Red Horse

RED HORSE

RED HORSE

by Emilia Kangasluoma

A Native American Kiowa tribe has a myth about the Twin Boys.

The Twin Boys wanted to race a horse but they had no horse.

So they made one.

The body was formed from red clay of a river bed. Eyes were taken from a wolf, ears from a coyote, hair from an elk, tail from a snake and hooves from a turtle shell. The Twin Boys gave the horse Grandmother Spider´s Indian medicine and it came to life.

The Red Horse had lightning in his eyes and fire in his nostrils.

The Twin Boys wanted to test the horse. They made the horse race on a leash, going faster and faster. The horse whipped his snake-like tail and ran so rapidly that strong winds started blowing and whirls went all the way to the sky.

That was the first tornado.

Twenty two years after I watched Twister, a Hollywood disaster movie, between March and May of 2018, I made a journey through the American Midwest, an area known as Tornado Alley.

This is where the most tornadoes in the world hit. Every spring hundreds of storms thunder over the Alley. These twisters grow, whirl, destroy and fade away randomly, not following any rules or patterns yet influencing the lives of thousands on their way.

I travelled from Dallas, Texas through seven states to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

I visited towns that were wiped out by tornadoes and I met people who encountered severe weather. Some were chasing twisters to get an adrenaline fix, others had spent their lives trying to understand the science of the twirls. Then I met people who had lost everything: their homes, their businesses, their cars and even a valuable Beatles collection. I met a mother who had lost her 5-yearold daughter to the wind and rubble.

I heard rumors. Tornadoes never hit big cities, I learned, and opening windows might save your house. Both are false.

I heard a story about a vortex destroying a church but leaving an altar and a Bible untouched.

I also heard of chicken losing their feathers and spruce needles piercing a barn door after a storm.

During spring seasons it is not unusual to hear storm sirens go off weekly in Tornado Alley. That is when people run to their backyards and hide in their storm shelters or cellars.

Some open a can of beer and stay on their porch to watch in wonder.

That is, until, the tornado comes right over your house. After that you won’t leave your shelter until the sky is blue again.

Everyone has a story to tell, yet nobody exactly knows where and why tornadoes strike. They are mysterious monsters.

Greensburg, Kansas.

Mitch Pouder, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma “It was in May 2011. I came home from work at 5 pm. We were watching TV with my wife and a meteorologist was warning that if you´re not underground you are not going to make this.

My wife put the photo albums safe in the closet and we ran to my dad´s basement. We watched the news until the TV went all white.

We could hear a tornado rumbling close by and then we heard fire cars.

I never forget walking up the street. All houses were levelled down.

Some parts of our house were spared. Living room was gone, ceiling had flown away. Somebody´s wheelbarrow was in the middle of our bed.”

Previous spread: Map of storm shelters (red dots) and cellars (blue dots) of Moore hanging on the wall of Gayland Kitch, the Emergency Manager of Moore.

A probe that survived a tornado. Springfield, Missouri.

Lanny Dean, Springfield, Missouri “When I was seven I was on a holiday with my mum and sister. We were driving on an interstate in Texas and it was pretty stormy. There was a massive hail and winds were blowing like crazy. I was scared in the backseat and mum told us to be quiet. And then I saw it, my first tornado.

For years I was really scared of storms. Then I became fascinated by them. I wanted to study everything I could and I wanted to know all about them.

In 1991 they were forecasting severe weather. I took my parents´ car and my dad´s new video camera and drove to Western Oklahoma to look for tornadoes. I sat an hour in the car and saw that vortex coming. It was a F4 tornado, a monster, I had no idea what I was doing but I felt like that was the greatest high I had ever felt in my life.

I wanted to see more of them, film them and sell videos to TV stations. I thought it would be easy. Between 1991-1994 I saw no tornadoes. But it´s like a drug. The best drug you´ll ever have. You will do anything to see them again and you just cannot stop.

When Twister movie came out in 1996 it made storm chasing mainstream. The movie was not factual at all, I hated it.

