Warner-Robins Air Force Base Georgia Tornado

[AJTwister97]

didnt the tornado kill the videographer. also, since i cant comment the video of the corn tornado, credit goes to John Gossen. he is the one who filmed the corn oklahoma tornado.

[wmpmacm]

I was there. I was 6 years old. We lived off base in Macon and I saw the funnel headed our way while my mother conferred with others in the street as to whether we should leave the area. We stayed huddled in the house while the tornado wiped out houses a quarter of a mile away.

[spindalis79]

A special on the Weather Channel called "Target Tornado" in 1994 said that film was taken that is not exceeded even today in it's depiction of buildings being blown apart." (this video) Does this still hold true?

[UnseenCaller]

@pdorn777 Yeah, people love to say things like "the guy died...." doing this or that. That said, it does look like he was mighty close and it does look to be approaching him. If he made it through, I'd bet he had a good story to tell.

[vivalascam]

I have a still shot hung up in my dining room of this tornado.

[RainJetSprinklers]

@pdorn777

Alright then

[RainJetSprinklers]

The disturbing thing about this footage is knowing that the person recording this was killed minutes after. I like the reddish sepia color of this footage.

[LetsDoIt4Johnny1]

I lived in Warner Robins growing up. This storm is an incredible part of my town's history. It's a good thing that it hit then and not now, when the town is much, much bigger. Not that it was a good thing either way, but. We have a strange little thing going: the town was hit in '53, '73 and '93...doesn't bode well for 2013...anyway, thanks for posting this. It's very important to tornado history and Warner Robins' history.

[gamma21285]

@LetsDoIt4Johnny1 thats kinda creepy how it gets hit every 20 years!! i live in winder ga, so i know pretty much about warner robins!

[crossxfuse]

if the person who filmed this DIED, then how was the film found under all the rubble?? and WHY didn't the person attempt to run or drive away???

[jokez6890]

Didn't the guy who filmed this get knocked out by debris?

[TheGallantJed]

My grandparents witnessed this tornado. It nearly hit them before veering away. They have photos of the actual tornado itself and some of the damage that it did.

[Pearly1961]

This tornado was a vivid illustration that a violent tornado doesn't need a long track to kill a lot of people. The Warner Robins tornado was only on the ground for 1 mile....yet 19 died and over 300 were injured.

[Crystasorrow]

I gotta give it to the person that filmed this (even though they died from it apparently) because I don't think I could get that close to that tornado. Must've had some guts... the footage looks very scary.

[spindalis79]

I remember first seeing this video on the Weather Channel's presentation of "Target Tornado" in the spring of 1994. (way before that douchebag Al Roker) The commentary is "At Warner Robins Air Force Base film was taken that is not exceeded even today in it's depiction of buildings being blown apart."

[Torn80cj]

For any body who thought this tornado was far away in this film, it's not. It's just the bottom portion of the tornado that is filmed. So at first sight it appears to be far away, but look at the film carefully and you will see that it is not far away at all.

[NismoDJ20]

@Torn80cj Damn Dude our right.I hade a VHS video of this but I never noticed the split second that shows how big this bitch is.Takes up 3/4ths of the screen haha.

[NielsShoe]

Looks like EF 5 damage so powerfull

[joesmoe71]

Probably the last thing he saw, RIP

[leewatson01]

@joesmoe71 the guy that filmed this did die in that tornado.

[AndrewHVT]

According to the Tornado Video Classics series, it is rumored that he died, but no one was ever able to conclusively prove this. (One of the TVC people went to Warner-Robins to track down the rumor, but couldn't find any solid information.)

[Dvoracekmara]

Omg!

[shelbymainzer]

Cant get over this video! How fast was that thing traveling? My god it looks like it is far away then all of a sudden the building in front blows up.

[shelbymainzer]

One of the greatest tornado films ever. The guy who filmed it actually died.

[tried2btrue]

Its hard to watch my birthplace get torn up like that.

[ilovetogofast88]

CREEPY AS HELL!!

[ilovetogofast88]

I know this is going to sound kinda silly but if the individual who took this footage was in fact killed by the tornado, how was the footage saved?

[DillatheDude]

He looks like he was killed by flying debris, not by the tornado itself.

[MeanGene79]

The film was probably found in the rubble and would not necessarily have been damaged. Therefore, here it is.

[ilovetogofast88]

Uh huh

[tatertruck124]

I used to think this tornado footage was from Dallas, TX but I guess I was wrong.

[Honestoxxx]

Yes sure is an high speed tornado, but anyways those houses seems of paper so its power is not easy to be determined

[xAllisOnex]

Now that was the scariest tornado footage I've seen.

[Wivanunu]

It looks like the air pressure popped out the wall of the closest building...because it didn't seem to hit it directly.

[mbatl0907]

Nope it was the wind. Pressure has nothing to do with the destruction of buildings during tornadoes.

[bruce64h]

1953. what a year for tornadoes.

[Dominique1970]

if you look just to the right you will see GODZILLA!

[raydude837]

Can you please tell me where you got this footage?

[CyrusNixes]

Its in Tornado Video Classics part one

[fredster118]

shit

[JakeTV248]

OMG That looked stronger than an F4! O___O

[killeryott]

wow this is so scary

[JakeTV248]

That looked worse than the tornado at McConnell AFB, Kansas in '91

[bigskyskywarn]

It's possible he was killed in the tornado. In spotter training the NWS cautions us that if the tornado doesn't appear to be moving, it is approaching you.

[MKyd]

that's pretty typical, tho'...

This footage is breathtaking, graphic in the extreme. Wow.

