The Black Wind - All Systems Down

Summary

Snap Judgment – "The Black Wind: All Systems Down" (July 30, 2026)

Podcast: Snap Judgment & PRX

Host: Glynn Washington

Episode Theme:

This sweeping, visceral episode plunges listeners into America’s tornado country—both the adrenaline rush of chasing the storm and the haunting aftermath for those left in its wake. Two gripping stories—the first a miraculous, pulse-pounding school field trip that collides with one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in US history, the second a multi-generational family reckoning with trauma and loss—highlight the awe, luck, terror, and strange attraction tornadoes inflict on the American heartland.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Myth and Meaning of Tornadoes in America

• Glynn opens by reflecting on the unique prevalence and danger of tornadoes in the US, noting they’re mythic forces in American culture (00:45).
• “Tornadoes have always held a special place in the American imagination because more of them happen here than anywhere else. ...But some folk, when they catch sight of nature’s vortex, they don’t run away. They run toward.” — Glynn Washington (01:10)

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2. Story 1: Tornado Alley Field Trip – "Chasing the Storm" (06:00–32:45)

Setup

• Craig Walter (“the cool teacher”) takes his meteorology class from small-town Minnesota to Norman, Oklahoma during peak tornado season—officially for science, unofficially with high tornado hopes.
• A promise is made to the principal: “You’re not gonna be storm chasing.” But as Craig admits, “In my own mind, it wasn’t a solid no.” (07:10)

The Students

• Benny Collins Jr.: Weather-obsessed, shy student who “still has a journal” of weather forecasts (08:12).
• Danielle McKeown & Sarah Trotter: Friends happy to miss school; Sarah’s dad, Paul, is the chaperone.

The Day Unfolds

• At the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, forecasters unexpectedly call an emergency meeting—sudden shifts in the atmosphere spell trouble.
  “...there was an energy. It’s just like there’s something really weird going on.” — Craig Walter (10:11)
• Students see storm charts forecasting close, dangerous tornado activity: “You will be able to throw a rock from one tornado to another in Oklahoma.” (10:58)

Collision with the Doppler on Wheels Team

• The group tours the world-famous Doppler radar trucks and by chance, the doppler scientist Herb Stein decides to “cut it short” and pursue the quickly developing storms. The students are serendipitously invited to follow.
• Craig the teacher debates: “Do I want a job? ...Or the opportunity of a lifetime?” (13:22)
• With chaperone Paul’s support, the field trip pivots—following storm chasers under the pretense of safety.

Experiencing the Tornado Outbreak

• Under a sky of cumulus columns, they see warning sirens in small towns (“Oof, here we go”), internal conflict between teacherly duty and thrilling opportunity.
• The group witnesses their first tornado touchdown:
  • “Touchdown boys. Next thing you know, we have a tornado.” — Craig Walter (17:19)
  • “We took selfies with the tornado. Before selfies existed!” — Danielle McKeown (18:15)
• After, the group realizes the path home is cut off by the same severe weather: they’re caught in a legendary outbreak.

Chasing More Tornadoes: Educational Chaos

• Multiple tornadoes appear, at one point a double-vortex “like real life Twister.” (23:35, 19:37)
• Craig is teaching (and sometimes shouting terminology) through the adrenaline:
  “What better way of, you know, having a textbook meet reality than that experience?” — Craig Walter (24:22)
• Students toggle between awe and fear, and Craig keeps checking on their well-being:
  “I asked several times, you know, how’s everyone doing? ...If they were scared, they didn’t tell me.” (24:44)

Confronting Disaster

• They encounter an enormous EF5 tornado (“so big you could almost not see either side of it” — Danielle McKeown 25:31).
• Inside the Doppler truck, they're told:
  “You’ve just now witnessed the fastest wind speed on the face of the Earth.” — Craig Walter (26:11)
• Returning to their hotel, they witness debris, devastation, and a potent reminder of mortality.
• Glynn summarizes: “More than 40 people have been killed, more than 600 people injured. More than a thousand homes ripped from their foundations.” (31:02)
• The story closes on the bittersweet unease and guilt of surviving a disaster witnessed firsthand:
  • “One minute we’re high-fiving... now I’m talking to a guy that probably lost everything.” – Craig Walter (29:39)
  • “We just felt down. Definitely much more somber. That was the first time I felt, quote, unquote, homesick.” — Danielle McKeown (28:48)

Aftermath & Legacy

• None of the students ever forget the trip. Two become meteorologists; another becomes the local emergency manager. Craig keeps his job and the story enters local legend.
• “Half the town was at Mr. Walter’s house when we got back. It was like a welcoming party for us.” — Danielle (31:24)

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3. Story 2: "We Never Talked About It" — Family Trauma and Healing (35:20–48:11)

A Family Marked by Tornado Loss

• Sue Dugan Moline recalls a catastrophic EF4 tornado in 1969 that killed her grandmother, cousin, and sister during a lake vacation; her family survives but trauma is left unspoken.
• “We didn't really sit around and talk about it. We just referred to it as ‘the tornado.’” — Sue Dugan Moline (36:27)

Generational Silence

• Sue describes the decades her family and other survivors avoid discussing the disaster, plagued by guilt, survivor’s questions, and unspoken pain.
• “He had lived with that for 50 years and had never told his mom.” — On cousin Shane’s survivor guilt, Sue Dugan Moline (38:35)

