Original subtitles

Right now, everybody in the basement!

Everybody in the basement right now!

I would take shelter.

Please, if you can seek...

My heart is going so fast right now.

Oh my God!

Keep us safe, Lord.

Hail Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee!

Blessed art thou among women.

Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus!

A derecho is a powerful windstorm.

It's 60 miles in width

unlike a hurricane or a tornado.

A derecho can really take you by surprise.

If the air in a huge thunderstorm cools

and condenses it can suddenly drop in a down burst,

creating winds as strong as a hurricane.

I'm Brendan McCormick from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

I'm a painter and I've had my own business since 2018.

I woke up that morning,

it was pretty much a normal day.

Met with the crew at the shop.

Had a usual morning meeting,

and then we all drove the trucks

off to the work site for the day.

My day was going pretty normal,

and then once the crew went out for lunch

I decided to run back for some more supplies.

I had a friend that lives about two hours west

of Cedar Rapids, and he gave us all calls,

said, "Hey, there's a storm coming in.

Move your things inside."

We get storms in Iowa pretty often,

so we didn't really think too much of it.

Clear skies behind the shop, then I turn around,

there's a huge wall cloud approaching from the west.

So, I decided to stay put,

and hunker down and hope for the best.

Coming into work that day,

there was a chance that we could see some storms.

That ended up being true, but they were a lot worse

than what I think anyone could have anticipated.

By the time we get to about nine to 10am,

we start to get a better idea that this is getting unusual.

A very dangerous situation

is unfolding across eastern Iowa.

Be prepared for these strong winds.

Try and get into a shelter.

Stay away from the window.

The National Weather Service puts out the particularly

dangerous situation watch, which is rare.

From behind us, it's west.

And I believe we can drive faster than it.

Okay, so it's behind us right now.

It's completely dark like it's night.

And it's just because it's, uh...

There's a huge storm coming towards us.

Here comes the rain.

Oh, my word.

Okay, I don't care if the light is green or not,

I'm getting out of here.

Look this way, away from the storm.

!

- What is that? - We are legit in the middle...

Well, what's wrong?

- What is that? - That is a tornado for sure.

Okay, we gotta get out of here.

So, can we go to someone's house?

Lydia, you're making it worse.

Okay, what should I do?

What should I do? - Um, go into there.

Is there a house near us?

We're going in here.

Lydia, don't cry.

Okay.

Okay, guys, get ready to run.

Ready?

I'm not bringing my... - Just run.

Just run!

We came back for our noon newscast.

I just trying to get that message out

as much as possible.

Right now, we have an incredibly intense,

significant line of thunderstorms

coming through the area that has produced winds

of 99 miles an hour.

We evacuate the studio as the winds are picking up.

The winds are very strong.

It is very eerie.

The building is...

Oh my gosh!

The building is shaking.

It sounds like something fell on the building.

The lights are shaking.

We're gonna go into the...

Into our...

Uh... Master control to take shelter.

We advise you to do the same.

The building is still shaking.

It's very, very intense there.

The doors are, you know, blowing open.

And that's what you just heard there.

We are in the hallway.

I'm still on the air reporting and I have to keep calm

and keep telling people what's going on.

We're looking at the radar.

I'm watching this big storm barrel to the east.

It's terrifying.

Went inside the shop.

I wanted to see what was happening outside.

I was starting to get a little more worried.

We get storms pretty often,

but we don't see street signs getting bent over.

Help!

Out of habit that day,

I got my phone out and hit record.

Oh my God!

Something really big definitely just fell

or got torn off.

I'm gonna keep this rolling.

The space that we're in

is just a large sheet metal building.

If anyone big hit, hits this building,

then that's probably gonna be it.

I run to the back of the shop where our bathroom is,

because I figure it's just one more layer above my head.

Oh my God!

Look at this!

The roof is shaking real hard.

Oh, no.

Oh, man.

I could hear all the crashing

and banging outside, and thinking,

what the hell is happening out there?

I'm very curious what it's like outside right now

but I'm not gonna go take a look.

We are staying right here.

This is nuts.

Oh, man.

Holy [bleep]!

Oh my God!

Oh, no.

My God!

It was the most frightening thing ever.

I'm in a five-by-five bathroom

with literally nothing around me

and a storm on every side.

So, I, it's just helpless.

That day was a normal day.

My girlfriend had to be at her job at noon

and it was on the other side of town.

No big deal. I drove her over there.

I'm driving back home,

and you can see from the west side,

it was getting dark.

And it was getting dark fast.

So, I was like, "Well, I'm heading straight home."

Well, I hear the air raid sirens go off.

