Oklahoma Tornado Storm Chasers Tribute: Young, Samaras and Son to be Featured on Discovery After Deadly EF5 Twister Claims Their Lives
On Friday, three storm chasers lost their lives while following the tornado that hit El Reno, Okla.
Featured on Discovery channel, 55-year-old Tim Samaras, 24-year-old Paul Samaras, and 45-year-old Carl Young were found deceased in the wake of the EF5 storm.
The three men were part of the 18 residents that were killed by the storm, 6 of whom were children, according to the Daily Mail.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Betsy Randolph was the last to hear from the men before the documented tornado, or another vortex, picked up the chasers' Chevrolet Cobalt.
"They were screaming, 'We're going to die, we're going to die,'" Randolph told the USA Today. "There was just no place to go. There was no place to hide."
The vehicle was found on a country road with the elder Samaras still strapped inside while the two other passengers were each found around a quarter mile away.
"It looks like it had gone through a trash compactor," said Chris West, the undersheriff of Canadian County, according to the Washington Post. "The car was probably about 60 to 70 percent of its normal size because it had been pushed and mauled and compacted as it was tumbling down the road. Like wadded up."
Tim Samaras was supported by both Discovery Channel, who had featured him on their show Storm Chasers, as well as National Geographic. He also founded TWISTEX, the Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling in/near Tornadoes Experiment, according to the USA Today.
On Sunday, the Discovery Channel ran a documentary, Mile Wide Tornado, on the May 20 Oklahoma tornados. However, the station has updated it with clips of Samaras and his son and is airing Mile Wide Tornado: Storm Chasers Tribute on Wednesday at 10 p.m.