In 1998 I happened to be really close to a tornado out of Oklahoma City. I got some debris on my videotape and sold the video. That´s when I became blacklisted among other chasers and ended up

giving a collective “Fuck off ” to everyone. I was the black sheep who didn´t care about rules.

Luckily I found a partner who was like me. We learnt new ways to approach tornadoes, to go around them and safely go really close to them. Between 1999-2007 we saw about 40 tornadoes a year.

In my storm chasing history of 27 years I´ve documented 516 tornadoes on my camera.

I started a company. I wanted to show people what I had seen, let them feel the same feelings. At first it wasn´t a lot of customers but just enough to keep the business running. But I still didn´t really understand why some storms became tornadoes and some didn´t. I always wanted to know more.

Storm chasing became more popular. They started some TV shows too. I was on “Storm Stories” and then “Tornado Hunters”: I was becoming famous. Yet research was something I really was interested all along.

A good friend of mine died when storm chasing in 2013.

It took me three years to figure out what happened. But in May 2016 we finally managed to get a probe inside a tornado.

I now call the probe my bitch. It´s a bad ass. And we got amazing data! Winds were 380 km/h and the footage we got was great. That truly put us on a map. Those cocksuckers envied us and asked to see the data. I think we are one step closer to understanding storms.”

Previous spread: Lanny Dean´s draft that shows how to approach a tornado and his car in Springfield, Missouri.

A storm shelter in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Megan McClellan, Tulsa, Oklahoma “As a meteorologist I´ve heard so many myths about tornadoes. A lot of people think tornadoes don´t hit downtowns or cross rivers. But of course they do, they often jump over rivers.

Predicting severe storms and especially tornadoes is really difficult.

It´s almost impossible to know where they will strike. An average tornado moves Southwest to Northeast in the U.S., but tornadoes have been known to move in any direction. We use computer models and look for humidity and dew points as well as temperatures of the air. When waters in the Gulf of Mexico are warmer the risk for storms is higher.”

Tornadoes are rated on their intensity by Fujita (F) scale. The Fujita scale assesses the damage tornadoes have done on human-built structures and vegetation. Meteorologists and engineers evaluate the damages after storms on ground or aerial surveys, on weather radar data, witness testimonies and photo and video materials.

The scale has 6 steps from F0 to F5.

A F0 tornado creates light damage: branches break off trees and sign-boards get damaged. Estimated wind speeds are 64-116 km/h.

A F5 creates incredible damage. Strong frame houses are lifted off foundations and carried away, trees are debarked and skyscrapers topple. Wind speed estimations are 419-512 km/h.

Next page: Storm sirens around Tornado Alley. Tornado sirens are designed to alert people of immediate danger of tornadoes.

Helen Schreider, Greensburg, Kansas “I used to live three blocks away from the well. It was 4th of May 2007. I came home from work, cooked some supper and watched TV. Weather forecast was predicting storms. Telly was on all night.

I didn´t really think there was going to be a tornado, there had never been one before.

Around nine o´clock the sirens went off. My son said it´s here, we should go to the hallway. I heard the roar, I heard windows breaking and I was thinking we should have gone to a better shelter.

It was silent for a while. I heard my phone ringing and it was my other son calling and asking are you ok. And then the storm came back. East wall fell down. It was really dark and rainy. I later heard it was a F5 tornado and 12 people in Greensburg died.

I was able to walk outside from my house. It was irreparable. I remember seeing my car that I had just fixed and now it was completely rolled.

Everyone walked to Dillon´s store. Busses from close by towns and counties came to pick us up and take to shelters like school halls.

They had to take 85 000 trucks of debris to the dump. It was so rainy that everything was ruined.

Previous page: A pole sticking from an empty plot in Greensburg, Kansas. The pole was the only thing that was left of a house after the tornado of 2007. .

A lot of people didn´t want to come back. Now it´s a lot of empty plots in here.”

A house damaged by a tornado in 2014 in Pilger, Nebraska.

Rescuers sprayed an OK or X sign on houses they had checked.