Breaking the Silence

• After her parents' deaths, Sue conducts interviews with all living survivors, giving permission for deep-buried emotion to come up and stories to be shared for the first time.
• For some, it’s cathartic:
  “If for no other reason, that was worth doing this, just because he could say that.” (38:41)

Personal Memories of the Tornado

• Sue details the moment the tornado hit: the impossible, chaotic violence, being swept underwater, and believing she would die.
  “All of a sudden, I popped up out of the water. I was riding on lumber from the cabins, just hanging on…” (43:22)
• Later, stunned in shock, a stranger’s touch: “All I said to her was that my swimsuit strap had broken... she pins my swimsuit strap back together.” (44:22)

The Healing Power of Telling the Story

• Over time, telling and hearing these stories is deeply healing for Sue and others.
  “Oh, it was so healing. It was so good for us to talk, to feel like you could just talk…” — Sue Dugan Moline (45:30)
• For years, Sue searches for a photograph of the tornado, never finding one. This desire links her with the storm chasers’ drive to stare into the heart of the calamity for understanding:
  “Even if I’d stuck my head out of the cabin door... all I would have seen is a wall of black wind.” — Narrator (46:48)

Would You Look If It Happened Again?

• “I would want to see it. Absolutely. I would want to see it.” — Sue Dugan Moline (48:01)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Touchdown boys. And next thing you know, we have a tornado.”
  – Craig Walter (17:19)

• “We took selfies with the tornado. Before selfies existed!”
  – Danielle McKeown (18:15)

• “You’ve just now witnessed the fastest wind speed on the face of the Earth.”
  – Doppler scientist, as recalled by Craig Walter (26:11)

• “I couldn’t even talk...”
  – Craig Walter on returning to the hotel, sobered by disaster (29:07)

• “He had lived with that for 50 years and had never told his mom.”
  – On generational trauma, Sue Dugan Moline (38:41)

• “It was so healing. It was so good for us to talk…”
  – Sue Dugan Moline (45:30)

• “If it didn’t lift the house up, I’m not impressed. Isn’t that awful?”
  – Sue Dugan Moline (48:25), dark humor forged from loss

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:45 – American tornado mythology and stakes
• 06:00 – Story 1: Introduction to the field trip and Craig Walter
• 10:11 – Atmosphere intensifies: forecasters realize a major event is unfolding
• 14:45 – The convoy sets out; field trip becomes storm chase
• 17:19–18:15 – First tornado touchdown; photos and shock
• 23:07 – The major outbreak intensifies; multiple tornadoes
• 25:17–26:38 – The group witnesses an EF5, the fastest wind speed recorded
• 29:07–29:46 – Post-storm aftermath, guilt, and real-world sorrow
• 31:02–31:39 – “76 tornadoes, five states, less than seven hours.”
• 35:20 – Story 2: Sue Dugan Moline and her family’s tornado trauma
• 37:09–38:41 – Survivor guilt and generational silence
• 43:13–44:19 – Sue’s memories of being caught in the tornado and escaping
• 45:30 – Healing through storytelling
• 48:01 – “Would you look at it again?” — Sue’s irresistible need to see the storm

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Final Notes & Episode Tone

• Snap’s signature beats and music underscore both the adventure and the trauma.
• The vibe is raw, cinematic, emotionally direct, and laced with dark humor in the face of the unimaginable (“If it didn’t lift the house up, I’m not impressed…” – 48:25).
• The episode brings alive why some run toward storms—not just for the rush, but in search of understanding, connection, or healing.

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Where to Listen & Further Reading

• Sue’s memoir “The Lake Turned Upside Down” at duganbooks.com (48:33)
• Snap Judgment Podcast available on all major platforms

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TL;DR:
This episode interweaves high-octane storm chasing with intimate loss and recovery, illuminating why tornadoes are both monsters and mysteries in the American psyche. Whether running toward or from the Black Wind, everyone, somehow, wants to see the thing—if only to make it real, survivable, and, eventually, part of the story you can finally tell.

Transcript

[Glenn Washington]

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[Narrator/Host]

So did you know that you're the cool teacher?

[Craig Walter]

No, I'm the cool teacher.

[Danielle McKeown]

Oh, really?

[Narrator/Host]

Meet Craig Walter, the cool teacher, famous at Windham High School for his jokes, for how worked up he got during the lectures in his earth sciences class, for letting his students freeze bottles of Mountain Dew in his mini fridge so they can make slushies. But on this one field trip in 1999, Craig became legendary. That year, Craig took his meteorology class on a field trip from their small town in southern Minnesota to the National Weather center in Norman, Oklahoma.

[Craig Walter]

It's like, hey, not many high schools have a meteorology class, so why not bring them to where the experts are? In the back of my mind, I'm like, it'd be great if we saw some tornadoes. It'd be great if I ran into some of these famous tornado researchers.

[Narrator/Host]

Craig was obsessed with tornadoes. He'd gone chasing on his own once or twice, and his principal knew how passionate he was. So before he let Craig take 12 teenagers into the middle of tornado alley at the beginning of tornado season, he made Craig promise.

[Craig Walter]

My principal said, you know, you're not gonna be storm chasing. You know, you can't be storm chasing because you're gonna put kids in danger. And, you know, I don't remember the exact words, but basically I would be fired if I took kids storm chasing. And I remember distinctly saying to him, you know, here's the deal. I don't know if you've ever been to Oklahoma, but it's really flat. And if there's a tornado, we might be able to see from our hotel. In my own mind, it wasn't a solid no. I'm not gonna go storm chasing because

[Narrator/Host]

if there was, it sounds like a pretty solid no.

