The Storm Stories Segment aired on Wednesday, September 28th,
2005 but continues to be aired every 2 months or so.
Pictures are here
(One correction in the production: Austin and I were not lifted 22 feet UP into the air (tornado) we were thrown 22 feet FORWARD.)
We were contacted by The Weather Channel's Storm Stories segment to do their 15th anniversary segment on the Plainfield Tornado. How exciting is that!!!!
We began filming, Tuesday, May 17th. I could NOT sleep the night before - - worried about how "clean" the house was, how much weight I've put on in the last 15 years (YES, I AM vain!!!), plus I kept reliving the entire "tornado" thing in my head! The producer, associate producer and cameraman arrived at 9:30 am. All of them were VERY nice and SO easy to get along with. It took about an hour to set up the cameras and lights. They interviewed me for about an hour and a half. We took a break for lunch and then I had to change and we began recreating the scenes from the tornado. It was fun… My nephew, Benjamin, played Nicholas. My nephew, Cameron, played Clayton (and he later played Chase, too - - we just hid his head and changed his outfit). Austin played the part of our next-door neighbor, Derrick. Austin had to recreate saving us out of the demolished house.
Later, we went over to Derrick's house. Derrick lived next door to us 15 years ago and today, his Mom and Dad still live there. Derrick's mom - Cheryl, Austin - - who played Derrick and Lexi - - who played Derrick's sister, Cristen recreated their tornado experience in his hallway. Derrick - played by Austin - had to make sure they were all OK before he ran out to find us…. It was pretty cool.
Wednesday, May 18th, the Storm Stories folks went over to Plainfield High School to tape Chase in his classroom to show the school as it is today. After that, Chase was given an extra camera and got to work with their cameraman while they used PHS’s football team and volleyball team to recreate the tornado hitting the school.
Thursday they came back to our house at about 9:30 and stayed until about 6. They began by interviewing Terry. Then Terry and I had to go outside in the front yard to show us "today". We had to walk around, talk, play with the dog - - all that kind of stuff. This was the most embarrassing of all. Last October, we tore out 4 dead bushes in front of the house and dug up the mulch after deciding to lay down some type of permanent ground cover - - such as small stone or something in the Spring - - and of course we hadn't done so yet!!. SO, when they took us outside for this filming, I was pretty embarrassed! Sure, 15 years after the tornado and the front yard is all torn up!
When we were done with this, we all went out to lunch. After lunch we began recreating my experience with Austin (6-weeks old) at the time of the tornado. For this we used a doll, which was pretty funny - - trying to hide the baby's face, etc. I had to recreate Austin and I being thrown by the tornado, licking out all the insulation, etc. from Austin’s eyes, nose and mouth.
About 4 pm, Derrick came over to do his interview. - - - - THIS is unbelievable, but TRUE! As the cameraman was setting up the lights and cameras, Derrick says, "Is that the tornado siren?"
IT WAS!!! We all run outside to look and sure enough, you can see a bad storm moving in. Then
HAIL starts coming down. The cameraman ran back inside to get his camera; we are all standing in the street in total disbelief until it got too bad and then we ALL ran to a neighbor's house that has a basement. From the neighbor's front door the cameraman continued to get film of the high winds, the hail and the bad sky. You couldn't have ASKED for this to happen. (And I wouldn't have!!!) The cameraman was excited because he said that there isn't a lot of footage of hail around for recreations, so it was exciting for him to get it. The rest of us are going back and forth between the windows and watching the Weather Channel - I know, IRONIC!!!!! I was really worried because Clayton and Chase were at the skatepark and they hadn't come home yet. We suddenly see Chase's car pull up. The winds and hail were so bad that even though I tried to run out to get his attention to come over by us, I couldn't - - the weather just beat you back. All of a sudden, he came running through the storm and into the neighbor's house. Then we all see Terry's truck pull out and go down the street. I couldn't figure out WHAT the heck he was doing!!!! As the hail and winds began to calm down, we could see that the street had started to flood. Eventually, the weather calmed down and everything went back to "normal". When it was safe to run back to our house, most of us took off our shoes and rolled up our pants to run across the water in the street. After the excitement died down, Chase said that Clayton had been in a car accident and Terry was going over to make sure everything was OK. As it turned out, Clayton was OK, just REALLY scared - he had to stay at the scene of the accident while the hail was coming down and the winds were so bad - - and of course,
we know that you HAVE to get in a safe place. He was NOT in a safe place! Our car was totaled. One girl was taken to the hospital and the third vehicle was a truck that didn't have too much damage. After everything settled down, we finished Derrick's interview, which was very interesting to me. I had never really heard his end of the events of August 28th. I knew what happened from my perspective, but not from his perspective. Clayton said that as he listened to Derrick, it confirmed his memories, as well. He said that over time he was no longer sure if his memories were real or if he was remembering things that he heard or read over the years. For instance, he says he clearly remembers that he and Nicholas were alone for a small time after the tornado and he also remembers the taste of dirt in his mouth. Well, it’s been a very busy week and tons of fun. The show will be aired on August 28th, the 15-year anniversary of the tornado. Maybe we’ll have a tornado party to view our debut on national TV!!!!! This has been SO MUCH FUN!!!!!
They did come back a few weeks later to recreate my hands pulling away all the debris to try to find a buried Chase and then they recreated Chase's head popping up through the debris with his pacifier in his mouth. They used Derrick's youngest boy to play the part of Chase at 2 years old. All in all, a very exciting experience - - we were told there was a total of 30 hours of tape which will be edited into a 30 minute segment to be aired.....
Pictures are here
