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I m David Farrier, a New Zealander accidentally marooned in America, and I want to figure out what makes this country tick.
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Now 1996 was a huge year for action movies.
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We had Independence Day, Mars Attacks, and the first Mission Impossible film.
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We also had Twister.
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Twister introduced me to the world of storm chasers.
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Americans who put themselves in the middle of hideous weather just for the thrill of it all.
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Before Twister, storm chasing wasn t really all that well known to me.
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Today, of course, it s everywhere, thanks to various reality TV shows and YouTube channels.
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And while people do chase storms the world over, America is where it really pops off, getting craziest in May and June in a place charmingly called Tornado Alley, the Great Plains of the United States.
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There are about 1200 tornadoes in America each year, and so what else was I to do but set off for Tornado Alley to see what all the fuss was about.
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I set out to meet some of those who chased the storms, but I also wanted to find out what it was like for those that weren t chasing.
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For those that were out there having a normal day in America, only to have a giant tornado arrive on their doorstep and change their lives forever.
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So, grab your weather gear, GPS and heavily fortified vehicle, because this is the Storm Chasers episode.
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When you first told me that you were thinking about doing this episode, this was while we were at the DMV, our first time.
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Yeah, seems like a lifetime ago.
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It really does.
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We said, I m considering looking into these storm chasers and going with some storm chasers.
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Shotgunning.
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That s right, and getting sucked into a tornado.
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And then that s where my artistic self and my personal self collide and conflict.
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Because I don t want you to go into a tornado, but I knew it would probably be a good episode.
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Yes.
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Look, to sort of allay any fears that you had, and this is a bit of a spoiler, I went to Oklahoma in the time of the month that storms were meant to be the biggest.
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Okay.
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The weather was beautiful.
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It was amazing.
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So I m safe.
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I m fine.
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Don t worry about it.
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I did not ride shotgun in this episode.
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But the storm chasers I spoke to, they were great.
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And next year, I ve got a few offers to come out with them and try again.
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But it was basically just incredibly bad timing.
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And what time of year was it?
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What is the time?
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May, June is the time when it kicks off.
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And it just happened, honestly, it was the nicest weather of all time.
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Have you ever been near a big storm?
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Yes.
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In America.
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Georgia has tornadoes.
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You re right.
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So I ve been in them.
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We used to have tornado drills all the time.
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See, this is what s so foreign.
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What was that like living knowing that that could happen?
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You could just be randomly hit by a tornado.
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At school, we d have tornado drills, like you had fire drills, which is just basically you just get under your desk.
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I m pretty sure that was it.
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We just practiced getting under our desk.
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Right, similar to like an earthquake drill almost.
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Well, see, so that s what s funny.
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It s depending on where you live in this country, there s a drill you will have for the South.
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In Georgia, it was tornadoes.
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Right.
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Here in LA, it s earthquakes.
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Yeah.
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And I remember
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When I was little, because I was scared of everything, and you know part of my prayer was no natural disasters and diseases.
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Right, two really scary things.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, that would be built into every prayer.
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Yeah, they were in my prayer.
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I was really scared of natural disasters, but for some reason, I was more scared of the ones that I didn t know about.
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Like tornadoes didn t scare me that much, even though I was at much higher risk of dying that way, but earthquakes, I was so scared of.
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They scared the shit out of you.
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Oh my God.
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And look, now my house is on a fault line.
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That s something I m fascinated with, because I was thinking about this.
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I was thinking, you know, why would anyone choose to live in a place where, you know, in Tornado Alley?
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Why would you do that?
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Here we are in California, where the big one is meant to hit at some point, and that will be horrific.
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And we know it s going to happen at some point.
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And here we are.
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Here we are.
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Okay, but back to tornadoes, sorry.
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So I had one I remember being very bad.
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I think I may have been in fifth-ish grade or fourth.
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There was a big tornado and we had to get down to the basement.
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I mean, there were many times where we had to go down to the basement, but this one was scary.
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It was near us.
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I think we had some big trees fall.
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So in your house, you went into your basement or at school?
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In my house.
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Sorry, this was at night.
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We all had to go down to the basement.
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And then the thought was to get in the tub, in the bathroom, in the basement.
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But it came and went.
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We only had some small damage, but nothing crazy.
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But one of my very best friends at the time, her house was completely ruined, completely destroyed.
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Just gone.
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Did you guys have tornado sirens in the neighborhood?
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I think they would put the sirens on if- Yeah, we had that in the Midwest.
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Yeah.
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And then every Tuesday morning they would do, they d run them as a drill.
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Oh, they test.
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And it s just this eerie, creepy siren that goes on.
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Play it, play it on YouTube.
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Yeah, it s almost like what they d play in war when a bomb was coming in or something.
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Exactly.
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A little bomb warning or something.
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I do remember that.
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Which is so eerie.
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Yeah, that s what it was.
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It s scary.
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Yeah.
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So, so, so eerie.
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So you d hear that and you need to get in your basement.
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Right.
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It s like, oh, that sound means get into shelter.
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Was that kind of like a fun, exciting activity, like when the power goes out or were you scared?
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It was scary when it happened for real.
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Yeah.
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For me.
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I bet some people did find it exciting.
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I think some people would go outside and see and like these chasers.
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These are probably the people that would turn into chasers that want to chase this thing.
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So it s a type of personalities.
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I m interested in learning about these people.
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Have you both seen Twister, Rob and Mon?
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Yeah, I love Twister.
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You ve never seen it.