[Craig Walter]

Yeah.

[Narrator/Host]

Two big white bands full of chattering high school students set off across the Prairie on a 12 hour road trip.

[Benny Collins Jr.]

I had never been like further south than Spirit Lake, so it was all new stuff. Seeing the terrain, like heading down there and all of a sudden when you see red dirt for the first time and that's all you see in Oklahoma.

[Narrator/Host]

Benny Collins Jr. Was a real weather junkie.

[Benny Collins Jr.]

I still have a journal where I would watch all the local meteor on TV and write down what they're forecasting.

[Narrator/Host]

At 17, he was quiet and shy. In fact, voted quietest and shyest in his high school yearbook.

[Danielle McKeown]

You are a quiet and reserved guy, but it all changes when you start talking about meteorology.

[Benny Collins Jr.]

Oh, God. Thanks.

[Danielle McKeown]

Off the record, how do I silence my watch?

[Benny Collins Jr.]

Throw it.

[Narrator/Host]

Two of Benny's best friends, Danielle McKeown.

[Danielle McKeown]

We knew Benny was gonna be in the class and we thought it would be fun.

[Narrator/Host]

And Sarah Trotter, 2.

[Sarah Trotter]

Like, we loved Mr. Walter.

[Narrator/Host]

We're also on the field trip.

[Danielle McKeown]

Honestly, for me, I think it was a chance to miss like three days of school. It wasn't like I was super excited to learn more about weather.

[Sarah Trotter]

Growing up in a small town, I mean, we didn't really get out very much. Like, my dad came along as a chaperone. So it was just really exciting.

[Narrator/Host]

The students wake up early on May 3, 1999 at the roadside motel where they've spent the night.

[Craig Walter]

I refer to it as the luxurious Super 8 motel in Norman, Oklahoma. So we get up and, you know, looking at the Weather Channel, never forget it was a 20% chance of thunderstorms that day. So it's like, you know, you know there's going to be no weather. Oh, well.

[Narrator/Host]

Craig and the chaperone, Sarah's dad, herd the students into their two vans and drive to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center. The SPC is in a bland government building. If it wasn't for the framed pictures of tornadoes on the walls, you'd have no idea what these people did or that they were the best in the world at doing it. So you felt like you were in Hollywood.

[Benny Collins Jr.]

Yeah, exactly. It was. This is where the magic happens.

[Danielle McKeown]

It felt like they maybe didn't give a lot of kids tours because I feel like they were pretty excited to be talking to us when we first got there.

[Craig Walter]

So we knew that something was up because there was an energy. It's just like there's something really weird going on. And so we go into this room and it's packed with meteorologists.

[Narrator/Host]

One of the forecasters on duty has called a special meeting. It seems like things are really cooking in the atmosphere. Warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico is pushing up against cold air from the north.

[Benny Collins Jr.]

And at that point, he saw that the winds were a lot stronger aloft, which means there's going to be more wind shear later in the day to interact with the boundary.

[Craig Walter]

I said, yeah, can you put some of that stuff? What they just said, could you please tell us in layman's terms, like, high school meteorology version?

[Narrator/Host]

Thunderstorms are coming and not just thunderstorms.

[Craig Walter]

And he stated, he's like, you will be able to throw a rock from 128 to another in Oklahoma. Oh, my gosh, this is crazy. In the back of my mind, I'm looking at the maps and everything, and I'm like, well, if it's that close, if we happen to be sitting in the parking lot of the luxurious Super 8 Hotel, there's a good chance we're probably going to see a tornado. And, hey, we were at our hotel. There was nothing else we could do.

[Narrator/Host]

You're already, like, making excuses in your head.

[Craig Walter]

I was. But then, of course, hearing the voice of my principal saying, you will not go storm chasing. Yes, sir.

[Narrator/Host]

Craig's class moves on to their next stop, the parking lot of the University of Oklahoma for a meeting with the world renowned Doppler on wheels, the Doppler

[Craig Walter]

on wheels truck, which was the radar truck of radar trucks.

[Sarah Trotter]

These trucks looked like they were big white trucks with, like, satellite dishes on them, I guess is what I would say.

[Narrator/Host]

Two big flatbed trucks with radar mounted on the back. And from out behind one of them comes scientist Herb Stein, ready to give the students a tour.

[Craig Walter]

I asked him, I said, herb, are you guys going out today? And he replied, no, there was no reason to go out because there was this minimal chance of thunderstorms. In my mind, I'm like, can I share what I just learned at the storm prediction Center? I mean, if you're going to be able to throw a rock from one tornado to another, you would think that this truck would be getting gassed up right now. So I said, well, I heard that there was maybe a decent Chance of maybe some thunderstorms. And he goes. And, you know, he's giving me a look like, okay, high school teacher, calm down.

[Narrator/Host]

Herb Stein pulls one of the two cell phones off his belt and makes a call.

[Craig Walter]

All of a sudden, his whole demeanor just changed.

[Danielle McKeown]

He was like, you know, guys, I'm really sorry. We're probably going to have to cut this a little short. I want to get out on the road. Our initial feeling was disappointment, like, oh, we're not going to get to see anything else.

