i'm liev schreiber. thanks for watching. good night. >> i'm liev schreiber thanks for watching. goodnight it's hard to imagine the power of mother nature. >> what's even if you're in a shelter, even if you're exactly where you're supposed to be during a tornado for those 123 minutes. win everything is falling apart around you. it's chaos my god back out and you're just at the mercy of mother nature really as a terrifying experience to go through right and back welcome to violent earth. i'm liev schreiber 2023 set an all-time record for weather and climate related disasters in the us 28 events with losses over $1 billion wildfires, hurricanes, and floods are more frequent than ever the earth is changing tonight. we delve into one of the most powerful natural hazards in the world tornadoes terrifying vortexes on leave from thunderstorms it can cause unimaginable destruction few examples of their power are more definitive than the 2011 twister that hit joplin, missouri categorized as an ef5, the highest level possible maximum winds over 200 miles per hour tornado cut right through the center of the city oh, my god oh, my gosh late may is the bulls-eye in the midwest for tornadoes joplin was under a risk of a tornado, but not a great risk. >> that is a tornado, people there was a complex of storms that came toward the city by the tornado formed just outside of the joplin city limits and then it just started racing in the job one all the warms are going off on my computer. here it comes just straight through the heart of joplin, missouri. >> oh, gosh, that is a monster tornado. >> i couldn't really see anything because it was obscured by rain it was rain right? >> i think that's why there's so many people died. they did not realize that what they were seeing was the tornado. in this case, and ef5 tornado that is catastrophic in by the time they did this to light as a pointer went by, everything was gone. it was like a bulldozer and level everything in his path i just couldn't believe what i was seeing that millions and millions of pieces of debris the tornado was on the ground for 32 minutes. designs i can only get hips a convenience store on east 20th street. >> they had locked at the door, wouldn't fling open. >> listen to the audio those are 20 entered the center part of the city that they hit the high school. >> and that's with a max damage occurred surveillance video from a high school is no more than 100 yards from amber monson's house in 2011, amber was 40-years-old. >> amber's always been amber just always generous, kind, and hospitable and just fun to be around number was home that afternoon she wasn't aware that the tornado was coming she didn't have her tv on and no indicators that it was going to be that severe i had spoken to her. she said, oh, it's just turned really dark here. >> and then she said now the sirens are going off and that's when i say go take the quilt off the top of your bed and getting your bathtub. i said and then call me back very few houses in joplin particularly in the path of what turned out to be this tornado, had basements so the best place to go is either a closet or in your bathtub you want to get as low as you can and put as many walls between you and the tornado as possible oh, gosh, i was concerned when she said the side once we're going off. >> i wouldn't even imagine the magnitude of witness is going to come amber munson probably 15 seconds before the tornado hit realized just how bad it was going to be and bang the tornado here for tornadoes to form. >> you have to have a certain set of ingredients first of all, you have to have moisture available for thunderstorms to develop. you have to have a source of lift or a trigger for those numbers for storms to get going you have to have unstable air, which is temperatures that gets colder with height and that allows the thunderstorm to rise and develop vertically the most important ingredient is you have to have wind shear, which is changing of wind direction with height and also changing wind speeds with height there's all sorts of different shapes fernandez can take we have a stove pipe which is kind of like a straight up and down type tornado. we have obviously a cone that makes sense the cone shape. another one is the wedge, and that's usually the most intense different tornadoes have different smells when a tornado is going through a densely wooded area, you can smell fresh cup would the french cup pine, whatever the tree is the typical widths are anywhere from probably 25, 50 yards across on the low end two on the high end mile wide the largest one i've ever seen was the el reno, oklahoma 20, you and that was over two miles wide the joplin tornado became a mile wide wedge right on the edge of town the tornado was massive it was chewing up everything in its path whose no mercy at all one can wonder i want to be working in which and to be with my family i want you to join your flippers in the rank. >> welcome