Christy Pyatt, Greensburg, Kansas ”I had started working for the utility building department in Greensburg only three weeks earlier. And then the tornado hit.

It was a chaos in the beginning. We did inspections on houses that were left, cleared debris and started working on a new city plan. We got a lot of help; other communities wanted to participate, we got funds from the state´s disaster relief and then there was FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), which helped a lot.

FEMA fundings helped to put the city back to as it was before.

When a whole city is gone you have to start planning from scratch.

We wanted to build Greensburg more sustainable. It took over a year to design a new master plan. We also added storm shelters in public buildings like hospital, school, city hall and library.

A lot of people left the town after the tornado. We used to have more than 1200 inhabitants but now the number is around 800.”

Kay and Sam Riggs, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Sam: “They talked about tornadoes all day in May 13th 1999. I was looking at the sky from the porch door. It was a beautiful day, 30 ° C, very calm. There were no storm sirens that day.”

Kay: “Sam said a tornado was coming but I said it´s no big deal. My mum called me, worried, and told us to seek shelter. I still said it´s going to be fine. It was about 7 pm” Sam: “I wanted to go to the bathroom for shelter, we had no basement.”

Kay:” I said we should go to the closet. I got our new bed duvet to cover us, I remember being upset about messing that. And then I wanted to close the blinds from the windows, I had heard that if windows exploded I wouldn´t have to clean up that much. Then I ran back to the closet. I could already hear the sound of the tornado approaching and the windows were popping behind me. I crapped Sam´s arm and started praying. Then I blacked out.”

Sam: “You were shaking my hands off. I thought we were dying. It sounded like an army tank. I could feel the pressure and the tornado was pulling us in the air. It lasted for about 30 seconds. A wall from neighbour´s house fell into our closet, but there was a drawer that kept us save. I called it my little Jesus hole.”

Kay: “When we came out from the closet, everything was gone.

Everything was destroyed for kilometers. I couldn´t recognize our street, it was like a war zone. We found an airplane generator from our backyard, it had travelled from Chikasha, 30 kilometres away.

And then some weeks later, about 25 kilometres North from Oklahoma City, someone found a photo of our grand daughter falling from the sky.”

Sam: “We lost 98% of everything we had. For example, I used to have the biggest Beatles collection in the world. I had just been offered 100 000 dollars for that and then I lost it all.”

Kay: “We built a new house almost exactly as it was.”

Sam: “But we built a storm shelter in our garage, that was new. Now if I hear there is a tornado coming I start crying and shaking.”

Photos of a destroyed neighbourhood in Oklahoma City, 1999.

Courtesy of Sam Riggs.

Michael Seger, Tulsa, Oklahoma ”It´s the line between dry air from Canada and humid air from the Gulf of Mexico travelling where storms are born. Those are the patterns we look for. This spring has been colder than ever before, April was recorded the coldest. Tornadoes are really late this year.

Tornadoes have so much energy, they are like atomic bombs. They can lift something up to 18 km. Even cars and heavy trucks can fly some kilometers high.

If you are close enough you can sometimes feel the tornado breathing. The air is pulling and pushing you. I love storms! I love witnessing Mother Nature. So much excitement and adrenaline.”

Previous spread: Traffic in Dallas, Texas. Tornadoes hit big cities too, although most tornadoes strike in the countryside due to the fact that Tornado Alley is mainly rural.

A car debris after a tornado of 1984 in Mannford, Oklahoma.

Previous page: Randy Hale, Wichita Mountains Refuge, Oklahoma “Sometimes it´s so rainy you don´t even see a tornado from the rain.

I was driving one time when I noticed there was a tornado following me. It felt like it was chasing me! I drove as fast as I could and luckily the tornado turned around. It sounded like hundred trains.”

People living in Tornado Alley have found ways to protect themselves against tornadoes. Basements are usual in this part of the country but many have decided to invest in specific shelters.

Storm shelters, strong rooms built from cement, can be found from many homes and public buildings around the Midwest.