[Sarah Trotter]

You know, Danielle and I were discussing it and we're like, we should ask them if we can go with them. And I think we just blurted it out. Can we go with you? Definitely. Never thought they would say yes.

[Craig Walter]

And his reply was yes. He's like, well, yeah. You said you guys, you guys want to go along? My mind was like a slot machine and all the numbers were spinning around and around, and it was like, okay, do I want a job? Do I want to keep employed? Do I not? Do I want to have the opportunity of a lifetime? And I'm like, nah, we can't. I want to. I want to. Don't get me wrong. But I kind of promised the principal that that was not going to happen on this trip.

[Narrator/Host]

Still, Craig knew that being with the Doppler trucks could actually be a good thing. They'd be tracking the storms the entire time. For one, they'd know exactly when a tornado is on the ground and where, and they keep a safe distance, a couple miles.

[Craig Walter]

Then my other driver, Paul, he came up behind me.

[Narrator/Host]

Paul, Sarah's dad, the chaperone, you know, he's a parent.

[Craig Walter]

You know, what's your thoughts? You know, your kid is going on this trip and he said, quit being a.

[Sarah Trotter]

The next thing I know, we were leaving. I mean, these guys were packing up and they were going whether we were going with them or not. Mr. Walter always played Aerosmith, Deuces Are Wild, the whole Big One cd. He wouldn't let anyone listen to anything else.

[Narrator/Host]

The two white bands full of high school students take off, Craig at the wheel, passing farm towns and endless fields baking in the heat. Up ahead, the two Doppler trucks. And in the distance, pillowy cumulus clouds soar upwards. The whole convoy drives parallel to the growing storm.

[Craig Walter]

I remember driving around in this one town and there was like a family reunion or there was some celebration thing going on in the city park. It's like, you know, do these people know what's gonna possibly happen here, you know, within the next couple hours or so? The siren started going off, and, you know, it's that eerie sound. Then it's kind of like, oof, here we go. Your instincts say, I need to find shelter, and I'm driving students to this kind of second guess it again. Your internal instincts say, hey, we need to find a basement.

[Narrator/Host]

But he keeps going, following the Doppler trucks. An hour goes by, 90 minutes. Finally, outside of the town of Lawton, the Doppler trucks come to a sudden stop on the side of the road. Benny and the other students jump out of the vans.

[Benny Collins Jr.]

It was a hot and sunny day out in the prairie, and I remember smelling the prairie grass, and the Doppler on wheels was off to the side. When they put the radar trucks down and started scanning, that's when it kind of set in for me that we're really doing it out here.

[Narrator/Host]

One of the students is recording video as Craig and Paul wrangle everyone to the the side of the road.

[Craig Walter]

Hey, watch out, guys. Get in front. Get in front or something.

[Narrator/Host]

The wind is picking up five or six miles away. A giant rotating cloud is beginning to lower from the base of the storm. The mesocyclone.

[Craig Walter]

We're looking at a mesocyclone right there. The rotation is really tight.

[Sarah Trotter]

I remember Benny, like, yelling. I remember everyone that knew what they were seeing being really like, oh, my gosh, this is happening.

[Glenn Washington]

Come on, come on, baby, get down. I know you want to think of

[Narrator/Host]

an upside down layer cake. The first layer, they see the mesocyclone. Then a second layer drops down below that. A dark gray wall cloud. Then the final layer, the next step.

[Craig Walter]

Touchdown, boys. And next thing you know, we have a tornado

[Narrator/Host]

across the fields. A wispy gray finger reaches down and touches earth.

[Craig Walter]

Your heart is beating so rapidly that, you know, you feel you just shattered your sternum or your breastbone.

[Narrator/Host]

A small ropey tornado about as wide as a swimming pool kicks up dirt.

[Sarah Trotter]

It doesn't look like how I feel like. It looks like. I don't feel like. I feel like it's just more like it just gets really black and it just kind of comes down.

[Danielle McKeown]

It's almost like it's distorted until it's not right. It's just like all of a sudden it was like, bam, there it is.

[Craig Walter]

That's a tornado.

[Narrator/Host]

The tornado is on the ground for less than a minute before it dissipates and winds back up into the clouds. Just enough time for a picture.

[Danielle McKeown]

We took selfies with the tornado. Before selfies existed, we had pictures of all of us with the tornado in the background.

[Craig Walter]

Well, that's just a picture.

[Danielle McKeown]

I know, but do you know what I mean? It's like, look at, here's us and the tornado.

[Narrator/Host]

Then the Doppler scientists invite the students into one of the trucks where they've gotten real time scans of the tornado. They're able to see the precipitation, the wind speed, the tornado's internal structure.

[Danielle McKeown]

I don't think any of us thought that we'd see something like that. So we see this tornado. It's incredible. And we think, wow, we actually did it.

[Sarah Trotter]

Okay, great, let's pack it up. This is what we did. This was amazing. So glad we came and we saw one.

[Craig Walter]

I've got enough explaining to do already. The only thing is, is that in order for us to get back to Norman, the road that was going to take us is being compromised by severe weather. There was no way we're gonna drive through that.

[Narrator/Host]

Craig hadn't thought this far ahead, but at this point, staying with the Doppler trucks is the safest bet. They pile back into their two vans and press play on Aerosmith as the Dopplers drive towards the next tornado and the next.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

Whoa.

