A Texas Tornado Flips A Truck, And Then Its Driver Shocks Everyone In Viral Video

A viral video of a Texas tornado shows a pick-up truck caught in the power of a twister, but what is shocking is what the driver did.

By Nathan Kamal | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Texas tornado

A video showing a truck caught in a terrifying Texas tornado is going viral, and for good reason. The 30-second video posted to Twitter by @brianemfinger shows just a fraction of the enormously devastating power of a tornado and the havoc one can wreak, but it was a detail noticed shortly into the video that really caught eyes. In the video, you can clearly see a red pick-up truck be bodily lifted by the tornado and flipped completely over. And then, shockingly, the truck appears to right itself, turn on its headlights (because safety matters, even or especially in a tornado), and drive away. It is pretty astonishing. Check it out here: 

Of course, it is a little less shocking when you think it through and wonder what else the driver caught by the Texas tornado could possibly do after being buffeted by the sheer violent power of nature and miraculously still remaining in control of the wheel. If anything they did the best and most logical possible thing, given the circumstances. It is still pretty amazing to see, and while we cannot quite determine the make and model of the red pick-up truck in question, the manufacturers of the vehicle should be commended and possibly find a way to work this into their advertising campaigns. 

Texas and tornado are not uncommon words to find in conjunction with each other. In fact, the Lone Star State receives an average of 132 tornadoes every year, although the number and frequency wildly vary. And tornadoes themselves are deeply embedded into American pop culture, with the deadly weather feature appearing in child-friendly entertainment like The Wizard of Oz and the Bill Paxton-Helen Hunt-Phillip Seymour Hoffman film Twister. But videos like this can be a reminder of the sheer power of tornadoes, and the havoc that they can cause when they land in populated areas. 

This is also a particularly terrible time for Texas to be hit with a tornado, let alone the multiple weather events that are currently occurring there. A storm system is sweeping through Texas and the Southern States of America, with millions in extreme danger conditions. Tens of thousands of Texan households are currently without power due to similar weather events and without the viral benefit of a flipped pick-up truck. In Texas, tornado watches are on high alert and are expecting more, while the entire Louisiana gulf coast is considered at risk. 

It does not help for Texas, that even without risk of a tornado, their power grid is at enormous risk of catastrophic shutdown at literally any moment. An unusually cold Texas winter in 2021 demolished the state’s power system (and blame is still being assigned for that), and expert consensus is that essentially nothing has been done to improve conditions for this coming year. So while it may be fun to watch videos like this one and we should definitely applaud the fortitude and bravery of the driver of the pick-up truck in question, we should remember that many will not be as lucky in the incidents to come.