Smithville - The Strongest Tornado in Recorded History

Comments · 8.2K

• CE

  @CeltonHenderson · 1 year ago (edited) · pinned

  After publishing this video one of the children who Karla died protecting in the Pearson family home, Josh Pearson, reached out and would like everyone to see the following message:<br><br>&quot;On April 27th, 2011 we lost our Aunt Karla as she dove over top of us kids to make sure of our safety. My sister was 4 at the time and I was 8, my cousin was around 14-17 (sorry Austin I forgot). The tornado roared towards us but was so large it looked like a big dark cloud, not a massive tornado. It rapidly approached our home, eventually its core ripping through our home with us inside, cracking and lifting the foundation. As I awoke covered in dirt, I saw my sister a couple of feet from me, my Aunt’s boyfriend a foot or so away, and my cousin about 20 feet away. My eyes were caked in dirt and began swelling from the debris, so as me and my Aunt’s boyfriend yelled for help it began to get dark. We yelled for what felt like 10 minutes but I’m sure it was much longer. We finally got moved to the slab of our home by Mrs. Wardlaw, who was mentioned in the video. We would be transported to a truck by four wheeler, and taken to what was left of the clinic in town. They placed us on the laundry room doors from our home because there was no way for any ambulance to get into Smithville from the damage. After they cleared the roads enough, they began transporting us to North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, my sister would pass away 2 times in the ambulance from here injuries but was revived both times, and I vividly remember despite not being able to see, I was told to not go to sleep and that has stuck with me to this day being older and understanding the gravity of that situation. Our injuries ended up being too severe for the hospital in Tupelo, so we had to be transported to LeBonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, where we were able to receive the help we would need to survive. &nbsp;I cannot stress enough how thankful I am for all of the efforts by everyone within Smithville despite the pain and tragedy we were all facing head first. I didn’t know that would be the last time I would see my Aunt, as a small child those sorts of things never cross your mind. But as I’ve grown it’s become something that lives in the back of my mind and will never ever be forgotten. It truly shaped my mindset for a lot of things in life and made me understand what people are capable of whenever someone truly needs help. Thank you so much for putting together this video, I’ve always felt like the events of that day overshadowed the tornado that emotionally and physically wrecked our little town, and I want to thank you for bringing it into light on the scale this has achieved. <br> <br>I’m sorry for the long comment, I just have never really had a platform to talk about it. <br> <br>Here’s a link to a video my mom made back in 2011 : <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaGeJgS23G8">https://youtu.be/yaGeJgS23G8?si=OaJ9WVL7gEhJylpW</a> (it is graphic, I just feel like I should give that warning, but it is what we experienced)&quot;<br><br><br>If you would like to learn even more about this event and other interesting tornado history, please consider checking out the website <a href="http://tornadotalk.com/">tornadotalk.com</a>. They were instrumental in making this video possible and have a lot of fascinating information on dozens of tornadoes including the Smithville EF5 along with a new virtual tornado memorial project. Check it out!<br><br>Thanks for sticking with me everyone, I know it&apos;s been a while since I last posted and with the channel getting hacked back in December it&apos;s been a crazy last few months. I took my time to craft the best video I could for y&apos;all, I hope it was worth the wait.<br><br>Another huge thanks to my friend and fellow creator @JesseGillett‬ for helping with some of the 3D graphics and teaching me to how to use Blender. This video wouldn&apos;t have been possible without his help.<br><br>This video was inspired by the work of another one of my friends ‪@TornadoForensics‬ who made an incredible second by second analysis of the Smithville and New Wren Tornadoes a couple years ago. Go check it out if you want even more information on the Smithville and New Wren tornadoes: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ6bN9kz-50">https://youtu.be/xZ6bN9kz-50</a><br><br>Lastly for anyone wondering why I consider Smithville the strongest tornado in recorded history. Yes there are other tornadoes with the highest radar measured windspeeds such as the 1999 Bridge Creek F5, however Smithville did not have a mobile radar truck present to record the winds so we&apos;ll never truly know how intense it really was. In my opinion when you combine the EXTREME damage this tornado did (especially to very well built homes) with its relatively small size and rapid forward speed at times approaching 70mph in context it raises a very convincing argument. It was doing near Jarrell level damage in sometimes less than a second to very well built structures and granulated most of these structures practically into dust and tossed heavy vehicles miles through the air. Most of the other tornadoes commonly argued to be the &quot;strongest&quot; took much longer periods of time to accomplish similar feats of damage. Obviously this is just my opinion based on the information available and it&apos;s perfectly fine if you disagree with it. What do you think is the strongest tornado in history?

  8.1K

• EM

  @emperormoist3851 · 1 year ago (edited)

  Imagine flying around inside a tornado for a solid 2 entire minutes just having to come to terms that those are most likely the last few moments of your life and you just have to brace for when the tornado decides to let you go

  1.6K

• KA

  @Kat-tr2ig · 1 year ago

  That poor man in the truck that got swept into the tornado, he must have been terrified. RIP

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• MA

  @maaaark_nuuutt · 1 year ago

  Pulling curtains through a wall is an incalculable level of strength. This was an absolute terror.

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• TH

  @ThatGrumpyOldMother · 7 months ago (edited)

  It’s horrifying thinking that the man in that truck could have been conscious during that 1.7 miles.

  597

• ST

  @StupidCatLady · 1 year ago (edited)

  To the woman babysitting, Karla...as a mother, the sacrifice you made to save those children saved those parents so much grief. Thank you for caring for those kids so much that you did what needed to be done. I know you have a beautiful spot in Heaven. May you rest easy knowing you protected them with everything you had.

  5.3K

• SH

  @shane3674 · 1 year ago

  A tornado that goes from EF-0 to EF-5 in just six seconds… That’s unfathomable!

  5.7K

• AL

  @alex101164 · 1 year ago

  Seeing the picture of the curtains being sucked through the gap of the walls and roof absolutely blows my mind

  3K

• ET

  @ethanstollingsmusic5967 · 6 months ago

  Whoever built that water tower needs a raise

  323

• EX

  @extrilaquistt · 11 months ago

  Carrying a 6,000lb minimum truck through the air for 1.7 miles is something out of a movie. That’s just insane

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• BE

  @BeauCrook · 1 year ago

  bro is nobody talking about how brave Karla was, she sacrificed her life for the children’s life and also Lyon was a hero, yet dying he still made an effort to help his friend, I feel really bad for both of their families

  1K

• DA

  @davidtaurian9006 · 1 year ago

  Let’s hear it for the water tower. Not only survived the tornado. Survived being hit by a 4000 lb vehicle as well. Good construction.

  1.2K