[Danielle McKeown]

This escalated quickly, right? It legit was real life Twister.

[Glenn Washington]

When Snap returns, Craig and his students face down the big one. Stay tuned. I remember walking up to the atm, fingers crossed, brows sweating, hoping with the fees on the fees, with the fees, hadn't already canceled out my paycheck. I wish I could have used Chime fee free banking. Rated five stars by USA Today for customer service. Real humans 24. 7. They even have spot Me which lets you overdraft up to $200 fee free. What I really, really could have used that. Chime is not just smarter banking. It's the most rewarding way to bank. Join the millions who are already banking fee free today. Head to chime.com snap that's chime.com snap it only takes a few minutes to sign up. Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services for MyPay and Chime card provided by Chime's bank partners. Optional products and services may have fees or charges. Stated annual percentage yield and cash back for Chime prime only. No minimum balance required. For More information on APY rates, MyPay, Spot Me and travel perks go to Chime.com disclosures Did you know there's an online cannabis company that ships federally legal THC right to your door? You and they found a way to combine THC with carefully selected functional ingredients to create gummies baked Goods drinks to set your mood right. I'm talking about mood.com and you can get 20% off your first [e-mail] with promo code SNAP. Forget the one size fits all supplements. Dial in what you're looking for, like Mood's cherry lime soda. The perfect balance of citrus and stone fruit with a boost of of premium thc. Everything ships discreetly right to your door. No dispensary lines, no awkward conversations. And best of all, not only is every Mood product backed by a 100 day satisfaction guarantee, but as I mentioned, listeners get 20% off their first order with code SNAP. So head to mood.com, find the functional gummy that matches exactly what you're looking for and let Mood help you discover your perfect mood. And don't forget to use promo code Snap when you check out. To save 20% on your first order, try [e-mail]. Welcome back to Snap Judgment. The Black Wind Episode one last bit left. High school science teacher Craig Wolter and his class had hit the road with the world's top storm researchers. They found themselves in the middle of a giant tornado outbreak with no way out. Snap Judgment,

[Narrator/Host]

The forecaster at the storm prediction center was right.

[Craig Walter]

Oh, look at that debris mower.

[Narrator/Host]

Multiple storms, multiple tornadoes.

[Sarah Trotter]

Like it was just kind of a constant rush of. Take the pictures. That's great. Get back in the van. We're going again.

[Narrator/Host]

Benny even remembers seeing a tornado that had two vortices. A double twister, one large wedge tornado

[Benny Collins Jr.]

with this smaller one going around it. I remember that one being darker, like kind of like a bluish black.

[Craig Walter]

That is a classic roll cloud. You can see, look at the gust front right ahead of us. See all those clouds are coming down

[Narrator/Host]

and curving throughout all of this. Craig is still teaching. Remember, it's a field trip as they were forming.

[Danielle McKeown]

I just remember all the terminology being shouted out left and right. And look at this. And look at that. And this is exactly what we're talking about.

[Craig Walter]

Look at that. Look at the shelf cloud coming down. See how that bulges outward there.

[Danielle McKeown]

I'm almost positive that he made us take notes.

[Craig Walter]

Oh, look at right there. Yeah, look at right there.

[Benny Collins Jr.]

He has this little.

[Glenn Washington]

Oh, oh, look at it, look at it.

[Craig Walter]

Oh, there it goes, there it goes, there it goes.

[Glenn Washington]

Oh, look at, look at the wall cloud. Look at that wall cloud.

[Craig Walter]

They're shelf cloud right in front. What better way of, you know, having a textbook meet reality than that experience?

[Narrator/Host]

Craig is driving, trying not to crash.

[Craig Walter]

There's a tornado over there, tornado over there. And I was like okay, I gotta stay focused and drive this van here.

[Narrator/Host]

Every once in a while he glances back nervously at his students faces.

[Craig Walter]

I asked several times, you know, how's everyone doing? And you know, of course these are high school students. They can't show weakness around their friends. And if they were scared, they didn't tell me.

[Narrator/Host]

None of the tornadoes do much damage, but they do grow bigger and stronger as the storm moves along. And then finally, tornado number nine touches down.

[Benny Collins Jr.]

We stopped at that overpass and got up on top and watched it from a distance. And it was just this gray mass,

[Narrator/Host]

an enormous EF5 tornado. Dark gray, nearly black colored by all the debris it's sucking up from their spot on the interstate miles away. All the students can hear is the rushing of wind.

[Danielle McKeown]

It was so big that you could almost not see either side of it. I mean it was, it didn't even look like a tornado really. But the Doppler guys and our teacher kept saying, you know, no, that is, it's a confirmed tornado and it's gigantic.

[Narrator/Host]

Up close. Storm chasers record it tracking towards Oklahoma City, blowing up power transformers along the way.

[Glenn Washington]

Oh my goodness, that thing is huge. Half mile to a mile wide.

[Narrator/Host]

At this time the Doppler scientists invite the students back inside the cabin of one of their trucks. They've just documented something incredible.

[Craig Walter]

Someone said you've just now witnessed the fastest wind speed on the face of the Earth.

[Narrator/Host]

318 mile per hour winds whipping baseball sized hail and gravel and lumber and cars picking up freight trains and 18 wheelers destroying homes and buildings in less than 30 seconds.

[Sarah Trotter]

It's just pretty unimaginable to be able to comprehend what that was.

