As the howling tornado bore down, Reed Timmer abandoned a tiny, soft-topped vehicle and sought shelter with a group underneath an overpass.
This was early on in his storm-chasing career, in 1999, before the news that it can actually be more dangerous to be underneath an overpass during a tornado, he said. It was a bright idea.
At the last moment, the twister took a turn and missed him and the others. He was covered in mud but was safe. The tornado would be classified at the top of the Fujita Scale — an F5 — with gusts of more than 200 mph…