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We ve got to get you watching more disaster movies.
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Independence Day and Twister are top of the list now.
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I have a huge gap in disaster movies.
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Yes, I do.
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I mean, it s a genre.
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I mean, look, it s a very specific genre.
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And if you don t like disaster movies, that s fine.
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I think my parents thought I was too scared, which I probably was.
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Well, it s a very specific era too, when we were in high school and junior high, that those were all coming out.
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Twister would have been- Volcano, Twister, Armageddon.
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Oh, I loved Armageddon.
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I said, okay, if you like Armageddon.
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That s because of Ben Affleck.
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That was because it was sexy.
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Like they became sexy, those movies.
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Twister was pre-sexy.
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Yeah, true.
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True, true, true.
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Independence Day is sexy.
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Okay.
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Any opinions before we meet some storm chasers on Storm Chasers?
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Do you have any kind of you like, this is delusional, this is exciting, this is interesting?
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My knee-jerk, visceral reaction is what is wrong with these people?
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Yeah, this is bonkers.
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Like, this is crazy.
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I don t understand people who are literally driving into chaos, love danger.
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Those people make me eye roll a bit and also feel annoyed.
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But then, you know, I met Dax and he s a chaos monger.
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Yeah.
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And I think that changed my opinion about those types of people.
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You kind of get the mindset of who wants to rush into something that could be super dangerous.
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Yes, and I think I have much more compassion for the childhood of a person like that.
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I don t think an extremely well-adjusted, totally idyllic childhood, I don t even know that that ever exists, but ends up as a storm chaser, I think you have to have some background.
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Something s going on.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I feel you.
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I am still undecided, but I would not do it myself.
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It seems too unpredictable and too crazy.
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If I m saying that next year, I m gonna go, I m gonna do it once, and I m gonna travel with someone that knows what they re doing.
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Yeah.
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But this is like people who tame tigers and they quote know what they re doing until they get mauled by a tiger.
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Until they get eaten by a tiger.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And we touch on that.
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I mean, some storm chasers end up dead.
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It happens.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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It was the end of May, and I d set off for Oklahoma.
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For months now, I d been watching an Instagram account called Oklahoma Weather Couple.
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They were a couple, from Oklahoma, who loved the weather.
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Mainly bad weather.
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I was glued to their various storm chasing videos, before sliding into their DMs, wondering if I could come to Oklahoma to meet them.
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They re into it and here I was we d lined up a date in May good storm weather But God had other plans We were hoping that everything would work out for us to be able to chase some storms while you re here But unfortunately mother nature didn t want to cooperate.
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So we ve got this beautiful weather here today
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Oklahoma weather couple on Instagram turned out to be Justin and Stephanie.
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They had offered to take me out on the road with them, storm chasing in Oklahoma.
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But that wasn t going to happen today.
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This is typically like our peak season, like our busiest time is right now.
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It s been quiet, there s been setups, but they ve been more of your mesoscale type setups, a little bit harder to find and forecast.
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I m not quite sure what I expected from Storm Chasers, but this couple wasn t it.
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We ve met up in a random park in Oklahoma City, and they re just a couple of quiet nerds like me.
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Stephanie works from home, and Justin works in banking.
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I mean, during the day it s the most boring job ever.
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I audit loans, and then by night we re chasing tornadoes.
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So it s kind of like a Batman film or something, you know.
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Totally.
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And how did you guys meet?
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Did you meet over Storms or something completely different?
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We actually met Storm Chasing, one of his friends introduced us, so that s how he met us, Storm Chasing, in a gas station parking lot in the middle of nowhere.
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It was in Shattuck, Oklahoma, before a chase in 2017.
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So, yeah, that is how we met.
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Somehow we had never crossed paths before.
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storm chasing because we d both been storm chasing for years.
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I would always kind of keep more to myself like on the back dirt roads you know.
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I chased solo at the time before I met him so you know especially being a woman I was very careful about who I hung around obviously if you know for safety reasons and stuff like that so I would kind of just like keep to myself but we just happened to be at the same gas station and that s how I met and then we realized we had a lot of other things in common besides storm chasing like music.
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Yes, they also shared a love of Guns N  Roses and Tool, maybe not surprising as one of Tool s biggest hits is about praying for a great big storm.
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The interesting thing about these two is that they say they re less scared of the storms they find, and more scared of the other chasers.
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We ve had storm chasers killed in wrecks from other chasers not paying attention and it gets crazy out there so that s my main concern is you re not only worried about the storm but you re worried about how are these other people driving.
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So, what of those other storm chasers?
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Who are they?
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I leave Oklahoma Weather Couple to their day.
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They invite me back again to try next year.
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I was curious about what made storm chasers tick.
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What do they have in common?
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What was their origin story?
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To help find out, I called up Jennifer Brindley.
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So storm chasing has traditionally been seen as a male-dominated thing.
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And that s because that s what we ve seen in the media.
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And there have always been more men, but women have always been there.
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Jennifer s a professional photographer who usually takes photos of faces.
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But she takes May and June off to take photos of tornadoes.
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She s one of the most prominent female chasers in the country, documenting the fastest and largest tornadoes on record within the last 10 years.
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Many storm chasers have a foundational experience as a child, like a big tornado hits a town near them when they re young, or their own home, or different things like that.
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But for her, it was something else.
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My first exposure to storm chasing as a concept was actually in the movie Twister that came out in the 90s.
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It wasn t just me.
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It was a global phenomenon.