I started filming

because I wasn't sure I was gonna survive.

Hail Mary, full of grace.

The Lord is with thee!

Blessed art thou among women!

Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus!

Holy Mary, Mother of God!

Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

Amen!

Hail Mary, full of grace!

The Lord is with thee!

Blessed art thou among women!

Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus!

Hail Mary, full of grace!

The Lord is with thee!

Blessed art thou among women!

Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus!

When I came out of the car, I was like,

what in the world was that?

I started praying because I did.

I thought maybe I was at the end of my life.

I went straight to the mother Mary.

She saved my life.

What the [bleep]?

This [bleep] crazy, this.

I was just thinking, it's just another rainy day.

I'm not really thinking that it's that serious.

Then the walls started like, shaking.

The sky got super dark real fast.

Like, real fast.

What the [bleep]?

This is crazy, man.

Man!

Get away! Don't stand by the window.

Oh, [bleep]!

What the [bleep]?

Oh!

What the...

It's a tornado!

I know,

I [bleep] think it is, you know?

Go hide. Go hide under the cabinet.

Hold on, cuz!

No roof!

The roof was just gone.

I'm trying to survive at this point.

I didn't know what to do.

Stay close! Stay close!

Stay close!

The walls are shaking,

but I'm still not thinking it's that serious.

And then poof.

Here go the roof.

Hold on, cuz!

The roof went off, man.

I look around and there's just open sky

and nothing else.

Wait, no roof!

It's going to be all right, man.

Ah, that thing fell on my back.

Stay close! Stay close! Stay close!

Keep your head under that thing.

[bleep] roof blew off?

Yes, the roof blew off, cuz.

What the [bleep]?

Keep your head under.

This [bleep] crazy as [bleep].

Cuz, this is the craziest [bleep].

I ain't never been through done no [bleep] like this.

Me neither. Real [bleep].

Look, we gonna survive.

[bleep].

Hold on.

Hold on, man.

Hold on, hold on.

Don't know how this

is holding up, man.

I ain't see no wallet, cuz.

My baby!

My [bleep] Xbox!

I was standing right there

when that [bleep] happened, y'all.

My Xbox is [bleep] up.

Man, [bleep] it.

Man, you worrying about an Xbox cuz,

a [bleep] Xbox?

Look at this house!

Really, I don't know

what the [bleep] was going on, man.

It was crazy [bleep].

People lost their lives.

I was able to pick it up and go to work the next month.

Next time I might not be so lucky.

My name is Cody Johnson.

I am a grain farmer.

My brother and I, we...

we work together on a daily basis.

That morning, we watched the news

in our office there, in the shop,

and they said there's a rough storm coming.

And we were kind of in the path of it.

And that's when we lost satellite reception.

We decided to step outside and take a look, and, um...

you could see it coming over the hill.

And I looked over at my brother

and I said, "That's not good."

Then I looked down, I looked at the hair on my arm

and it was standing straight up.

It was just like, instant goosebumps.

We had security cameras recording all over the farm.

The walls began to shake.

It was like somebody just turning the stereo volume up.

It just kept getting louder and shaking harder.

We were panicking.

There's nowhere we can go.

We had a semi in the center of the shop.

We ran and did a baseball slide

under the truck.

My brother talked about making a run for it.

And I said, "You're gonna die."

We held onto the axle, and we looked up at the roof,

and then, boom. It was gone.

My cousin was coming back.

He drove back up to the shop.

He got out of the truck and started yelling for us,

and, and he thought there was no way we survived that.

He got behind a small hill next to my parent's house

and took shelter there.

Eventually the winds slowed down.

My wife was working on that day,

and I called her after I got out

from underneath the truck.

And my first-born son was at daycare

in a suburb of Cedar Rapids.

Actually, had a tree go through the roof,

so he's lucky to be alive.

The fact that we came out of there with a few scratches

is amazing, and...

lucky is probably an understatement.

A derecho is a gigantic wall

of hurricane force wind.

This wall just keeps ploughing east.

This is not at all a normal storm.

I was at home,

and I could see tree limbs coming down.

My boat had overturned

and was laying in the middle of my yard.

I had to go help the community.

North End has got a lot of power lines down.

It's a war zone down here.

I was driving down the highway.

Didn't seem like anything

was gonna be out of the ordinary, and well,

then it became out of the ordinary.

The storm, all of a sudden,

came up and there I was right in the middle.

When I pulled out my cell phone to, um...

start filming,

I started saying a short little prayer,

hoping that God was gonna help me

through the situation.

Dear Lord, please forgive me for all my sins.

I don't know what to do.