[mamamia1661]

heeeeeeey the wall got knocked down but the tornado wasnt so close that it could do that... weird

[Bluetailvappy]

Well, that was either a very tightly wrapped F4 tornado, or the cameraperson was actually somehow filming inside the vortex. You think this is the closest anyone has ever filmed an extremely violent tornado? I know there's audio that somehow survived of the Xenia, OH F5 during the super outbreak.

[Pearly1961]

Apparently the tornado touched down just to the southwest of the camera man's location; it was sizable, but not a massive tornado; about 333 yds (1000 ft) wide per records at SPC.

[sergio9603]

As I recall, the name of the videographer was Vince Rupert, and the source I heard this from also said he was killed in the tornado.

[hfkjehgufihgiufewi]

Yes, he was unfortunately.

[ray31093]

my mother(now 71)when she was an teenage girl,at 17 when she seen the tornado from peach county.she told my grandmother(died in 1999)She saw an tornado,it didn't hit where she saw it from distance ,my grandmother didn't notice it was an tornado. An co-worker told that she was living in pleasent hill rd,with her parents as an little girl when the tornado hit her home, her father grabbed her and sheld her when the tornado destroyed her home,her parents and her survived,home was damanged.

[helloiammemily]

i live in the area, and i have to do an essay on the tornado.

[aaKayeaa]

This is horrifying. Does anyone out there know if the Ziegler apartments were ever rebuilt? I am from the area.

[fallout1111]

@aaKayeaa Nope, the Warner Robins Pubic Library was built on part of the old Ziegler south site during the 1970's (replacing the one in the 1950's-era city hall structure across the street). For decades afterwards you could walk out behind the library and see the foundations though.

[leewatson01]

the guy who filmed this was also killed in this tornado.

[wkat950]

Wow! I didn't know there was footage of the 1953 tornado.

Was this an amateur photo or one from USAF? WMAZ back then didn't do much with shooting footage much less of such an unpredictable event.

Thank heavens Robins AFB was nearby so planes could take off and summon help/bring supplies and manpower and offer its own measure of aid.

KT

Macon, GA

[kanoelani19]

My grandmother, Rosemary Loftus was killed in this tornado. My mom was only 2 at the time and along with her sister were ejected from the car when it was lifted into the air. Their brother, my uncle remained in the car and survived, he was only 4. I don't think any of us realized until now that there was live footage from this particular tornado.

[FirebirdNerd]

RIP. Thank you for sharing a little history with the video.

[kanoelani19]

Thank you for your condolences. =)

[mumblehappyfeet80]

i used to live near that place:(

[Liddybug]

My mom remembers this day very well. My grandmother called her from work and told her to get her sisters and get in the ditch at the front of their yard. It killed one of her classmates and devastated the Ziegler apartments. To this day you can still find some of the foundations of the apartments that were leveled by the tornado.

[natjo1986]

I may have my facts wrong, but I remember hearing that this was the very first tornado ever caught on film. If I knew how to do it I would bold the word ever.

[Anticyclonic]

Well, people generally credit the Corn, OK twister of 1951 as the first one ever caught on film...but that's not the case, either. The very first one was in 1933, allegedly in Cuba.

[ColonelAngus75]

The video "Twister: Fury on the Plains" insinuates that the Warner-Robins AFB tornado was the first one captured on film, so maybe that's where natjo1986 heard that from. I used to think that as well until I later bought another tape that had the 1933 Cuba tornado footage on it.

[joesmoe71]

The Corn Oklahoma tornado of I think 1951 used to be accepted as the first tornado captured on film, but the Warner-Robins is certainly the most amazing. Assuming it isn't a waterspout the title of 'first' must certainly go to the Cuban film.

[esca8652]

@Anticyclonic According to Wikipedia it's the third one caught on film.

[Peroxide055]

@natjo1986 it was the third. jussayin :D

[mickeymouse51356]

woww

[BillBrd1]

1953 was a bad year for tornadoes.

[Anticyclonic]

This tornado was F4.

[tornadomad]

I read about this one in a book called storm warning by nancy mathis

[JaxieBoy]

Glad I wasn't there.

[cleftronix]

Thanks for that upload.

[skylarthompson]

what was the rating of this twister? an f3?

[Pearly1961]

The Warner Robins, Georgia tornado of April 30, 1953 was rated F4. After the 4/30/53 tornado, there wasn't another F4 tornado in the state of Georgia until April 3, 1974 (when two occurred).

[tornadomad]

f4

[JaxieBoy]

GEEZ.

That must've been at least an F3...

[Tezaton]

Very nice, I mean wow. I've never seen fury like that up so close

[HybridRose]

Does anyone know if the person filming that tornado survived? I would think that the person probably did not seeing as how furious that tornado was.Good video:)

[stormybear]

The individual that filmed this tornado was killed. They had this footage on a documentary TV show and the narrator explained that the filmaker was killed while filmeing the twister.

[TheNotoriousMEX]

Yeah, I recall this tornado clip from a 90's tornado special on the Weather Channel, and remember them saying the filmer also died. Pretty eerie, although it's not hard to see how: a house was being destroyed across the street by a violent tornado at the time of filming, he had no business trying to capture a shot in such a situation.

[Anticyclonic]

Ha, yeah, I was tinkering with the Ash Valley clip due to an annoying little glitch I couldn't seem to fix. But all's good now. And thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying them!

[WillieDines1]

Nice footage :), but what happened with the other Video of the Ash Valley Tornado? :), I was looking forward to watching that one :)

Anyways, thanks for the upload and top rating again :) Willie