Storm Chaser reports the Atkins, Arkansas Tornado

[BbyBre99]

i remember that day...it was the most scariest thing ever!

[6sixdeep]

I live 10 minutes from Atkins..I remember that shit.., It destroyed a church...

[almaboner09]

I was here this day! I was in Russellville at All State Choir auditions and we head the sirens going off.

[TheHater46]

HOLY SHIT I DIDNT GET 2 SEE IT DAMN DAT THING IS HUGE

[tvfan103]

I was in Morrilton Arkansas when that happened. That tornado was about 1 mile from my house and it still did not do shit to it!!! I was lucky that me, my soon to be stepdad, and my mom were at Ortegas Restaurant while we were over there. And my dad and my brother was going to a basketball game and they were avoiding hay bales. That shit was near Hattieville, Arkansas and we did not have power for like 12 hours.

[rockinperson21]

This has got to be the scarest day of my life. I just got home and i saw the monseter touch down just about a block or two away form my house. I was screaming and crying because i had no idea what else to do. someone had to drag me to the closet to take shether. The next day, we all had to still go to school. All my friends were hugging me because there was a girl that was killed and they all thought it was me that was killed. That will be a day that i will never forget.

[enchiladaproductionz]

Oh my gosh my cousin knew her

[cookie5012]

That scared me I was there!!!! D:

[dumasbobcat]

i helped clean up after this tornado, very devistating

[liberate9]

I watched it from my friend Brian's house. It was a year before his dad died :( but anyway, It hit my step dad's house destroying everything. Even took the foundation out of the ground. We just rebuilt a new house. It all worked out besides our debt lol

[fordtrkguy1219]

I was in this tornado! I was on the freeway in a large boxtruck and the last thing I can remember is my navigator telling me "I think a tornado is coming!" Spent 5 weeks in a coma.

[Siren1000T1]

If you pause at 2:38, you can see a Thunderbolt Tornado Siren. I wonder why its not sounding off though.

[ryanofwar87]

could be a power outage

[Pkm188]

It never went off because the storm didn't have a tornado warning on it until it was heading into Atkins, by then it was too late. The tornado took out the only power substation in town so there was no way of warning people.

[kelseywiggins]

i live there and the tornado was comeing strait 4 our house and it turned. it got part of my friens house and killed a girl in the grade below me. the tornado was HUGE.

[yesjenisback]

omg that is scary ;(

[yovoho11]

there was alot of nasty twisters in 2008

[saske991]

My dad is a fireman in russellville(about 6 miles away) and his best friend and him were on duty when this hit. My dads, friends family were the first bodies to be found, and the daughters legs and arms were dismembered from flying debris. Over 21 people died...God blessem

[4701012]

i live in russellville and im a spotter and we were outside and saw it and we just prayed

[TripoliVegas]

yeah, i actually called that there was going to be a tornado about 5 min. before the NWS (national weather service) did.

I saw a clasic bow-eco hook in it and i knew it was gonna be bad. (im the same user and comment as saske991 below. i still feel sorry for him. I hope it doesnt happen again

[ladyblue614]

It was a nightmare!We did'nt have a storm shalter so we had to drive in our truck hope it miss us!Truck got some dents but we was ok!

We had nowhere to go we was at the end of the Mountain !When the winds got beter we hadded

to our church to pray!!

[babyrizla]

i live in mountain view and we could here it and we luckly did have a storm shelter. where did you guys go?

[Pkm188]

I was visiting my cousin when we saw on the TV that is was coming.. never really thought it would actually be a tornado but once we were on the interstate we saw it and sped away.. scary moment.

[Mallard3333]

My step dad works at RSVL fire dept. and my grandpa works att he SHerrifs Office. Said it was terrible

[2koolforschool]

i live on 12th street and it almost hit my house..

[saske991]

My dad is on the fire department in russellville...he was on shift with a good friend...The first bodies that were recovered from the storm were his friends family...there bodies were torne into pieces...They had a tractor..it looked like someone took a piece of paper and wodded it up....but nice video!

[zacefronlover123OHYA]

that hit my house it tore up everything!!!!

[souljaboysupaman]

i live in cabot and all there was is a funnel cloud

[Seti1121]

I live not too far from Atkins. Near Searcy. There was a funnel cloud just east of my town. It was right above us. We got lucky and it never touched the ground. Arkansas is having an outbreak, it seems.

[barfingjake]

I live in Russellville, AR which is about 6-10miles from Atkins. It was surprising that there were only 3 or 4 deaths there, I went to Atkins to go to a party about a month later and it was still pretty devestating there.

[arkansasboi33]

atkins is the redneck capital of the world

good people though

[narutouzamaki56]

my dad used to say that in arkansak a tornado always came at 4:00! scary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thetreklife]

yeah its a tornado, yeah its a tornado, yeah its a tornado...... 5x !

[jennjas11]

as i watched more i seen at 2:55 and 2:57 ... i have almost the same pics there that my boyfriend took off his train when he went through there the next day... lol.. that is crazy..