Traditionally they are underground bunkers in backyards or garages, designed to hold up tornadoes. Some areas have high water tables which do not allow shelters to be built underground. In these areas people build safe rooms above ground.

Storm shelters most usually are small, just big enough to fit a family.

They are dark and smell like moist soil. Sometimes there are spiders and snakes in shelters. A man in Oklahoma City was more scared of his shelter than a tornado. Ladies in Pilger would only enter a safe room after drinking some whisky.

One should always have bottled water, a battery-powered radio, a whistle, a torch, essential documents and some clothing available in a storm shelter. In reality, shelters often function as storage and can hardly fit a person.

Clockwise from top left: Preferred Shelters company in Oklahoma City sells storm shelters.

Prices for different models vary between $2500-$60 000.

A safe room in Pilger, Nebraska. People are not allowed to build underground bunkers in Pilger because of flood risks.

A safe room in a library in Pilger, Nebraska.

A storm shelter in Moore, Oklahoma.

Twister Museum in Wakita, Oklahoma.

Next spread: Weather radar map at the FOX23 TV-station in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Gayland Kitch, Moore, Oklahoma “I´m the Director of Emergency Management in my town, Moore.

It seems like we are a magnet for tornado outbreaks but we really aren´t. In the past 20 years we have had four F4 or F5 tornadoes.

Last big one was on May 20th in 2013.

We knew there was a warning for severe weather that day in 2013.

We communicated with the National Weather Center and the Storm Prediction Center all day and they were forecasting dangerous storms for us. At 1.10 pm we had the first alert for a large and extremely dangerous tornado and at 2.40 pm we had the first tornado touchdown. Of course all the sirens went off and people sought shelter.

I was in my office at the City Hall with my City Manager. We were watching the tornado live via our three local TV stations and we both had feelings of depression as we had both experienced this in the past.

Winds were as strong as 350 km/h. The tornado was 2,1 km wide and stayed on the ground for over 27 km long path.

I was busy receiving data from my field spotters, activating our tornado sirens and answering phone calls.

The worst part for me was when I learned we had fatalities, particularly those at the elementary school.

In total 24 people died. 1000 homes and 60 businesses destroyed.

But that´s a part of my profession to power on through and get work done because there are others still needing our help.”

Previous spread: A memorial site in Joplin, Missouri.

May 22nd, 2011 a catastrophic EF5-rated multiple-vortex tornado struck Joplin, Missouri. It killed 158 people, injured some 1150, and caused damages amounting to a total of $2.8 billion. It was the deadliest tornado to strike the United States since the 1947 Glazier– Higgins–Woodward tornadoes. It also ranks as the costliest single tornado in U.S. history.

Eli Swinson, Joplin, Missouri “I was 17 years in 2011. It was a cloudy day, some little rains. In the afternoon mood changed. The sky was green and rain was coming down and then back up.

I was at McDonald´s hanging around. When I realized there was going to be a tornado I ran and found a drain where I dug myself. It got dark and I could hear that horrible sound.

When it calmed down I came out. Everything was different.

My friend´s house was gone and I thought the worst. Other friend`s house was gone too and his parents were lost. These were my neighbourhoods, I had spent my youth in these streets and all my friends lived here. Now it was just piles of rubble everywhere.

Powerlines were sticking out and all trees were gone.

My mum´s house had only windows blown in but it was just one block away from the total destruction.

With my step dad we went from one house to another to help people.

We pulled a lady out of a bathtube. She had died and she was holding her dead baby in her arms. That´s when everything hit me. All my friend´s houses were gone, I had no idea where anyone was. It was horrible.

We did get a lot of support. People really pulled together for two months. Fast food chains helped, NGOs, National Guard, all volunteers. It took about three months to clean all debris. It took a solid year before they started rebuilding the city.

I think the saddest part is that so many people use their post trauma stress as an excuse now to get painkillers and other drugs.

It shouldn´t be like that.”

Brandon Mace, Mannford, Oklahoma “My parents are storm chasers. As a child, I sometimes came home and saw a note on a kitchen table saying “Went tornado chasing, go to your grandparents”. I was never scared for them though.