to the show i just love being out there with you the only thing that matters to me claw radar. now streaming exclusively on macs you know, if you are cashback and you could earn on everything would just one car chase freedom unlimited. >> it's off. >> you're off the rack in or grabbed fracking your cash back in. cares back on flap jacks, baby back for tacos at the taco shack i'm working on my six pack switch to a king suite silent silent retreat answers this case. >> all right. >> now, madison number treat cash back when everyday you, bob chase freedom and limits that with no annual fee out a you cashback make more of a job if you have chronic kidney disease, you can reduce the risk of kidney failure with parse sega because there are places like to be for seeker can cause serious side effects, including ketoacidosis that may be fatal dehydration, urinary tract, or genital yeast infections and low blood sugar. >> a rare life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur stopped taking four sika and call your doctor right away of the epsilon terms of disinfection and allergic reaction or ketoacidosis you know what's brilliant, boring. >> think about it. boring is the unsung catalyst for bold which drops gold to a rocket, hurdles and into space or boring makes vacations happen, early retirements possible in startups start off because it's smart, dependable instead all words you want from your bank for nearly 160 years, pnc bank has been brilliantly boring. so you can be happen fulfilled, which is pretty unvarying if you think about it wow. the apartments.com, let's any landlord find qualified renders and signed leases and collect payments from any place even here. >> and where's here? exactly us-led david and is where we're all of our landlords to acclimate to their newfound freedom you're like dolphins oh, hey, you didn't touch that apartments.com, the place to list of place you need t-mobile, home internet with by weight. >> timo has home internet old spice gentleman who by hydration, body wash, and now lance, 24/7 moisture rotation with vitamin b3 are you on the old spice electric for short trips gas for long white. >> the paradox, it really is both the alexis rx plug-in hybrid from roger two. we there yet so many ways to save life ready, while it happy that's 365 by whole foods market breaking news here at cnn joplin, missouri, suffering the devastation right now, are very powerful tornado amber lived in what i would call a very middle-class area of joplin these beautiful coin. so division and now it's leveled it was just total devastation are falling ring and it was her and she was screaming mother and my house is on top of me that's when i said amber, it's not funny because we would always get back-and-forth. >> but she's a no mom. my house is on top and then her vomer did so there's a lot of myths that have been passed down through the years. doors and windows on the north and east sides were open whenever i was growing up, i heard you've got to open up the windows to equalize the air pressure. we'll pressure is not what will cause damage to a halt we end up getting up under the blowing the roof off another big misconception is if you're out in a vehicle that an overpass is a great place to take shelter that is not a good place to go. scientists of ever realized that being in that overpass creates a bit of a wind tunnel effect that the wind is blowing through a smaller area so it can actually accelerate the wind speeds. so you're putting yourself in greater danger there's a really popular misconception that mobile homes are like tornado attractors and what's behind that is undoubtedly that people hear about mobile homes getting hit more because that's where people die roughly half of the deaths in tornadoes occurring mobile and manufactured homes they're much more vulnerable to a tornado and tend to turn into debris quicker there are myths that tornadoes can't cross bodies of water oh, tornadoes can't go through cities but there are no rules when it comes to tornadoes. they go where they want to go the deadliest tornado in us history is march 18, 1925. >> the tri-state tornado that went across south eastern missouri, southern illinois, in the southwestern indiana and it killed 695 people over about a two-and-a-half-hour long period generally after a tri-state tornado, we see like a tenfold decrease in the fatality rate from tornadoes as compared to 1925 we think there are a lot of things that could be going on behind that. >> there was the emergence of radio and people downstream could hear about it immediately. radar has had something to do with this. increases in our understanding of storms. and now the ability to push warnings to people on their cell phones but the may 22, 2011 20 or the joplin, missouri was the deadliest tornado in decades in the united states the net being the seventh deadliest in us history on that day it didn't matter what type of forecasting skills you had, what