[jennjas11]

i live in conway.. thats like 25 miles or so away.. i was driving to fortsmith and had to go through atkins on the interstate and there was lawnchairs and debri in the median.. crazy stuff.. glad it wasnt near me..

[kagome122885]

At around 2 min 35 seconds, you can see a Federal Signal Thunderbolt Siren. Awesome siren, but the drawback is the T-Bolt can only operate on AC power, and if the power fails, you're screwed unless you have a generator for the siren.

[violentplainsdotcom]

Wow, good eyes. The power must have been out because it wasn't going off.

[stormspotters]

@kagome122885 Yea Atkins is in the county of Pope Arkansas and the when i was there watching this they sounded the siren once way before it hit and again right before it hit so they turned them off when it hit idk why though.

[Hbryant188]

@kagome122885 you can see the power go out at 1:34

[rs2giver]

im in little rock arkansas atm... there is a tornado that is 3 streets away from my neighborhood... sirens are still going

pulaski county

[hogs4life]

YA LIVE IN LEEWOOD IT SUCKS

[kingdomboost]

Tornado in center of screen at :52, moves to the left of screen before being obscured at 1:48. Good footage.

[w20pker]

i dont know much about tornatos but a tornato looks like a cylender spinning...i see nothing -.-

[violentplainsdotcom]

The tornado is easy to see at the 1:15 mark moving from right to left. It is about 1.5 miles away.

[jedilamb]

i was in it.sared me yes

[PirateQueenMaureen]

I've noticed lots of comments about not being able to see the tornado. That is why so many chasers choose to avoid Arkansas when out storm chasing, because of the mountainous/hilly terrain, it can make a tornado impossible to see until it is right on you and too late to escape, unlike in the plains states.

[TheMightykaz]

@PirateQueenMaureen I was there driving back from Little Rock and I did not see the tornado. It literally crossed I-40 about a minute behind me. Never saw it. Clouds did look very odd though.

[006haloman]

yea my grandmother was just a mile away from it her church was destroyed and about 8 of my relatives lost their houses, also my cousin broke his arm in 6 places when it passed over his house. He and his wife went to the center of a hallway in there house with only a blanket over their heads lucky eh

[ProfessorIgor]

Atkins was officially rated an EF-4.

[brianjones24]

yea it destroyed like 46 homes and 12 businesses including my dads in mtn view, i live there and it was only a half a mile away from my house

[forktheroot]

clinton keeps getting all the publicity, atkins and mountain view are slipping under the radar. I heard that not much is left of mountain view

[jbourneidentity3769]

Just by chance, not purpose, I've been in Atkins, Mountain View, and Highland in the last week. In NE Arkansas, where I live, Atkins is the only town spoken of. Mtn. View was hardly damaged at all, but Highland was devastated. I've seen nothing about Highland in the press.

[jbourneidentity3769]

Mountain View was still without power when I went through last week, but compared to Highland, there was practically no damage at all. Odd that a tornado stayed on the ground for 150 miles through the mountains. I've was raised to believe that you were safe in the hills...guess not.

[galynapper]

Highland may have had more damage, but comparing and saying there was practically no damage in Mt. View is idiotic. The east side of the town was practically destroyed. You probably made your assessment by driving straight through on Hwy 14 and never leaving this highway. Mt. View was hit extremely hard and don't think for a minute it wasn't.

[kleenexesrock]

good job staying calm

[jbmorr03]

NWS now says that tornado was on the ground for 123 miles - the longest tornado since 1923's Tri State Twister

[ILsvrwxtorchsr]

1925

[braveman555]

I live in NE Arkansas and we didn't get anything. But we went out and survied the damage

in Highland and in Ashflat. Fast as bad as Adkins.

[Hemingray]

Lost power in Evening Shade for about 12 hours as a result, Lots of destruction south of Ash Flat, worse at Highland.

[arion14x]

this is the second video ive seen

agh, its so gnarly

but yeah i grew up there, and now i live like 30mins away..but my whole family lives there and it was so scary finding out about this

[1050HzSineWaveTone]

I have video of news coverage BEFORE the Atkins Tornado.

[KrystalFrizz]

And this is important because....

the tornado was MUCH WEAKER THEN? I don't get why you would toss this comment in here.

[violentplainsdotcom]

I'm lost, what are you talking about?

[KrystalFrizz]

click "read all comments" at the bottom of the screen, and you'll see that I'm replying to 1050HzSineWaveTone's comment.

[jayhoyt28]

I live in KS and after seeing and hearing about this destructive outbreak it makes me think maybe tornado alley (TX,OK,KS,NE) should be expanded. This is insane. I just really hope that people start blaming this like every other weather phenomenon on global warming.

[Heyde1979]

the storm did alot of damage

[timm9]

I did not see anything.

[violentplainsdotcom]

It is easy to see at the 1:15 mark.

[kjetil297]

damn dont drive too close

[jbmorr03]

if YOU SCROLL you can see it moving. It's hard to see the movement in real time