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And because we didn t have the internet back then, it was a fresh concept to everyone.
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Jennifer says while some people chase solo, it can be a huge bonus to have a chasing partner.
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In the action of the chase, two sets of eyes, two sets of ears, two brains.
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It s so much better than one.
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Whereas one person might be a little bit hyper-focused on one area, the other person can have a big picture view.
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Her partner Skip Talbot is a veteran chaser, doing it for over two decades now, and he agrees that Twister has a big part to play in America s storm chasing scene.
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We ve seen a number of booms over the years with popular media.
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The largest was probably the 1996 release, Twister, which is also, I m not ashamed to admit, what inspired me as a 12-year-old to eventually become a storm chaser.
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And then Discovery Channel, Storm Chasers in the mid-2000s, we probably also saw another large boom.
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There was probably steady growth.
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with the rise of the internet, mobile data, and the apps that we use today.
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And that s probably fueling a large amount of the growth.
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I always kind of assumed that maybe chasing had kind of plateaued in the early teens.
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And I m not sure, though.
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I think it still might be seeing some growth.
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So a few thousand chasers, if I had to guess.
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Both Jennifer and Skip watched Twister years ago before seeing the real thing for themselves and getting hooked.
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The bug really bites you and the supercells and the storms and the lightning and the structure are all really magnificent to behold but once you see that tornado you re just itching for the next one.
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It is like a drug.
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And if you want that drug, Tornadoes with a capital T, America is the place to be.
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In America, we have the perfect meteorological setup for tornadoes and supercells.
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The Gulf of Mexico has a massive role in that, bringing up all that moisture, and then upper-level winds come across.
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It s dry air from the West, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico.
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And when those things collide with upper air support, we need moisture, we need instability.
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The nice heating, that daytime heating in the spring and the summer that we get, those are our sources of lift.
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So it s just like the perfect melting pot for all of those ingredients together.
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And there are people around the world who come to the United States to do storm chasing annually.
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It s a trek people take.
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She tells me she s seen 57 tornadoes so far.
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But is that 57 too many?
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I find myself wondering about how dangerous this is, really.
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In terms of the number of storm chasers who have actually died in a tornado, it s like half a dozen.
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It s like less than that.
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And so there are risks involved, but it also depends on how you chase and certainly who you re with.
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But the truth is, if you look at the numbers, it s way more dangerous to do things like horseback riding or rock climbing or windsurfing or any number of things where people die regularly.
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But that being said, a caveat of sorts.
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But we ve also lost very, very experienced storm chasers, the El Reno, Oklahoma tornado on May 31st, 2013.
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And that was the big, well-known tornado that killed very experienced storm chasers.
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Researcher Tim Samaras, his son, Paul Samaras, and their chaser partner, Carl Young,
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It happened to be the largest tornado on record.
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It was 2.6 miles wide and it had a forward motion of about 50 miles per hour.
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It was so large that the vortices inside that tornado were the size of regular tornadoes.
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Thinking about this, I m sort of glad I m not out storm chasing today.
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I m not sure it s for me.
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I guess I ve got the rest of the year to decide if I come back in 2024.
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I guess what struck me the most about the storm chasers I d met was how obsessed they are with what they do.
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You can see the glint in their eyes.
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For them, storm chasing is number one.
1
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I met my wife in college when I was already chasing, and that has been one of the compromises in our relationship, dealing with the storm chasing.
1
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And so everything from when the children are born, such that they re not born in the spring, to minor family holidays and events, all of that stuff needs to be worked around this thing that I do.
1
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Stay tuned for more Flightless Bird.
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We ll be right back after a word from our sponsors.
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2
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Skip is very passionate about, yeah, tornadoes, just like scheduling the birth so that they know that the kids  birthdays won t interrupt storm chasing season.
2
SPEAKER_02
He might ve been joking then, but I feel like he wasn t.
2
SPEAKER_03
I don t think he was.
2
SPEAKER_03
I want to do a real-time fact check.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_03
I don t think that s correct, what she said, that it s way more dangerous to horseback ride and stuff.
2
SPEAKER_02
Oh yeah, statistically, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_03
Because she s talking about the number of deaths, but she s not talking about percentage of people who do it.
2
SPEAKER_02
Who do the task.
2
SPEAKER_03
Versus how many deaths.
2
SPEAKER_03
So I would venture to say no.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I m with you on that as well.
2
SPEAKER_02
There are about 2,000 people storm chasing, very small number.
2
SPEAKER_03
Compared to how many people horseback ride.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, and as a group, she mentioned 12 people had died, it s high.
2
SPEAKER_03
Wow, it s a hard brain for me to relate to.
2
SPEAKER_03
I mean, it really is.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, when it s not your brain.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
I mean, the thing that I found very funny is that, honestly, it s mostly Twister.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_02
Like, kids watch Twister, thought, this is fucking cool.
2
SPEAKER_03
The power.
2
SPEAKER_02
Phil Paxson.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s Phil Paxson.
2
SPEAKER_02
And Helen Hunt.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, and Helen Hunt.
2
SPEAKER_02
And Philip Seymour Hoffman.
2
SPEAKER_03
Oh, yes.
2
SPEAKER_03
Was he?
2
SPEAKER_02
Holy shit.
2
SPEAKER_02
When I was in Oklahoma?
2
SPEAKER_02
They re shooting Twister 2.
2
SPEAKER_03
Oh, really?
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, they re making another one.