[Danielle McKeown]

And I don't think it was even raining or storming whatsoever where we were, right?

[Benny Collins Jr.]

No, no, it was sunny and pristine.

[Narrator/Host]

Craig and his students get back in the vans. But now it's starting to get dark. The Doppler trucks are far ahead, barely visible, driving into a curtain of rain and wind.

[Craig Walter]

The teacher in me, the adult in me just said we've had enough. I need to make sure these kids are safe, so we need to get to our hotel.

[Narrator/Host]

Chasing the storm had actually led them back in the direction of the luxurious Super 8 Hotel.

[Craig Walter]

I just want to get to our hotel. I just want to get to our hotel. And hoping that it's still standing.

[Narrator/Host]

On the road back they start seeing debris. Lumber, housing, insulation, downed power lines.

[Benny Collins Jr.]

All sudden the cement interstate turned into a mud road with tire tracks through it.

[Craig Walter]

Lots of sirens and emergency vehicles and this and that and Police. And it's just non stop.

[Benny Collins Jr.]

There was a car that had been tossed, and it was like the front end and the back end were all mashed up and there was EMT all around it. And remember, Walters pulled over because he was an emt and he wanted to go check it out and make sure everything was fine.

[Narrator/Host]

The EMTs tell Craig that they've just recovered the body of a child that had been pulled from its mother's arms by the wind. He returns to the van.

[Craig Walter]

And it's kind of like this, you know, moment of silence, like, holy cow. And my students again, you know, I'm worried about, you know, their. Their mental state. You know, reality is really is, you know, hitting me. If it's hitting me, it's got to be hitting them. And the reality is people are dying now. I think it was eye opening for

[Benny Collins Jr.]

all of us, was devastating. I just prayed that people found shelter and were heeding warnings. There's not much else you can do than hope for the best.

[Danielle McKeown]

We just felt down, definitely much more somber. That was the first time I had felt, quote, unquote, homesick. It was like, okay, I'm ready to go home. I want to see my mom and dad and my house and, you know, just be home.

[Craig Walter]

I just remember I just had this complete sinking feeling when we got to the hotel. I couldn't even talk.

[Narrator/Host]

The motel's roof is sprinkled with wood and leaves and trash, stuff thrown by the storm. The parking lot is full.

[Craig Walter]

Lots of cars that were damaged.

[Narrator/Host]

The students head for their rooms. Craig continues to unload the van. And as he's closing the door, a guy approaches. His car has bits of wood plastered all over it.

[Craig Walter]

He's holding his kid, and he asked if we had been chasing the storms. I told him, I'm sorry, sir, I just don't feel comfortable answering these questions. And I felt guilty, you know, I was like, you know, one minute we're, you know, high five. And because we saw these tornadoes, and now I'm talking to a guy that probably lost everything. He's just like, hey, it's okay. He said, we live in Oklahoma. And he asked where we're from. And I said, we're from Minnesota. And I remember he's like, yeah, you guys have to deal with mosquitoes. We deal with tornadoes. This is what we deal with. Hopefully you guys learned something to help us.

[Narrator/Host]

Later that night, around 10:30, the students call their parents. Danielle is sure her mom will be asleep.

[Danielle McKeown]

And my mom picked up on the first ring. And I said, mom, I don't know if you knew this, but there was a huge tornadic outbreak in Oklahoma. And she just starts screaming, yes, yes, I've seen it. We've been watching the news all night. Yes, of course. Yes, we know. Are you okay? Are you okay? And I'm like, I'm fine. She's like, oh my gosh. You know, it's, it's all over the news. It's a huge deal. And you know, us just being like, oh, good evening.

[Benny Collins Jr.]

76 tornadoes, five states in less than seven hours.

[Glenn Washington]

More than 40 people have been killed, more than 600 people injured. More than a thousand homes are ripped from their foundations.

[Narrator/Host]

On their way home to Minnesota, Craig and the students drive past whole towns where the buildings have been turned into piles of lumber and siding.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

Some Minnesota students are back home tonight after getting caught in those killer Oklahoma tornadoes. The Windom teenagers were on a field trip.

[Danielle McKeown]

Do you remember? Like half the town was at Mr. Walters house when we got back. It was like a welcoming party for us.

[Narrator/Host]

The vans pull up to Craig's house after the 12 hour drive.

[Benny Collins Jr.]

All the parents are there waiting for us.

[Danielle McKeown]

Hugged us a little harder than just a three day normal trip, right?

[Sarah Trotter]

Yeah.

[Glenn Washington]

Now Snappers, lest you question the educational value of this trip, know this. Of the 12 students on Craig Walters 1999 field trip, two went into meteorology, including Benny. Another became the town of Wyndham's emergency manager. Craig was not fired. In fact, the trip and the press it generated made him look like the coolest high school science teacher ever. He kept it going year after year until 2016 when he changed schools.

[Narrator/Host]

Have you tried to do the trip again at your new school?

[Craig Walter]

Yes. Oh, I tried and matter of fact, I had a conversation this morning with my superintendent and yeah, there's no way.

[Glenn Washington]

Up next, we'll finally take you inside a tornado. It is not what you expect. Stay tuned.

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[Glenn Washington]

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[Benny Collins Jr.]

What?