Lord forgive me for all of my sins!

I started to see the utility pole snap off.

And then, the windows blew out of the car.

And I thought, "Okay. This is the end."

I really panicked.

I started screaming.

I don't know what to do. Lord, please forgive me.

Forgive me!

I was trying to get to people

that were calling 911 for help.

They were trapped in vehicles that were stuck in the storm,

or overturned.

I thought I was gonna die.

I just felt helpless.

I don't know what to do. Lord, please forgive me.

Forgive me!

I called my parents.

I didn't know if they could hear me or not,

but I said I love you.

Um...

Hopefully I'll get to speak to you again.

Um...

Can we stop a minute?

Uh, it's... it's a war zone down here.

I got multiple flipped semis everywhere.

I'm driving north,

and I come up on a vehicle facing me.

So, I...

I stopped, and I get out.

And I realize that there's a male inside the vehicle.

I was in the car waiting for someone

to come to my aid.

I was shivering uncontrollably.

I could see ahead of me

there was some kind of emergency vehicle.

Deputy Killian rescued me.

He took me into town.

I felt a great sense of relief.

I went through the most terrifying incident,

and I survived and lived to tell my story.

We begin Iowa's news now

with a violent storm moving through today,

causing extensive damage.

I had just never seen anything like it before.

The damage and destruction.

It... it's heartbreaking.

That day, eastern Iowa experienced

a historic derecho.

To have wind gusts of 140 mph is incredibly rare.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime type of storm.

But then, in May 2022 it happens again.

Everywhere you see where you see red,

that's where we have severe thunderstorms

already occurring, with the damaging winds.

The storms are coming in quicker

than we were anticipating.

This is actually happening again.

Because of the weather conditions,

there is not only a deadly derecho

but a dangerous dust storm.

The derecho is behind the dust storm,

and like two years ago,

it has the potential for destruction.

My name is Keith King.

I am a father of four kids.

I'm driving and my daughter Isabel

is with me in the car.

Driving down the road,

and this storm is coming at us fast.

I did turn the radio on just to hear

what was happening out there.

Uh, right now, if you can take shelter,

take shelter.

I, I don't think you need any other information

other than that.

And if you can't tell by the fact

that I'm out of breath

and maybe just a little bit nervous,

I would take shelter.

I would not [bleep] around.

Should I call Tyson?

Yes. Tell everybody get in the basement.

Tyson, get Mya, go to the basement.

Right now, everybody in the basement.

Everybody in the basement right now!

Make sure the dogs are down there, everyone.

You know, just please, if you can, seek...

[bleep].

The radio station cut out in the car.

I knew something was wrong.

I'm just racking my brain of where we can go,

what's open?

Are we gonna go to Taco Bell

or something, dad?

I don't know, somewhere.

We were in the eye of the storm at that point.

My...

Heart is going so fast right now.

Call Austin.

Austin, is Tyson and Mya in the basement?

The tornado sirens are going off

in Brookings right now.

Like, it's bad.

Like, it's pitch black in Brookings right now.

Yeah.

We're taking shelter at a hotel right now.

It's...

you just have Mya and Tyson with you?

Okay.

We're...

We're going in.

Oh my God!

It was very scary.

Didn't know if we were gonna make it,

and just had no idea what the future held

until we got to the hotel.

And we're saved.

And here is that wall of wind,

and it is coming on in.

That wall of wind is now coming into the city.

People are taking shelter.

This was going to do some serious damage.

We were outside, and I saw those clouds.

I said everybody get inside right now.

I grabbed my phone and I stood by the window,

and I started recording.

It is shaking the glass.

The street lights are on.

Oh my gosh!

It's black.

It is black.

Oh my God!

It looked like the end of the world.

It just looked like this creature

that was taking over our community,

and it was absolutely terrifying.

I have never seen anything like this.

Yeah, me either.

It is just...

It got black in like, 20 seconds.

That's fine.

And it's like...

It is literally black outside.

My heart was pounding.

My hands were shaking.

I was sweating,

but I was doing everything that I could

to try to film the storm

and be a brave mom for my daughter.

It is black!

We've got severe storms threatening the upper Midwest.

Looks like we've got ourselves

all the traipsing of a derecho.

Not only do we have powerful winds

creating dangerous conditions,

but a dust storm that is equally as dangerous.

Like, August 2020,

people wouldn't even know what to expect.

My name is Max Sartwell.

I am a diesel mechanic in Burke in South Dakota.

It was a regular morning like anything else.

All of a sudden, my boss tells me, "Hey,

we got about 20 minutes, and the derecho is gonna hit."