2
SPEAKER_02
So, I mean, that s probably not gonna have the same impact that Twister had.
2
SPEAKER_02
I mean, Twister was this perfect idea where no one really knew that storm chasing was a thing.
2
SPEAKER_02
And so everyone watching it was like, holy shit.
2
SPEAKER_02
I can do that.
2
SPEAKER_02
I can do that.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s like people watch Jurassic Park and get excited about dinosaurs.
2
SPEAKER_02
Like people watch Twister and got excited about that.
2
SPEAKER_02
They re calling it Twisters.
2
SPEAKER_02
Oh.
2
SPEAKER_02
Very original.
2
SPEAKER_03
Well, I find it funny, our first couple, our Oklahoma couple,
2
SPEAKER_03
she was saying how she would normally stick to herself because she had to be careful because she doesn t wanna hang out with strangers.
2
SPEAKER_02
Which is a woman out on the road.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
On her own in these really small towns.
2
SPEAKER_03
But that made me laugh because she s saying, I have to be careful.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, whilst driving into a storm.
2
SPEAKER_03
But what she s doing, yes, is like the most dangerous thing already.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I mean, the dangers that he s thinking of is like bad people on the road.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_02
While she s heading into like this giant storm.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
The thing that I didn t know about is that there are solo chases, but mostly they pair up.
2
SPEAKER_02
They often won t be husband and wife because one in the couple will love it and the other won t.
2
SPEAKER_02
So there ll be buddies that will go out and chase.
2
SPEAKER_02
Because when you re looking out the window and you re driving or you re looking at your GPS and trying to film, really difficult.
2
SPEAKER_02
So generally you have someone driving and then the other person spotting and seeing what s going on.
2
SPEAKER_02
And the other thing that people get speaking of is the main danger is that there s a big storm.
2
SPEAKER_02
So all these people just congregate in this area.
2
SPEAKER_02
They re all driving, I imagine, quite intensely, chasing.
2
SPEAKER_02
And then suddenly if the storm changes as well direction and everyone s fleeing at the same time, it s not like you re on your own driving.
2
SPEAKER_02
There s a bunch of other people also terrified.
2
SPEAKER_02
And so you re dealing with all of that.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s surreal.
2
SPEAKER_03
That was brand new.
2
SPEAKER_03
I never thought about that aspect of it.
2
SPEAKER_03
There s multiple out there.
2
SPEAKER_03
and everyone s trying to do the same thing very recklessly.
2
SPEAKER_02
Or congregating.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it s kind of nuts.
2
SPEAKER_02
And you know, some people go in with a lot of skills and other people go in who are just starting and the ones that are just starting then create danger for the people that do know what they re doing.
2
SPEAKER_02
Because it s a spectrum of craziness.
2
SPEAKER_02
Like some people are so safe and so careful and have things mapped out compared with others who are just like, oh, I hear there s gonna be a storm, jump in the Toyota and like tear into it, you know?
2
SPEAKER_03
Do you think you could be married to someone who was off doing something like this?
2
SPEAKER_03
Was a storm chaser, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
I m an avoidant in a relationship, so for me it would probably be quite good, because it d always be the idea of them dying would sort of entice me back into the relationship a bit.
2
SPEAKER_03
David!
2
SPEAKER_02
I m just being honest, yeah, it would.
2
SPEAKER_03
Okay, you re right, 2023 is your year of honesty, and that was really good that you said that, that was vulnerable.
2
SPEAKER_02
I know it s not a great trait, and I m trying to fix it, but that would, I think it would literally make me stay with my partner.
2
SPEAKER_03
They could die?
2
SPEAKER_02
They could die.
2
SPEAKER_02
And that would get me interested again.
2
SPEAKER_02
And that s hot?
2
SPEAKER_03
Can you tell me more about that?
2
SPEAKER_02
So if you avoid, my nightmare scenario is being in a relationship with someone that really loves me a lot and is always there.
2
SPEAKER_02
Because I m just like, oh, just no.
2
SPEAKER_02
I need to get away from this.
2
SPEAKER_03
Okay.
2
SPEAKER_02
But if someone is sort of off in the distance somewhere, for me and my stupid brain, it s much more enticing kind of thing.
2
SPEAKER_03
Well, is it like it s hard to have, hard to get?
2
SPEAKER_03
Once you have it, it s like boring.
2
SPEAKER_02
That s part of it.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s like, oh, you know, like the chase is over.
2
SPEAKER_02
This is boring.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s like a really stupid, lizard brain thing.
2
SPEAKER_02
But I think if someone is off chasing tornadoes,
2
SPEAKER_02
that might be quite not healthy, but it would definitely like- It would be very unhealthy actually.
2
SPEAKER_02
It would be super unhealthy.
2
SPEAKER_03
You d be steeped in your- But it would temporarily solve my problem.
2
SPEAKER_03
That s really interesting.
2
SPEAKER_03
I would advise you to take contrary action if you want to be healthier and not date a storm chaser.
2
SPEAKER_02
Date someone who s always potentially gonna die at any moment.
2
SPEAKER_03
Well, you know, the other thing is maybe this is a good brain hack for you.
2
SPEAKER_03
We re all gonna die at any moment.
2
you
2
SPEAKER_02
Just imagine that.
2
SPEAKER_02
Just imagine my partner dead any moment.
2
SPEAKER_03
We are at any moment, any one of us could die.
2
SPEAKER_02
So hang on to them in that day and in that moment.