[Glenn Washington]

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[Narrator/Host]

2012 was the year of the big Dugan family reunion in Minnesota. And Sue Dugan Moline had volunteered to pick up her cousin Don from the airport. She hadn't seen him in years.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

And I thought, well, this is really awkward. What am I going to talk to Don about? You know, don't know what he's been doing. He's devoted to divorced, haven't seen him forever, you know. Well, as we were driving probably about a mile, mile and a half from my mom and dad's apartment, I just said, hey, Don, do you ever think about the tornado? That's all. I think that's all I said, do you ever think about it? And it was like a fire hose let loose. And he started talking. And by the time we got to my mom and dad's apartment, he was bawling. He just got out of the car. He's just bawling, he said. We went home and we never talked about it.

[Narrator/Host]

In 1969, Sue's grandmother, cousin and sister were all killed in a giant F4 tornado while on vacation at a lake outside the town of Outing, Minnesota.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

You know, even with all these survivors being my family, we didn't really sit around and talk about it. We just referred to it the tornado.

[Narrator/Host]

Sue's mother had watched her sister drown that day.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

My mom would just tell her story, that little one minute watching Becky drown story.

[Narrator/Host]

Sue's dad had been at the hardware store in town.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

My dad had a sense of guilt that he hadn't been there to save people. As if somehow you could can do anything in over 200 mile an hour winds. You know, it's illogical.

[Narrator/Host]

Sue only brought up the tornado directly with her parents one time.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

And I said to my dad, you know what I'd like to do is just interview everybody who was there because I thought from a distance we could talk about it now. And he just said, why would you want to do that? And it was the inflection in his voice. Why would you want to do that? He didn't even want to go there. And so I never did.

[Narrator/Host]

But a couple of years after the reunion, Sue's parents both passed away and she decided it was time.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

2018, 2019. I decided I am going to talk to everybody I knew who is still alive, who, who had survived it. And I always, I asked all of them the same 15 questions. What do you remember about the weather on August 6th? What were you doing that day before it started? What do you remember thinking about while you were in the tornado? Did you experience any survivors guilt?

[Narrator/Host]

She'd record the interviews using a little handheld tape recorder that had belonged to her dad. One of the first people she spoke to was her cousin Shane, now in his 50s, and Shane's mom, Priscilla.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

Shane says, you know that question about survivor's guilt? He said, I had that. And his mom goes, oh, Shane, you know, what are you talking about? And he says, mom, you told me to watch out for my sister that day. He was supposed to keep an eye on her. And she died. And he was 7. He had lived with that for 50 years and had never told his mom. I thought if for no other reason that was worth doing this, just because he could say that.

[Narrator/Host]

When sue connected with the families of other victims, she found out that it wasn't just hers that had stuffed this memory.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

Nancy across the lake, whose grandpa and aunt died. She was nine. You know, she has very clear memories.

[Narrator/Host]

Nancy had been flung by the tornado's winds, and when she came down, she landed on her aunt's dead body.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

And she in shock. You know, she had some bad cuts and stuff, but she got up and started helping other people. I mean, what you do when you're in shock, how you just react, it's kind of surprising. So it was therapeutic for Her. Oh, she. If the weather's bad now, she texts me, sue, I think a storm is coming. But she'd had nobody to talk to.

[Narrator/Host]

Now she could talk to sue, and sue could talk to her because she'd been there.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

I would say I probably had about a two minute memory of this event. August 6, 1969.

[Narrator/Host]

Sue graduated from high school earlier that summer. It was six weeks before her 18th birthday.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

We'd been up there since Sunday afternoon, and it got a little cloudy. I had my swimsuit on, so I know that it was warm enough to go swimming. And middle of the afternoon, maybe we started hearing somebody use the word tornado. It probably had been on the radio. I was sitting in the cabin about 30ft from the lake with my Aunt Priscilla, who was very, very pregnant. And I assured her that we were in a safe place because we were in a very low lying area with steep hills on both sides of the lake. It would just jump right over. The next thing I remember is people coming down from one of the upper cabins. My family was running down the hill. They came in. My aunt tells me that I went around and slammed windows and closed windows. I have no recollection. But what I do remember is the neighbors from the cabin next door, the Brockies, came in. And Dan Brocki was about my age. And all I remember when he and his mom came through the front door of the cabin, he said, a tornado's coming. And I would say, within seconds, I'm on the floor. Like a rug had been pulled out from under me. People say, did you hear it? Was it like a train? Everybody says a tornado sounds like a train. I don't remember hearing it. I remember seeing what I saw out the window, which was stuff blowing sideways. I saw a boat fly through the air. You know, that's not supposed to happen. Then you realize, you know, the power of the storm that's coming at you.

[Narrator/Host]

And this tornado was a mile away. As it crossed this long lake, it picked up the water. Eyewitnesses actually saw lake bottom fish rain down on the road above the lake. And then all that water dropped back down on top of sue and her family.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

And from then on, it was fighting for air. There was nothing we could do. We were sucked underwater. And about the time you thought you couldn't breathe anymore, you'd get a gasp of air, and then you'd be sucked under again.

[Narrator/Host]

As sue struggled, this memory flashed into her brain of an assembly that happened at her high school right before graduation.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

And the speaker was, I think, warning us students x number of you will be dead by your 10 year reunion. And I thought, I'm going to die. I mean, it was just a given. And then all of a sudden, I popped up out of the water. I was riding on lumber from the cabins, just hanging on to something, and I did not see one single person. And I just remember yelling, God save us. God save us. And then I saw heads start to pop up and I saw my uncle Terry, and I saw my friend Dale Carlson, and I saw my aunt, my pregnant aunt Priscilla, and then my cousin Shane. We were the only five people I knew of that had lived.