technology the tornado, one everything basically is a three-foot forfeit powell debris everywhere. i could see just debris of a war there's really nothing standing your immediate neighborhood, there were 16 people that very geoff petroski sees a lady who is the hysterical has no idea what has happened to her and that's amber munson you could hear amber before you saw her. that's what i remember more than anything is hearing her cries out in coming towards us geoff jumped out of the car immediately and raced towards her hello? how did she survive once a tornado sirens went off and the light started flickering. >> i grabbed a pill and a blanket and my phone and i jumped into the bathtub i decided to rollover on my right side. >> am i kind of got into a fetal position and covered myself up. but as the pressure started coming, the baths started bouncing. so it was very minor at first, not realizing that you're gonna get sucked out of your house after the tornado hit i remember hearing the glass shatter, but i don't remember flying in the tornado amber months and flying ended up in someone else's yard when i woke up, i just remember being upside down, buried within the rubble i knew i was alive, but i still question whether or not it was going to survive because of the stuff that was falling on me. >> i think just wanting to survive kicked in for her i kinda wiggled myself out so that i could get up. and that's when i got out of the hole i had twisted my knee and i had a puncture wound in my bag but she's alive. it would miracle the joplin tornado having lived through it made me realize that people don't take them serious enough. >> you see people that go stand on the front porch wanting to capture these things, not realizing how risky they really can be the most anticipated moment of this lecture. and the stakes couldn't be higher. the president and the former president's one stage moderated by jake tapper and dana bash, the cnn presidential debate thursday, june 27th, nine live on cnn streaming on max loring, bad cholesterol can be hard even with a statin diets and exercise at to struggle today, it's possible to go from struggled to cholesterol success would like v0 with a step luck, theo is proven to lower bad cholesterol by 50% and keep it low with two doses a year common side effects were injection site reaction, joint pain, and chest cold ask your doctor about twice yearly, lack v0 lower, longer leg via the ups stores, not just the ship in store where the shipping dock the leave, the packing to watch store the we understand this is more than a package store with a packet shifted guaranteed store the peace of mind store where the water around the corner go to. we should get all soar. the ups store be unstoppable when we pack it in shipping, we guaranteed by the local store today and ship with competence for remember when i said we need to screen for colon cancer was that after i texted the h two screens. >> now 45 because i said colo guard, they there you go. from yep. >> with me. you can screen at home just onto your provider will stream of color guide i lay cola guard is one of a kind way to screen for colon cancer that's affected non-invasive is for people 45 plus at average risk, not high-risk false positive and negative results may occur as good provider for me, cola guard. with this throne welcome the host checkup i wish weather getting up here fine, but we're just gonna go up to that and we believe it goes my that is buried in the yard meanwhile, at a vrbo when other vacation rentals have no doctors preferred better science, better results. i'm going to say about in paris and this is cnn closed captioning brought to you by gilt visit gilt.com today for up to 70% off designer brands, it has the designers that get your heart racing had inside a prices new every day curry, they'll be gone in a flash. >> designer sales at up to 70% off guilty.com today form chasing has gotten extremely popular over the past couple of decades that's putting people do it in large part for the thrill and for the excitement of seeing the event number two, the original tornado is still on the ground once you get out there and see a storm in the open plains and amazing structure that has its mesmerizing and it can become even addicting my goodness that was a thing of beauty and violence there's a side to it. almost like a hunter because you're trying to narrow down where in the country this relatively rare phenomenon is going to take place now thousands of people who do this. here's even tour groups nowadays and you can get in a van and then go with a group of fellow enthusiasts and drive out on the plains and see the majestic skies in united states, we average more than 1,200 tornadoes per year. >> year. that is number one in the world by a long shot the second closest is canada, which only gets 100 per year. you can actually add canada, australia, and all european countries combined. and we still see more than than