2
SPEAKER_03
Well, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_03
Or if you want to like tap into your avoidant nature, you can maybe trick yourself by saying, well, even someone who s with you all the time, who loves you a lot, they could also die.
2
SPEAKER_02
Just be imagining hideous deaths for them all the time and just that balance things.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, that s what I said.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
Okay.
2
SPEAKER_02
Storm chasing.
2
SPEAKER_03
Let s get back in.
2
SPEAKER_02
I mean, there was no storm, so I had to sort of deviate off the plan, so this is where things went.
2
SPEAKER_02
Just because there was no stormy weather around me right now in Oklahoma, that doesn t mean there hadn t been stormy weather recently.
2
SPEAKER_02
Justin and Stephanie, the Oklahoma weather couple, had reminded me of this.
2
SPEAKER_01
So the strange thing is, is the town of Cole, just south of Oklahoma City, they ve been hit twice in less than a month, which is highly unusual.
2
SPEAKER_02
I realized that Cole was just a little over 30 minutes drive away from Oklahoma City.
2
SPEAKER_02
And back on April 19th, it had got hit by a big tornado.
2
SPEAKER_02
And then three weeks ago, it had got hit again.
2
SPEAKER_00
A tornado on the ground, we believe.
2
SPEAKER_00
Just incredible.
2
SPEAKER_00
There s a field about a mile and a half from me, and that s where that dust is coming from.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it s being lifted up into the storm.
2
SPEAKER_02
Justin and Stephanie were actually there for the first one, the biggest.
2
SPEAKER_02
And so they were in shock when they realized Cole was about to get hit again.
2
SPEAKER_01
I was in disbelief as we re watching a tornado developing from the exact same location where we filmed the first one.
2
SPEAKER_02
And so I decided to drive to Cole.
2
SPEAKER_02
I wanted to know how this tiny town of 600 people was doing after being hit twice in the space of a month.
2
SPEAKER_02
It didn t take long to drive there.
2
SPEAKER_02
A small sign announced I d arrived after about 40 minutes.
2
SPEAKER_02
And it wasn t needed because it was obvious where I was.
2
SPEAKER_02
I could see the damage the tornado had left behind.
2
SPEAKER_02
The two tornadoes.
2
SPEAKER_02
There was a lot of farmland around me, and to my left an entire metal shed had been levelled.
2
SPEAKER_02
I kept driving.
3
SPEAKER_05
and pulled into the parking lot of a local church.
3
SPEAKER_05
Part of its roof had been torn off, and I wanted up to a contractor who had turned up to fix it.
3
SPEAKER_01
We do a lot of inspections, damage assessments, mainly due to storm-related weather damage.
3
SPEAKER_05
Living in this part of America, do you just kind of get used to the fact that the weather s just going to be an issue that s always there?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, you prepare for it.
3
SPEAKER_01
My house has actually been hit by a tornado living here in Oklahoma.
3
SPEAKER_01
You ll see a lot of catastrophe adjusters show up from insurance companies, a lot of contractors waiting outside just to get your pen on the paper.
3
SPEAKER_01
No kidding.
3
SPEAKER_05
America, the land of opportunity, I guess.
3
SPEAKER_05
I leave Adam to do his work and wander back down the hill towards the destroyed farm building I d seen earlier.
3
SPEAKER_05
There s still cleanup going on everywhere.
3
SPEAKER_05
Big trucks driving by with rubble and old bits of building.
3
SPEAKER_05
There s a big digger over here digging a whole lot of junk out into the back of another truck.
3
SPEAKER_05
Off to my side I see Main Street.
3
SPEAKER_05
I d missed it when I d driven by.
3
SPEAKER_05
There are a bunch of small houses scattered along it and I see a sign for FEMA.
3
SPEAKER_05
The Federal Emergency Management Agency had set up a temporary command center here.
3
SPEAKER_05
They have a few trailers and five people are sat outside on laptops.
3
SPEAKER_04
Hey, how are you?
3
SPEAKER_04
How are you doing?
3
SPEAKER_05
They re friendly enough, but no one at FEMA will go on the record, telling me I need to get approval from their main PR people.
3
SPEAKER_05
So I decide just to wander along the road, to see if anyone who lives here wants to talk to me about what went on.
3
SPEAKER_05
The houses here are small and humble, and weather-beaten.
3
SPEAKER_05
I see one house is blown over, a tree branch through the front windshield of a rusty old Chevy parked out the front.
3
SPEAKER_05
I remember I m in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of America, and I m not sure if it s the dogs barking, but suddenly I remember guns exist here, and I wonder if it s okay to just wander up to houses here and knock on doors, holding a mic.
3
SPEAKER_05
I give it a try.
3
SPEAKER_05
I needn t have worried.
3
SPEAKER_05
A woman emerges with a tired but friendly smile.
3
SPEAKER_05
Her dogs are loud, but thankfully small and very friendly.
3
SPEAKER_04
You ve got a lot of dogs.
3
SPEAKER_02
Well, this one and the little weenie dog is ours and we babysit our grand-dogger.
3
SPEAKER_04
Oh.
3
SPEAKER_02
Every day while our son goes to work.
3
SPEAKER_02
I don t know if you ve noticed, but we re just getting over the tornado.
3
SPEAKER_05
She says she s a bit under the weather, but walks me around the back of their house and yells to someone who s apparently up on the roof.
3
SPEAKER_02
Are you up on the roof, baby?
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_02
You want to come talk to this young man?
3
SPEAKER_05
Eventually, a very tall, wiry, and tanned man emerges from around the back of their house.