[Narrator/Host]

When does your memory end, the initial memory that you had?

[Sue Dugan Moline]

It ends when after I climbed up the hill, I helped my Aunt Priscilla climb over a bunch of wood because it was almost like wall to wall wood. You could almost walk on debris. And I got her up, sitting with her sunshine. And so I went up the hill to the road, a little dirt road that ran that side of the lake. I remember a lady walking toward me down the road asking if she could help me. And all I said to her was that my swimsuit strap had broken. And she reaches inside, you know how women do, she pulls out a safety pin from somewhere and she. And she pins my swimsuit strap back together so my swimsuit isn't falling off. Sun is bright. The day got hot. Beautiful day. I mean, the weather just changed.

[Narrator/Host]

You know, you said everybody was kind of alone with their memories and you brought them together. Was that a healing?

[Sue Dugan Moline]

Oh, it was so healing. It was so good for us to talk, to just feel like you could just talk, that it was the topic of the day or the week or whatever, to just talk about everything that you had not talked about for 50 years. And then it was good, I think, for our families, our kids, and, you know, they kind of understood what we had been through. You know, how I had lost my grandma, how I'd lost my sister. I mean, it's just good. Details matter, you know, the information matters, the truth matters.

[Narrator/Host]

Sue ended up interviewing hundreds of people about the tornado. Eyewitnesses, first responders, the last living sheriff who'd been on the scene that day, the diver who combed the lake for bodies. But she never got the one thing she was really looking for.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

Really what I was hoping for. I was hoping somebody had taken a picture. I wanted to see a picture of

[Narrator/Host]

it, a picture of the tornado.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

The tornado.

[Narrator/Host]

Why?

[Sue Dugan Moline]

Just to kind of put a. I mean, I had pictures of the path of it, but I wondered if anybody from a safe distance had Taken out their Instamatic camera and snapped a picture.

[Narrator/Host]

Sue never actually got to see the tornado that hit her family and defined her entire life. Even if she'd stuck her head out of the cabin door for a peek, all she would have seen is a wall of black wind. It was too big. And so now she basically wants the same thing that Craig and his students wanted. She just wants to see the thing.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

In fact, I met a lady for lunch two weeks ago, and her dad and her sisters and her mom had been crossing that Highway 6 bridge right as the tornado was approaching. Her dad stopped the car and he wanted to take a picture, and her mom said, get back in the car. And because that tornado was moving about 60 miles an hour. So if it's coming right at you, you probably wouldn't even know how close it was. And so he jumped back in the car, and they kept driving down Highway 6. So they didn't get a picture, but they also saved their lives.

[Narrator/Host]

If there was a tornado right now, like, outside, and we were a safe distance away, would you go out and look at it?

[Sue Dugan Moline]

I would want to see it. Absolutely. I would want to see it.

[Glenn Washington]

Thank you, sue, for sharing your story with the snap. Snap is please do not bother sue with your tornado stories unless it was an EF4 or higher. And bring receipts.

[Sue Dugan Moline]

You know, if it didn't lift the house up, I'm not impressed. Isn't that awful?

[Glenn Washington]

Sue's memoir is titled the Lake Turned Upside Down. You can find [e-mail] now, last. Last, but not least. Thank you, Wyndham High School. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Especially Sarah, Benny, and Danielle. Crystal Frank, another student on the trip. She shared her home video with us. This story would not have been possible without her. That's for Mr. Walter. John, I think you wanted to say one more thing about Mr. Walter.

[Narrator/Host]

Yeah. So Craig has been sending me videos, right?

[Craig Walter]

We're day one of storm chasing, and probably not gonna hear me because it's so darn windy, which is good.

[Narrator/Host]

In the past few weeks, he's been out on the road again chasing tornadoes. He sent me this video of one he saw in Nebraska.

[Craig Walter]

Okay, we got a tornado warning right here, right in this cell right here. This actually is rotating. It's called the mesocyclone.

[Glenn Washington]

Right on Craig. Godspeed. Stay safe. To all the storm chasers out there, the original score for this piece was by Renzo Goriot. It was produced by John Facile, The Black Wind Special. And if you missed even a moment, know the Snap Judgment Storytelling Podcast. It's available right now wherever you get your podcasts. Spotify Apple Podcasts the iHeartMedia app Snap is brought to you by the team that immediately disperses at the first sign of a tornado. Except the producer, Mr. Mark Ristich. He's out here flying kites. Others Nancy Lopez, Pat Lesini Miller Anna Sussman, Renzo Goriot, John Facil, Shayna Shealy, Teo Dicott, Flo Wiley, Bo Walsh, Marisa Dodge, David Exume, Regina Berriaco On Team Stamp, the union representative, producers, artists, editors and engineers are members of the national association of of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Communications Workers of America, AFL CIO Local 51. This is not the news. No way is this a news. In fact, you could hear that it's tornado weather and load up your 1959 Cadillac ambulance hearse with cameras, proton packs, PKE meters and echo goggles only to really lies too late. But you accidentally packed for ghostbusting, not tornadoing, and you would still still not be as far away from the news as this is. But this is PR.