Man Records Tornado As It Passes Right Through His House

Wow. This guy lived to tell the story but unfortunately his wife didn't. A tornado passed through his home one year ago today in Fairdale, Illinois - and it was all captured on film... 

Man records tornado in 2nd story of his home as the tornado passes right through it.

Clem Schultz was sure the tornado weather forecasters were warning about was going to miss him, but he knew based on experience his Fairdale home would lose electricity.

So he went to an upstairs bedroom to get camping lanterns he and his wife, Geri, would surely be using early on the evening of April 9 last year.

He looked out a window and spotted a tornado to the west. He speculated it would stay south of his community, population around 150, about 19 miles northwest of DeKalb. He decided to record its passage on his cellphone camera.

Clem Schultz’s home was destroyed in the 2015 Fairdale tornado.
Courtesy of Clem Schultz | Source

But that black monster had other intentions, hopping the railroad tracks a block away.

There was no time for the 85-year-old to hurry back downstairs to the kitchen where Geri was. There was no point in getting in the cellar, which was basically a hole barely big enough to hold their furnace.

In an instant the tornado passed right through -- literally -- his house. Schultz rode the debris from the collapsing chimney down, losing his grip on the phone, getting entangled in a bedsheet, and becoming buried.

Moments later a neighbor was digging him out of the rubble. Schultz was out and standing within four minutes. The neighbor sat him down on one of the house's beams, but told him, "Don't look down."

"Why?" Schultz asked.

"Because your wife is right under you. She's dead."- Source

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It's been a year since a giant, deadly EF-4 tornado ripped through the tiny community of Fairdale, Illinois. It was one of the most intense tornadoes of the entire year. For the most part, Spring in the U.S. last year was calmer than average, with less severe weather than we would normally expect.

By the end of March, there had only been 5 confirmed tornadoes. But on April 9th, this massive wedge struck Fairdale, just 20 miles from Rockford. Some of the most incredible and frightening footage of this terrifying tornado was shot by a Fairdale resident, Clem Schultz. He says he felt no fear as this monster approached his house; he thought it would miss his wife and him...

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