they do in our southeastern states. harold brooks: the tornado season depends on where you are in the country. in the plains, tornado season is typically over a relatively short period of time in the springtime. in the southeastern united states, tornadoes are more likely to occur at any time of the year. tornadoes actually can and do strike all over the country. tim marshall: tornadoes have been known to be in every state of the us. they have been in the highest of mountains, beaches, and offshore. harold brooks: over the last 50 years, what we've seen has been an increase in the number of tornadoes in what we think of as the mid-south. it looks like it's associated with physical changes in the atmosphere, but we don't have a real underlying reason of why that's occurred. reporter: a rare sight in the skies over japan. a powerful twister ripping across the eastern part of the nation. tornadoes occur worldwide. jeff piotrowski: europe has tornadoes. south america has tornadoes. australia, japan. trent okerson: but the united states has a unique combination of geographical features that can lend itself to a lot of tornadoes. the gulf of mexico, that provides the very warm, humid air. then you also get cooler, drier air that's either coming down from canada or off the rockies. there's really no other place in the world that has the exact combination of ingredients like we do here in the united states. storm chaser: zoom in. storm chasing has definitely evolved into this kind of social media era. storm chaser: where are we? northeast nebraska? max olson: and people wanna be seen. they wanna be, you know, the chaser that everybody thinks of, doing the live streams, posts in front of a tornado and whatnot. trent okerson: storm chasing is a double edged sword. it's very valuable when it comes to learning more about the science behind storms, but it can also be dangerous if you're not 100% sure of what you're doing. the biggest danger of storm chasing has always been the driving. storm chaser: let's go back. we're going back. we're going back. you tend to judge where the tornado is going, but that doesn't always happen. there are so many people who chase now on some storms that traffic is actually a serious problem. when i'm chasing out in the plains, i'm apt to see dozens of other chasers. when i began storm chasing, there were no other chasers. tim marshall: david hoadley, whether he likes it or not, is the father of modern day storm chasing. max olson: david hoadley is the first person to truly go out and seek tornadoes, driving long distances, attempting to come up with some sort of formula to see tornadoes. he holds the record for the longest consecutive years of storm chasing. i've been storm chasing 66 years, and i've seen 265 tornadoes. i saw my first tornado in 1958. i think this is one of the things that appealed to me was the element of, really, mystery. what causes these storms? there was so much that was unknown. 2023, i saw david hoadley out chasing. the man's 85 years old. he's been doing it for most of his life, and he's still out there doing it every single year. david hoadley: it's not like spelunking or surfboarding. you can return to the ocean. you can climb the mountains again and again and again. but that one tornado, that one storm, once it's gone, it's out. it's history. to have a picture of it, have a video or anything else of it, is to say that i've captured something that will never happen again. tornadoes are most common 4:00 to 8:00 pm. because that's when the atmosphere is warmest, you get the sunshine, heats things up, creates the most instability. that instability is fuel for thunderstorms. mason lillard: may 22, normal sunday. we went fishing for a little bit and we were getting ready to take my cousin lage home. i was 10 and lage was 14, and my grandpa was like, hey, i need some wiring for my garage at home depot. i would say probably around 5:00, 5:15-ish, the sky's starting to get a little kind of weird looking. my grandpa went inside of home depot and my cousin, my grandma, and myself were all sitting in the truck. we heard the sirens go off, but we just ignored them like normal. and then all of a sudden it went from kind of dark to, like, midnight black, almost. we were trying to open up the doors of the truck and the winds were just going too fast. and then my cousin, he was like, whoa, the truck's tearing up. and then at that moment, the truck flipped on its side and got sucked into the vortex. we could kind of hear everything, like the hail hitting the truck and stuff. it felt terrifying to be in that tornado. you see, like, the wizard of oz, and it's almost like that. but in real life, it's loud and you don't know what's going on. lage was sucked out of the truck. i felt like i was slipping out of the truck. i was holding on to my grandma's hand, and then i felt the truck land, like, the tires bounce. and i was like, ok. i'm alive, at least. all i felt was, like,