Real Tornado Hits Farm Featured In Movie 'Twister'

Associated Press

FAIRFAX, OK -- A farm where portions of the movie "Twister" were shot has been damaged by a real tornado. 

Scenes for the movie were shot at J. Berry Harrison Sr.'s farm in Fairfax about 120 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. A tornado hit the farm Monday when a half dozen twisters touched down during storms in Oklahoma. 

Harrison said Saturday he lost two houses, five barns, two silos, a horse and farm equipment. He says his family wasn't hurt, although his son and his family were in one of the homes when the tornado hit. Harrison says the tornado took the roof off but the walls stood. 

"We built all this in 50 years and it blew away in 15 minutes. It was quite a wind," he said. 

In the 1996 movie starring Helen Hunt, a tornado runs along a road and over a bridge where actors are taking shelter. Harrison says the real tornado followed a similar path. 

The two silos destroyed in the storm were pictured in the film.

Forty utility poles along the real twister's path were knocked down, and Harrison said the damage goes in three directions, making him think several funnels may have touched down on his land. 

The storm also blew a tree branch, about an inch and a half in diameter, two feet through the wall of one of the houses that was destroyed in the storm, Harrison said. 

Harrison, a former state senator, said he had lived on the land for 32 years. 

"It wiped out every improvement," he said. "We were just really fortunate that no one was hurt. That's the main thing," he said.

NEWS 9's Gary England played a feature role in the film.