3
SPEAKER_05
He s wearing a cap and wipes some sweat from his brow.
3
SPEAKER_04
I m David.
3
SPEAKER_04
Hey.
3
SPEAKER_04
What s up?
3
SPEAKER_04
I feel bad bringing you down from your roof.
3
SPEAKER_03
Oh, you didn t bother me, dude.
3
SPEAKER_03
I was still wearing the shade.
3
SPEAKER_05
The man gestures to a couple of deck chairs that are sitting under some trees.
3
SPEAKER_05
Some wind chimes gently chiming in the wind.
3
SPEAKER_05
Gentle wind today, thankfully.
3
SPEAKER_05
And we sit down.
3
SPEAKER_05
I m Gerald.
3
SPEAKER_05
It s nice to meet you.
3
SPEAKER_05
Where are you from?
3
SPEAKER_05
I m from New Zealand.
3
SPEAKER_05
New Zealand?
3
SPEAKER_05
Oh, man, you ve been walking far, eh?
3
SPEAKER_05
Gerald cracks himself up, and I remember how 30 seconds ago I was worried about being shot.
3
SPEAKER_05
Seems very silly now.
3
SPEAKER_03
I ve been here for, oh, 67 years, man.
3
SPEAKER_03
I grew up here.
3
SPEAKER_03
My family s been here since the 1800s, you know, so this is hometown.
3
SPEAKER_03
What s good about this is the crime and stuff like that s not so bad as it s Oklahoma City, you know.
3
SPEAKER_03
There was a shooting there every day on TV and all that, and the only bad thing about it is if you need something, you have to go to town to get it, so.
3
SPEAKER_05
He tells me he s a truck driver, but he always comes back here.
3
SPEAKER_03
This is home, man.
3
SPEAKER_03
Everybody asks me, you know, I m already in heaven, man.
3
SPEAKER_03
Of course, there is the small case of all the tornadoes.
3
SPEAKER_03
It was bad.
3
SPEAKER_03
I mean, we all got in the cellar.
3
SPEAKER_03
I ve got a cellar and had my son, grandson, granddaughter and the dogs were all in there.
3
SPEAKER_03
And when you come out, you don t know if anything s left because you re seeing stuff.
3
SPEAKER_03
bang off the walls and then you step out and then it s kind of like walking into hell.
3
SPEAKER_03
Trees laying down, houses blowed away.
3
SPEAKER_03
Like my neighbor down here, she was in Norman when it hit.
3
SPEAKER_03
So she wasn t at home and thank God she s 73 years old and she s doing chemo and all that, you know.
3
SPEAKER_03
and it blew her roof off and everything.
3
SPEAKER_03
I worked at that mill for years and a buddy of mine who s got the farm there, he just passed away.
3
SPEAKER_03
His son and his wife was there.
3
SPEAKER_03
They rode out to the storm and one of those little shelters, their house was totaled.
3
SPEAKER_03
I mean, you know, the barn s gone, house is gone.
3
SPEAKER_03
He just got starved all over.
3
SPEAKER_05
He says somehow he just got lucky.
3
SPEAKER_03
Nothing happened.
3
SPEAKER_03
The guys that filmed that, the storm chasers, it s like a razor s edge.
3
SPEAKER_03
Right 100 yards down here, total destruction.
3
SPEAKER_03
Someone was smiling down on us.
3
SPEAKER_03
I m not all that religious, but there s something kind of watching.
3
SPEAKER_03
I think he s probably right.
3
SPEAKER_03
I ve been blessed.
3
SPEAKER_03
I ve been struck by lightning a few times.
3
SPEAKER_05
Gerald strikes me as a half-glass-full kind of guy.
3
SPEAKER_05
He says if anything, having two tornadoes helped him with the roof he s been fixing.
3
SPEAKER_03
I retired and then I had some money coming in and everything.
3
SPEAKER_03
We got that money, we was going to put the roof on.
3
SPEAKER_03
Well, just about the time we were getting ready to do it, the Lord decided he was going to help us take off some of the shingles.
3
SPEAKER_03
I had to do it anyway, so, you know, that s kind of cool.
3
SPEAKER_05
Looking up at his half-repaired roof, I look down to the ground and realise I ve never been in a storm shelter before.
3
SPEAKER_05
Could I see your storm cellar?
3
SPEAKER_03
I ve never been in a storm cellar.
3
SPEAKER_03
It might be flooded, too.
3
SPEAKER_03
This is an old one.
3
SPEAKER_03
Dug this cellar back in the 60s.
3
SPEAKER_03
It s about 65.
3
SPEAKER_05
He walks me around the back of the house again, and there it is.
3
SPEAKER_05
I ve seen it in a million movies, but never in real life.
3
SPEAKER_05
The storm shelter door.
3
SPEAKER_03
This is old.
3
SPEAKER_03
I mean, this is old style.
3
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, the floor s a little wet.
3
SPEAKER_05
The floor s a little wet, Gerald had said, and he wasn t lying.
3
SPEAKER_05
There s about a foot of water down here.
3
SPEAKER_03
One time I had a bed and stuff, I played guitars down in there, but it s been a little wet lately, so.
3
SPEAKER_05
There s a table, and some bunk beds, and some electrical cables strung about that I don t really want to think about with all that water.
3
SPEAKER_05
I imagine riding the recent tornadoes out down here.
3
SPEAKER_05
And Gerald admits, this recent one got pretty hairy.
