Talala Man Captured EF-1 Tornado As It Headed For His Home

With a tornado bearing down on his home Monday evening, a Talala man was resigned to losing his home, before heading underground to get out of the way.

Monday evening, Terry Butcher stood on the steps of his underground storm shelter, as a tornado bore down on his Rogers County ranch house. He captured it on video with his cell phone. Thinking his house was doomed, he turned to get one last glimpse of it. With the twister 150 yards away, Terry climbed down into his shelter.

"It almost completely dies when it's within about a hundred yards, and then all of a sudden it goes 'whoosh,' and just ramps up and that when I shut the door," Terry said. "When I pulled the latch, it got really, really scary. I really thought it was gonna rip the latch off the cellar, I mean it was so loud in there.

"So I crawled up underneath this ladder. I thought 'Well, if it jerks that door up, it's gonna suck me through that ladder to get me outta here.'"

And when he crawled out of that shelter, dad-gummit, if his house wasn't still standing, albeit a little worse for wear. The roof's got some holes it in. The chimney's lying in the flower bed.

"There's about four different holes up there where that thing, that big chimney must have bounced around, knocked holes in the roof," Terry said.

5/22/2013 Related Story: National Weather Service Says Osage County Tornado Was EF1

There's sheetrock damage inside, some walls have shifted. The gutters need fixing, a window's broken out, a barbeque grill was lifted off the back porch. The Venetian blinds are toast. He'll have to replace his only tree.

"We probably been growing this thing for 15 years, and you can see we've tried a bunch of trees and we can't get 'em to grow up here," Terry said.

He can still drive his dually, even after it was picked up and tossed into his shop building--the one that lost both big doors on either end.

We were tracking that twister Monday, as it headed for Terry's house.

Terry caught it on video at about the time it lined up with the pump jack out back, and Terry swung into storm mode.

"Actually this is the second tornado that's hit my house. The last one didn't do much either, it just busted a wall," he said.

But that's why Terry's got two storm shelters: one indoors and one out back. He likes having the choice.

"I feel safer underground than I do above," Terry said.

That tornado, rated an EF-1, died out just after passing over Terry's house.

Complete Coverage: May 2013 Tornado Outbreak