Man sucked 'inside tornado' while queuing for pizza only survives thanks to quick thinking action
A Dallas man has opened up about his feelings of 'helplessness' after being sucked out of a store and into a tornado.
Over the weekend, multiple tornado warnings were put out in the Tri-State area, with 'evidence of a tornado in SE Indiana on Saturday,' according to a post on X by meteorologist John Gumm.
Indeed, yesterday saw the meteorologist take to Facebook to warn: "I try so hard to give you guys a heads up on these things days in advance and Saturday turned out exactly as I feared it might."
He offered two flash flood warning, alongside seven flood advisories and six tornado warnings.
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And one man's story acts as a stark warning as to how tornados can strike when you least expect them too and how their power should not be ignored.
In 2019, many people's nightmare turned into one man's sobering reality when he was waiting for a pizza at Little Caesar Pizza place during the halftime of the Dallas Cowboy Philadelphia Eagle game, Weather.gov details.
Chris Tuveng was in the store when a tornado struck and has spoken out about the moment he looked out the window and 'saw clouds of dust and debris flying around'.
He told WFAA: "The things sucking me out of the building, out of the door [...] and I was getting pounded by debris. Whatever was flying through the air, just tons and tons of debris."
What saved his life? Well, Chris 'didn't want to get blown away' so clung onto a column with all his might in a desperate bid to not get completely swept away.
"I was inside the tornado," he continued. "I was just thinking, 'Hey man, this might be it'."
He told Weather.gov: "Then it spun me off the column and onto a truck that was parked in front of the Little Caesars. I tried holding on to the hood of the truck but there was nothing to hold on to. I ended up on the ground holding on to the rim of the left front tire until it stopped. It was dead still and all the lights were off because power had been knocked out. People were screaming and cars alarms were going off all over the place. It was like a war zone."
And then 'all of a sudden,' Chris recalled the tornado 'just stopped'.
Chris later found out the tornado was classified as 'EF3' - meaning it had a level three rating on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale - with 'sustained winds of 140mph'.
"And it was 1,300 yards wide at its base," he added. "That is 13 football fields wide."
Miraculously, he managed to walk away, albeit with some severe cuts, scrapes and bruises.
"Fortunately nothing got broken. It felt like your body's just being compacted. It just crushed me. I was helpless," he added. "My back, head, and lower legs were hit the hardest. I have debris (rocks, mud, glass) in there to this day. Most of it is out but not all."
Chris resolved: "Words cannot describe what it felt like. Beyond horrifying. I am lucky to be alive for sure. I don’t think you will meet many people in your life who have survived something like this. Someone was definitely watching out for me.
"[...] If you don't believe in miracles? Look at me. I'm one. I mean, because, without his [God's] intervention, I would not be here today."
Poppy Bilderbeck