3
SPEAKER_05
I m going, this is getting kinda…
3
SPEAKER_03
I was afraid it was going to yank him out.
3
SPEAKER_03
You see on the movie twister where they re hanging, I was hanging on to him and he s hanging on me and the wife was hanging on to me.
3
SPEAKER_03
Is this the closest you ve been to a storm like this?
3
SPEAKER_05
No, I ve been through four or five of them.
3
SPEAKER_05
Silly question.
3
SPEAKER_05
I wonder if he s ever tempted just to leave, to pack up and leave Cole, to leave Oklahoma.
3
SPEAKER_05
After weathering out multiple tornadoes, I just can t imagine staying somehow.
3
SPEAKER_05
But he says wherever you go in America, there s always something that s going to get you.
3
SPEAKER_03
I told my wife, I m metal detecting everything.
3
SPEAKER_03
I just don t want to go to like either Alaska or Goldmine or maybe the desert.
3
SPEAKER_03
I said, you know, they don t have storms out in deserts.
3
SPEAKER_03
She goes, yeah, but they got snakes.
3
SPEAKER_03
So, you know, wherever you go, there s going to be something there.
3
SPEAKER_03
If you go to the coast, you re going to have hurricanes.
3
SPEAKER_03
If you go to mountains, avalanches, freeze to death.
3
SPEAKER_03
And then if I went to Alaska, they got grizzly bears, lychee, so that, you know.
3
SPEAKER_03
There s nothing really, no animals around here that I m scared of.
3
SPEAKER_03
There s a lot of stuff in America that can kill you.
3
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, there is, there is.
3
SPEAKER_05
I thank Gerald for his time and wish him well with the roof.
3
SPEAKER_05
Before I leave, he mentions his neighbor, who maybe had an even luckier escape.
3
SPEAKER_03
My neighbor.
3
SPEAKER_03
He s in a little barn with his horse over.
3
SPEAKER_03
He rode out the storm in that little barn.
3
SPEAKER_03
That barn s a hundred years old.
3
SPEAKER_03
He figured that, you know, it s been there that long.
3
SPEAKER_05
And so I walked down the road and introduced myself.
3
SPEAKER_05
Larry, who rode the storm out with his horse in the barn, was a lot shorter than Gerald s.
3
SPEAKER_05
He s got a cheeky grin and has a medallion dangling around his neck.
3
SPEAKER_05
How long have you lived here for?
3
SPEAKER_00
About 45 years.
3
SPEAKER_00
We lost two people.
3
SPEAKER_05
I m sorry.
3
SPEAKER_00
But, I mean, it could have been a whole lot worse.
3
SPEAKER_00
I was in my horse barn when it come through.
3
SPEAKER_05
How was that for a shelter spot?
3
SPEAKER_00
We lost our horse barn.
3
SPEAKER_05
We lost our horse barn.
3
SPEAKER_05
I looked down to where his horse barn was, and he s right.
3
SPEAKER_05
It s in bad shape.
3
SPEAKER_05
Except for the stall where he rode the storm out with his horse, Red.
3
SPEAKER_00
Red.
3
SPEAKER_00
Little Red.
3
SPEAKER_00
It was something else, not like it is on TV when you re out there seeing it.
3
SPEAKER_00
There s all kinds of stuff in there.
3
SPEAKER_00
What was the noise like?
3
SPEAKER_00
It sounded like jet airplanes.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know how everybody says it sounded like a train?
3
SPEAKER_00
It didn t sound like about five jet airplanes in our yard.
3
SPEAKER_00
It was loud.
3
SPEAKER_05
Somehow, hunkered down in a stall with his horse while his barn disintegrated around him, Larry survived.
3
SPEAKER_00
I don t want to go through it again.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I ve just met you, but I pray to God you never go through something like that.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s rough.
3
SPEAKER_05
Today s calm, so it s hard to imagine what happened here was less than a month ago.
4
SPEAKER_03
And no one I ve met plans to move, by the way.
4
SPEAKER_03
They all love it here.
4
SPEAKER_03
And everyone I ve spoken to today talks about how the whole community came together to help rebuild, to feed each other, and just be there for each other.
4
SPEAKER_03
FEMA s just down the road, coordinating a lot of aid, but you also get the feeling this community doesn t really need much beyond each other.
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And that s kind of great.
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SPEAKER_00
I mean, it could have been a hell of a lot worse.
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SPEAKER_00
But that s about it.
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SPEAKER_00
I mean, it s just a little small town and everybody gets along.
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SPEAKER_00
We don t have no law, don t need no law.
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SPEAKER_02
I really liked Cole.
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SPEAKER_02
I love that town.
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SPEAKER_01
I love those people so much.
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SPEAKER_01
I get very nostalgic when I hear a Southern accent like that.
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SPEAKER_03
What is it about it?
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SPEAKER_03
I m not from here and I still feel this pull.
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SPEAKER_03
It s so relaxed and enticing.
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SPEAKER_01
There s a warmth about it.
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SPEAKER_01
I mean, I ve complicated feelings around the South and Southerners.
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SPEAKER_01
But I also feel very at home hearing those tones.
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SPEAKER_01
You know, he s just fine with you being there.
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SPEAKER_03
It still blows my mind.
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SPEAKER_03
If I was making the show in New Zealand, New Zealanders are very shy.
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SPEAKER_03
They want to know why they have to talk about something.
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SPEAKER_03
They re deeply suspicious about what it s for and where it s going.