At first, I didn't really believe him,

but nothing could have prepared me

for what hit the shop.

That is just dust.

!

Perfectly nice-looking sky.

This [bleep]!

!

Yeah. [bleep]!

My God.

This garage door needs to close

or we're going to die.

!

One of my coworkers,

he got a text from his friend.

There was a big storm that came through,

and it was heading towards our way.

I called my fiancée

and she was five months pregnant,

and I was just thinking the worst.

Like, man, is she gonna get stalled in her car

and get rolled, you know?

Like, is the baby gonna get hurt?

My head was just going crazy.

I yelled, get to the house.

When they say, you know,

warning or storm is coming, listen.

Because it happened like, with the flick of a finger.

This storm is moving incredibly fast.

It's approaching South Dakota and it's not stopping.

It's coming this way.

My name is Shawn Ericsson.

I live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

with my wife and two kids.

We are a very, very close family.

My wife and I, and my son,

were driving in the interstate.

We look out and is it just dark.

There was something about this storm

that just didn't look right.

We did our best to try to outrun the storm,

but there was nothing we could do.

It was on us.

Oh my God, it's right here.

It's like a tornado, guys.

Yeah, it's right here.

It's hitting that farmhouse now and...

Take this exit?

I think we need to get underneath this shelter.

Yeah.

Or should we go north and get out of here?

No, I think we're going to need

to stay if we can.

There's an approach right here.

You can park underneath those?

Yeah.

I would just take the dirt.

Because there's no shelter out there.

Slow down. It's right behind us.

For severe weather update on KMIT.

I'm going.

Once we pulled over it was very confusing,

at that point.

We didn't really understand what we were in.

You certainly want to protect your family at all costs.

Here it is. It's on, it's on us.

Look at it behind us.

Oh my God,

I'm so happy we got under here.

I love you.

How is nobody else stopping underneath?

Oh, here comes one more person.

Two people.

Oh, that sign's about to break.

Oh it's... it's complete dark.

Unbuckle.

You can't... look at behind us, mom.

Look at all of us.

It's pitch black. You can't see.

Our whole family was very scared

at that moment.

We did think that we were in a tornado,

and we did not know how severe it was gonna be.

Is it dust or is it storm?

Both.

This is insane.

Oh my gosh, somebody's gonna get...

Oh my gosh!

Oh, watch, watch that semi.

It might tip over.

We're moving, guys.

We're even moving. How is that semi staying up?

That's it. It's gonna tip over.

This is scary.

Are we in a tornado?

I think we are in a tornado.

Cover your head.

Cover your head. Get your hat, everything.

Oh my God. There it is.

Dear God, be with us.

Keep us safe, Lord.

It lasted between three and five minutes

and then just like that, it is a nice sunny day again.

When the truck tipped over,

the level of intensity increased drastically.

Uh, we certainly felt like we were gonna be next.

It seemed like a...

A scene that you would see in,

in Armageddon or something like that.

We went on down the road and we checked on the drivers.

There were multiple semis that had flipped over.

They were all okay.

We are very blessed

that we got out of that situation unharmed.

There are still people

in the path of the storm.

My coworker and I are watching a derecho

moving across the Midwest.

The storm is heading towards us.

Oh my God!

After going through the first derecho,

now I was caught in this one.

My coworker and I are parked off the side of the road.

Oh my God!

Oh my... it's like, orange.

It's like...

Oh my God!

What in the world is about to happen?

This is gonna get pretty wild.

We have some time to be outside of the car,

to actually watch it come closer.

And then, the panic sets in.

Get inside!

Oh my God!

Oh my God!

What?

Holy...

Nick!

it's so dark!

What in the world?

Oh my God!

Nick!

The dust storm moves over us.

The derecho was still behind the dust storm,

and we decide to get out of there.

That was a first in my career,

to actually go through two derechos.

This was a massive historical event.

We had wind speeds of 140 mph.

That's double what you'd see in a typical derecho.

This came without warning and all of a sudden

people's lives got turned upside-down.

Johnson Farm, which was hit just last month,

devastating their property.

Climbing underneath a tractor trailer park inside

was their safest option.

An 18 by 30ft metal door came crashing down.

That would have killed somebody.

Easily.

It's beyond imaginable

what could have happened to the family.

It would have just been, um...

Very heartbreaking devastation.

I feel very blessed that we were so lucky

that nothing happened to us.

This storm has affected my life.

I need to spend more time with the people you love,

because within 30 minutes it could be gone.

Instantly.

Oh my God!

Derechos get their energy from heat,

and temperatures keep rising.

That's why we're seeing more and more derechos lately.

And they're getting even stronger.