if a rotor of a helicopter is flying by at 100 miles an hour, what is that going to do to a human body? paul markowski: how far the debris goes is going to depend on essentially how heavy it is. the heavier stuff gets centrifuged out, so big chunks of structures or automobiles. lighter debris, though, like a piece of paper, that won't get centrifuged out. that'll instead go up through the funnel, can end up reaching altitudes of 40, 50,000 feet, and there certainly testimonials out there, people finding pieces of paper or photographs 50 to 100 miles from their origin in the wake of a tornado. mason lillard: we thought it was only, like, 20 minutes before help arrived. it ended up almost being two hours.