My story from Greenfield

Hey everyone. This is Pecos Shane from the discord server. I've been storm chasing actively for a little over a year, after missing the Keota EF-4 less than an hour from my place of residence. Many of you have heard my story from tuesday already, but i figured i'd tell it here as a third party who witnessed firsthand what happened tuesday afternoon. Around 2:45PM, i arrived in Stuart and stopped for gas, and also to evaluate the situation at hand. I was about 25 minutes north of Greenfield at this point. After some quick decision making, I decided to try for a semi-close range intercept near the town of Orient. This was not to be. The tornado was racing northeast by the time i got back on the road. I've heard it had a forward motion speed of about 80mph, but i wont confirm this as i never actually laid eyes on the tornado itself.

I was watching Reed Timmers live stream as i raced south on county road P28, and i saw live when it destroyed those wind farms. By the time i reached highway 92, about 5 minutes to the east of Greenfield, the tornado was in the process of going through the town. I did not know this, but my radar still showed the correlation coefficient drop south of town. I knew by now that i could not intercept in Orient, so i drove towards Greenfield. I quickly turned around when my radar updated and i saw the debris ball on top of Greenfield. I stopped at a curve on county road P28, where it meets highway 92 and i had this weird gut feeling that i should not continue north on this road. The tornado was, by this point, rainwrapped and moving (this was my best guess in the moment) between 50-60mph northeast. I had thought i could get in front of it on this road, but that little feeling in my gut told me not to go north. I was correct, as the tornado crossed the road in roughly the exact spot i would have been in if i had continued north. I wouldn't know this until later. I turned around and decided to go check on Greenfield, as i saw it had taken a hit on radar.

I arrived in town as the rain began to finally let up, and I parked at the Dollar General about 5ish minutes after turning around on highway 92, after passing locals on the side roads talking to each other in their cars, no doubt about the damage in the city. The damage is just as bad as you all saw on tv or twitter or wherever. The hospital almost took a direct hit, so nurses were setting up a temporary triage at the Casey's, which received roof damage and some damage to the gas pump area. I walked down the road next to the hospital, and the first thing i did was get into an exposed basement to help a group of men get a woman out of her basement. She would end up surviving to my knowledge. I doubled back and began calling out for anyone trapped under the houses next to the Caseys, and came across a woman who had escaped her demolished house and needed help saving her cats. Myself and another man attempted to get the cats out, but unsuccessfully. By this point it had to have been around 4pm but i wasn't really paying attention. After the unsuccessful attempt to save some cats, I saw a few houses behind (north) the hospital and decided to go there. This is where i saw the worst damage. There was a house here that was completely swept off of its foundation, with only a little bit of debris preventing a clean slab. This was, sadly, where i also encountered 2 people who did not survive. They were the two occupants of the house i had come across. I will not take credit for being the person to find them first, but it seemed that way when i got there. I informed a group of firemen and police at the base of the road back in town, and they went over and laid tarps over the deceased. I wandered back to the Caseys and had to clean myself off in the dark in the mens room, at which point a friend of mine called me to make sure i was okay. I said yes but no, and had to go to help more. By this point, EMTs from Stuart and other neighboring communities began to arrive. I walked down to the lumberyard, where a base of operations was being set up, and helped there for about an hour or so until I left.

I will openly admit, I left because i began to understand what had happened there, what i had seen, and began to break down. I had to leave, i knew id be no help to anyone by standing there in shock. I felt like a coward afterword, like i abandoned those poor people who could have needed more help. I left town shortly before 6pm, and drove back to the Casey's in Stuart. On the drive back up county road P28, i crossed the tornados damage path and that was when i realized just how close i'd come to dying. I learned while i was here from another chaser that the town was essentially blocked off right after i left. I then drove 3 hours home, silently. I'm not sharing this story to sensationalize anything, or portray myself as a victim of this. I experienced life changing things while i was there, there is plenty i am not and will not discuss that i saw. However, i am not a victim. The people in Greenfield are. Please remember this while you all argue about tornado ratings, ratings really don't matter. Those people are still dead, hundreds lost their homes, and many people are going to live with their experiences that day forever, myself included. Arguing about this stuff years after the fact is one thing, this happened 4 days ago. Please be respectful.