goes out.

There's an emergency light we have in the bathroom, and I switch that on.

I just hear this low rumbling noise.

The next part.

Yeah,

give me a minute.

In case something does happen, where can I send my guys?

Reports are coming in that this second tornado is coming through and that we

really only have minutes before it gets here.

We need to get some shelter.

What about the bank?

They've got a vault structure in there, I'm sure. That might not be a bad place

to go.

I've got minutes to make some very hard choices that could result in people

living or dying.

We're breaking into a bank.

We're police officers that keep people from breaking into banks.

One of the officers is still checking the meteorology reports when I hear that

the second tornado is now going to miss us completely.

And I just kind of let out a breath of relief.

The walls are shaking like we're in some kind of an earthquake.

This is the tornado.

I knew it was coming.

I just look up, and there's just a complete blackness.

There's debris coming in, mixed with insulation,

and suddenly it's just complete silence.

All the way down.

All tore up.

I'd say that this was everything that I didn't expect.

We came out unscathed.

And I noticed half our house is gone.

I really couldn't believe it.

Hard to believe that we were actually in that bathroom.

When you look at the damage, how

just simple wood and drywall kept us alive when brick houses just

I don't even really know how to explain that.

I'm just lucky.

This tornado outbreak produced 71 tornadoes within 24 hours, not only

homes and communities off the map, but taking lives as well.

There's so much damage.

It's hard to... Visuals don't even do it justice.

It really played out even worse than we feared.

We made it to downtown Mayfield. We're finally on the main square.

And it is just... I mean, it really looked like a bomb went off.

You just look at car after car.

And I just... I can't even begin. That's the courthouse.

It's so overwhelming.

And as far as the eye can see, it's just sheer devastation.

I've never seen anything like that.

Mayfield always will come back to me. It'll always be a

staple as to how damaging a tornado can be.

God must have something else planned for me that he kept me here.

But my heart goes out to those families.

I was blessed that night.

Everything could have fallen down on me, but it didn't.

So I'm grateful.

Seeing the people that got impacted by the storm and...

the families that had lost a loved one during the storm. Really left a dent on

how I view nighttime tornadoes.

We came out unscathed.

Everybody was fine, even the dog was fine.

All I could think about, really, even to this day, I think of all the people

that didn't make it.

I found out a few days later

that I was pregnant.

And so...

Out of something bad, it was good.