I´ve been chasing storms with them few times. It´s exciting. First you see clouds rotating and then they drop down and form a tail.

Sometimes winds get so strong you can´t even shut the car doors.”

A storm shelter in Mannford, Oklahoma.

Shelby Crider, Marlow, Oklahoma “I was interning at a law enforcement in the mountains refuge.

A tornado was coming and I had to go and warn visitors. There was one guy who insisted on staying and watching the storm. We had to handcuff him and carry him to safety.“ Next spread: A screenshot from Lanny Dean´s YouTube video from storm chasing.

Craigen and Lyndy Labenz, Pilger, Nebraska Craigen: “I´ve already experienced two tornadoes. I was seven years old when I was in Oklahoma City for softball and a tornado struck. I was in a hotel´s shelter with my parents and brother.

Then, in 2014 tornadoes hit Pilger and it was way worse. My grandmother came to look after me, my brother and my cousin. She told us all to go down to the basement. My brother wanted to stay outside and watch but grandmother yelled at him. There we were sitting on the couch. My brother was watching from the window. I thought we were dying.”

Lyndy: “Media later called rare twin tornadoes amazing but it wasn´t amazing for us.”

The Pilger tornadoes were part of a bigger tornado outbreak.

June 16th 2014 two F4 tornadoes struck small Nebraskan town Pilger simultaneously. They travelled parallel and then crossed paths.

Houses were completely swept away, cars were thrown and mangled and a church was leveled. Two people died.

Kandi Murphree, Pilger, Nebraska “I just came back from work to our trailer. I had moved to Pilger recently with my two daughters because I thought Pilger would be a safe little town for them.

My mum brought kids home, she said a tornado was coming. We went hiding to our bathroom. When sirens went off, I took my kids and started to run to some shelter outside. Nobody ever saw our trailer again.

That´s when everything blacked out. I have no memory of the tornado. My mother found me and my Cali lying on a street. I had a metal piece sticking from my head and another in my thigh. My femur was broken. Cali was dead by my side. She was only five. My other girl Robin had just turned four and she was screaming and running around a grain elevator.

I spent a month in coma in a hospital. They thought I wouldn´t survive. But I did. I learnt to walk again and I came back to Pilger.

It´s not a bad town, I love Pilger.

I didn´t have an insurance for my trailer but the Mennonites built me a new house from all donations. We now have a shelter too.

Sirens went off once and we didn´t leave the shelter until the sky was blue again.

I suffer from PTSD. Anything can trigger it. Then I just collapse and start crying. I guess it takes time to heal.”

Grain elevators in Pilger were destroyed and corn was spread out around the town.

“You can´t believe all that corn growing the following summer.”

What about the Red Horse and the Twin Boys who accidentally created a tornado?

The Twin Boys were afraid to tell their Grandmother Spider about the horse. But grandmother Spider was clever. She knew. She went looking for a red horse among other wild horses and found the one the Twin Boys had created. She took the horse back to the boys.

The Twin Boys apologized for making it. The Red Horse accepted their apology: ”When you see me coming, you talk to me. You tell me who you are. If you are Kiowas, I´ll leave you alone.”

Darin Zotigh, Carnegie, Oklahoma “When a tornado is coming, you can feel it. The air is humid and there is different energy.

We Kiowas tell tornadoes to go around us. I´ve seen a tornado approaching my town, Carnegie, several times, but then turning to some other direction just before reaching residental areas.

I know my uncle talks to tornadoes and tells them to go away.

I heard this story once: A white man was driving his car. He saw a tornado striking and went hiding under his car. From there he saw the Red Horse racing and an Indian riding it. He actually saw the Red Horse!”

Red Horse Photographs, texts, cover drawing, maps and layout © 2018 Emilia Kangasluoma Thank you: All sweet and hospitable people around Tornado Alley.

Anna-Tia, Elias, Morgan, Nick, Sebastian, Søren, Tobias and Brandon, the boy with freckles on his shoulders.