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SPEAKER_03
In America, that
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SPEAKER_03
doesn t really happen, but no more so than in Cole.
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SPEAKER_03
It s the first time where I felt scared knocking on a door.
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SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_03
Because these were like small trailers and super low key, and there was no one around.
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SPEAKER_03
And I just thought they might not want me knocking on their door and with their guns.
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SPEAKER_03
Never before has someone been so
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SPEAKER_03
It still freaks me out.
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SPEAKER_03
There was no question about why I was even recording them.
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SPEAKER_01
I was going to ask, did you tell them?
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SPEAKER_03
No, they just were like, come and sit down and talk.
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SPEAKER_03
They didn t know what it was for.
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SPEAKER_03
They were just so happy to have a chat.
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SPEAKER_03
I know.
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SPEAKER_01
And the idea that I was recording didn t matter.
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SPEAKER_01
That s that Southern hospitality right there.
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SPEAKER_01
I mean, that really is what it is.
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SPEAKER_03
And they d also just been, you know, three weeks ago, been through something harrowing.
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SPEAKER_03
And they were just, I just wanted to chat and fill me in and be warm and great.
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SPEAKER_03
And it was marvellous.
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SPEAKER_01
You should send them something.
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SPEAKER_03
Yeah, I should.
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SPEAKER_03
I ve got their addresses.
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SPEAKER_03
Yeah, I was kind of stuck with this episode because I m not going storm chasing.
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SPEAKER_03
I sort of failed in that, you know, I can talk to some storm chasers, but we re not chasing.
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_03
I drive to this town, FEMA won t talk because they re a government agency and just won t, you ve got to go through the PR people and it s useless, useless to me, I need audio.
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SPEAKER_03
And then these two lovely people just tell these really cool stories and also make the really good point that yeah, wherever you are, something will probably kill you, bear attack, avalanche, hurricane, earthquake.
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SPEAKER_01
You can t change your life due to the fears because there will always be something.
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_01
This reminded me, because, you know, I was feeling so warm towards these people.
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SPEAKER_01
Another reason that storm chasers put me off a little bit is these things kill people.
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SPEAKER_01
Not like they kill the chasers.
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SPEAKER_01
They kill innocent people.
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SPEAKER_01
There are people in underground shelters.
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SPEAKER_01
There s someone hiding with their horse.
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SPEAKER_01
This is what you re excited about, and it feels rude or something.
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SPEAKER_01
It s like, these are the things that kill people.
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SPEAKER_01
You shouldn t enjoy them.
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SPEAKER_03
Completely, there s this idea of tourism around something that is a real- Yes, it s like a dark tourist!
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SPEAKER_03
It s full dark tourism.
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SPEAKER_03
Yes!
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SPEAKER_03
And to be fair, I did bring this up with a couple of them, and they acknowledge that, that they re going to places where people are desperately trying to avoid this thing that they re going to find.
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SPEAKER_03
Something that did make me feel better about it, everyone talked about how when they re in these towns, they often stop a few of them.
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SPEAKER_03
They re there before the risk responders, and they ll essentially help out.
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SPEAKER_03
They ll be there and they ll help, which is cool.
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SPEAKER_03
But there is that idea of, yeah, leering in at this thing when it s something that other people want to run away from.
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SPEAKER_03
And I think that s a really interesting ethical thing.
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SPEAKER_03
And I felt that as well.
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SPEAKER_03
How would these people feel as they hide in the barn with the horse?
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SPEAKER_03
They look down the road and there s a bunch of people just photographing it for fun.
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SPEAKER_03
But all the storm chasers acknowledged it.
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SPEAKER_03
They got it, which was good.
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SPEAKER_03
It s like they re aware of it.
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SPEAKER_03
But it is that weird thing clashing up against each other.
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SPEAKER_01
Very interesting psychology.
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SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_01
This was great.
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SPEAKER_01
I enjoyed this.
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SPEAKER_03
I felt
4
SPEAKER_03
I think you probably should be cautious when you re knocking on some doors in the United States, but it also made me remember that as scary as my image of certain parts of America are, I can also get like very wrong.
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SPEAKER_03
And these people were just like chill as fuck and the loveliest people around and some of my favorite people to talk to.
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SPEAKER_03
So it was cool.
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SPEAKER_01
I m glad you didn t get sucked into a tornado and die.
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SPEAKER_03
Thank you.
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SPEAKER_03
Yeah, I m really glad too.
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SPEAKER_03
I don t really want to be in one.
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SPEAKER_03
Like Larry told me, he hopes I never have to like hear that jet engine noise that he heard.
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SPEAKER_03
So I m with him.
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SPEAKER_01
And I hope with your new lease on life, you work on your avoidant tendencies.
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SPEAKER_03
More American or less American?
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SPEAKER_01
More.
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SPEAKER_01
For sure.
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SPEAKER_01
Yes.
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SPEAKER_01
For sure.
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SPEAKER_01
Coal is very American.
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SPEAKER_03
I love coal.
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SPEAKER_03
Loved coal.
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SPEAKER_03
And it was only 30 minutes out of Oklahoma City.
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SPEAKER_03
You re in Oklahoma City, 30 minutes, you re in this tiny, cute, little, beautiful town that s rebuilding after not one, but two tornadoes come through.
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SPEAKER_01
Sending my love to coal.
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SPEAKER_01
All right.
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SPEAKER_03
Thanks, mom.
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SPEAKER_01
Bye.
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SPEAKER_03
Bye.
4
you