the devastation is so severe across such an expanse that we still don't know the toll of
the southern and midwestern tornadoes starting the night of december 10th at least 59 twisters carved
through 10 states a swarm you wouldn't expect two weeks before winter we spent the last several days
in kentucky where it was still strangely warm and questions of climate change are being asked
the answers aren't clear but we do know what we saw is rare the storm threw down
one twister that cut a path of destruction of more than 165 miles one meteorologist
we talked with called that tornado the beast the story will continue in a moment
all that rises from a leveled landscape are bonfires of memories
on the rickard farm in western kentucky they burn what they can't save from the two-story brick home
that seemed unshakable on that foundation down there on the right and the garage by its side
this sounded like 10 trains on a track
coming towards you full speed your neighbor shot a video of the tornado
their neighbor turned his phone toward the rickard cattle farm and framed lightning catching history
been viewed many times on facebook i believe that video is basically as it's hitting our farm
that's the beast a mile wide spinning counterclockwise around 190 miles an hour sean
and mindy rickard bolted for a church why did you go to the church why not stay in your brick home
i guess the good lord told us to leave and we left he was taking care of us
i can't tell you other than that i don't know seems likely had they stayed they would have
been among at least 90 dead no one remains missing it was a beast of a storm it was
big it was persistent and it wasn't going to stop nothing's going to stop this thing
hours before the storm pat spoden was already worried the 73-degree day his neighbors enjoyed
made his stomach churn and i've been doing this for 34 years you have that gut feeling like this
is not good it's not going to be a good day it was too warm for december spoden was working that
night at the weather service in paducah kentucky where he dreaded these images of the storm where
red meets green there is rotation but what caught his eye was an area of high density in the sky
it was debris trees and homes and lives spiraling to astounding heights
and it was up to 20 and 30 000 feet the debris was reaching 30 thousand feet about where airliners
fly yes on the screen spoden saw the twister close in he knew the tiny word mayfield meant
ten thousand people he typed the first tornado emergency alert in his career i remember saying
i can't spell mayfield because i'm i'm nervous i know what's going on and what is at stake tornado
watches and warnings have been buzzing phones all day but after 9 26 pm the weather service sent
its final warning startling words in digital deadpan you are in a life-threatening situation
mobile homes will be destroyed considerable damage to homes businesses and vehicles is likely and
complete destruction is possible it was nearly complete destruction in half of mayfield kentucky
this is where the mayfield consumer products candle factory was destroyed
the company says eight died but more than 100 survived they had a 22 minute warning
the time to take cover just 90 miles north of mayfield and nearly 100 years ago the record
for the longest tornado path ever was set in the spring of 1925. before radar and warnings nearly
700 were killed along a stretch of 219 miles back then government forecasters were not allowed to
use the word tornado the term was considered too frightening the phenomenon too poorly understood
you need to look at other debris in the area nearby debris and see if damage is uniform karen
cosiba is a leading scientist who has studied tornadoes for 16 years her work at the university
of illinois uses sophisticated radar trucks to scan tornadoes up close and in unprecedented
detail what are the big questions you would like to answer about tornadoes some of it is
the very basic question of why some storms will go on to produce a tornado and some storms won't
even though they look identical on radar they look identical to the eye they look identical in models
also what intensity a tornado is going to be we don't really have any predictive power about how
intense that tornado is going to be or how long it's going to last the united states has by far
more tornadoes than any place else on earth and i wonder why that is because it has either i'll
say lucky or unlucky geography we have the gulf of mexico which is an ample source of moisture
that helps bring in warm moist air at low levels we have the rocky mountains which adds a nice
cool layer up at sort of mid levels and what that does is that gives you an unstable atmosphere as
these systems move through this happened on a 73 degree day in december and i wonder what effect
does climate change have on this certainly we know that our climate is warming but how that
actually manifests itself into tornado outbreaks or tornado intensity or to your location is
difficult to determine there's a lot of research going on there are indications that potentially
the tornado threats moving farther east than it normally is or that it might be occurring later
in the year during these cool seasons so these december november december january february that
that might be more prolific for tornadoes than previously but the effect of climate change is
unclear tornado formation is fleeting complex and not completely understood 2020 for example was one
of the three hottest years on record and it was an off year for tornadoes there's a lot we don't know
about climate change in the weather but there's a lot of research being done trying to figure out
what's happening with climate change and the weather and really i mean
there's no indication that any of these things are going to go away so i think it's really what needs
to be the focus is being prepared for these types of events preparation adequate warning
is no longer the problem the weather service gets it right nearly 90 percent of the time
on this hillside of mostly mobile homes residents knew it was coming but there was no place to hide
james pindley threw himself on top of his son i knew things were going to start flying so i
decided that my son needed to be shielded because he's only 20. and i i'm in my 50s so i figure two
choices here him or me and i figure he'd be the one that needs to make it through this you'd
lived your life i've lived it i've had 35 good years with her and i figured if anybody needed to
make it it was going to be him timmy vanoy came to check the hill for his aunt and uncle
he found most every home destroyed amid shouts of missing children over here over here
you know of course it was pitch black and a few of the deputies and me we had flashlights but it
wouldn't that didn't help much 329. can you get down here we need help we got someone under this
debris he searched with two sheriff's deputies who were wearing cameras
and so we moved all the debris off the shire
and we lifted the shire up and there the little 15 month old was laying there crying little boy
hey baby deputies trent arnold and troy blue delivered the boy into the world
and over to the side of it was uh they had a little three-month-old
that was he was up and under all the debris laying on his on his belly
those children both of them are okay praise god everyone on the hill survived
here's the little one right here you see where it just broke off the rebar here yeah so that
snapped it like a like a toothpick this week the path power and duration of the beast
are being measured by teams including the weather services pat spoden christine welkes and steve
eddy it's estimated 15 thousand buildings were shredded across the region at a cost of three
and a half billion dollars the interesting point of this thing being lofted up the hill
and what kind of energy it took to lift it what impressed them were the scattered rail cars
tossed and capsized tank cars were flared to burn off the remains of their combustible cargo
normally that'd be a great place to be and you got crushed here steve eddy was amazed that this
university of kentucky building couldn't stand up to the fight that's where i would have told
people to go to go in and seek shelter because it was so well built it was only 18 months old
eddie and christine welkes told us that even with their radar and super computers
the most accurate way to measure the power of a tornado is by appraising what is left behind
the day after the event i was able to take a ride in a helicopter and we flew the entire path when
the helicopter kept going and i kept seeing damage and i kept seeing trees down like this
isn't going to end we're talking about one to two percent of the tornadoes that occur 98 of them are
on the ground for about a minute and are about 100 100 feet wide very short brief is a normal
tornado wind speeds 70 80 miles an hour maximum usually how is this different well abnormally
in the very high range yeah historically i like that word historic uh event this is
hot pepper jelly her brick home destroyed mindy rickard found jelly she canned in a glass ball
jar another memory from what has already been a long life with her husband sean they met when they
were four years old what have you found that has meant something to you i'll let you take that one
so um as a family we had three children uh chloe chase and caleb and in 2011 our youngest caleb
passed away in a tragic swimming pool accident i'm so sorry there was a blanket
that all three of my kids used we used it with all three of them but caleb was the one who just
really seemed to to latch on to that blanket and he packed it with him everywhere he went
caleb's blanket was found by a friend about 150 yards away somehow still folded
the rickards plan to rebuild on the old foundation the bonfire will not erase the history of the
family's three generations on this hill roots that not even a storm called the beast could sever