Motorist Got Way Too Close to EF-4 Tornado with His iPhone

A North Carolina man passing through Illinois on a business trip was directly in the path of the EF-4 tornado that struck northern Illinois on Thursday April 9. The motorist, who was on Interstate 39, was just a few hundred feet from the tornado as it passed by. He recorded the twister on his iPhone while sitting in his truck.

“It look like it’s coming right towards me,” says the driver, identified as Sam S., by the man who posted the video to YouTube, Aaron Rooney. “I have honestly never been in a tornado before. ... It is coming right over the top of me. It’s totally scary. I don’t know really what else to do.”

He backed his truck under an overpass, watched and waited. Later identified as Sam Smith, the man said there were 10 cars under the overpass with him.

“i couldn’t tell where it was coming,” he told Weather.com in a telephone interview. “I was afraid if I kept going it was going to come right over me.”

Commenters on YouTube remarked on how calm Smith seems in the video. Smith said he had been talking to his 10-year-old son on the phone, which is why he sounds so calm. As the twister got closer, he hung up the phone.

The National Weather Service estimates Thursday’s tornado reached a wind speed of 200 miles per hour.

Weather experts say one should never go under an overpass during a tornado because the space under the bridge will act as a wind tunnel. If you’re in a car and in the path of a tornado, try to get away. Tornadoes move at 25 to 30 miles per hour. If you can’t get away, get out of your vehicle and get into a ditch.

An EF-4 is the second most powerful tornado rating, reaching wind speeds of 166 to 200 miles per hour and causing devastating damage.

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