Yesterday evening, much of central Texas along the I-35 corridor was nailed by awful thunderstorms that brought hail and even tornados. But the driver of one red 2004 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pickup truck simply couldn’t be bothered by the tornado that rolled his truck. He never stopped driving it.
Just watch this video. It’s surreal:
Twitter user Brian Emfinger, a self-proclaimed storm chaser, posted the 30-second clip on the social media network the morning after the storms hit. There aren’t many details about the specific clip itself, but a longer YouTube video of the incident notes that the tornado was passing through Elgin, TX, a town northeast of Austin.
Multiple homes were damaged as a result of the tornado, including many mobile homes, according to KVUE, a local ABC affiliate. There was further damage to trees, electric poles, and vehicles in the area. At least three people were injured, the Austin-American Statesman adds.
The tornado was classified as an EF2, which is about the midpoint of the Enhanced Fujita scale, which ranks tornados based on their wind speed. An EF2 sees winds between 111 and 135 mph, which is said to cause “considerable damage.”
While we don’t know the identity of the person behind the wheel, another Twitter user, Marcus Reynolds, claims to have aided the pickup truck driver.
“I helped the kid and let him use my phone to call his parents,” he tweeted. “He was about 16-17 and got away with just a cut on his arm.”
If that’s true, that only adds another layer to this remarkable story. As a teenager, I don’t think I’d have been anywhere near as composed as this teen, who managed to drive himself to safety and find help.
As for the truck? Well, it looks pretty damn good for a car that just did a 360-degree flip. The headlights were even on, and it didn’t appear to struggle as it drove off. That’s Chevrolet superiority for you.