SOURCES USED: https://pastebin.com/cQ78E4D4
In 1902, Teddy Roosevelt was hunting in the Mississippi Delta, in Onward Mississippi. His guide, Holt Collier, caught a bear and told Roosevelt to shoot it. Roosevelt refused, saying it would be unsportsmanlike. Many know the story of Roosevelt’s hunt as the origin of the Teddy Bear, and every year since 2002, the story is celebrated in the town of Rolling Fork in the Great Delta Bear Affair. If people knew about Rolling Fork, Mississippi, they were either locals or history nuts. That was the case until March 24, 2023, the worst night in Rolling Fork’s History.
On the night of March 24, a violent, EF4 tornado with winds of 195mph attacked Rolling Fork in the darkness. The town was leveled and changed forever. The tornado itself then went to hit Silver City. More tornadoes occurred that outbreak, including an EF3 that went through Black Hawk and Winona, another EF3 that went through Amory, and a separate EF3 that went through West Point, Georgia on March 26th.
Many know what happened in Rolling Fork, but today I’m going to finally take a deep dive into one of the most requested videos I’ve done. But of course, I’m looking at the outbreak as a whole. Today, you’ll learn about what happened so far that severe weather season, the meteorological synopsis and expectations for the 24th, what happened leading up to the event, the tornado outbreak itself, a brief overview of the severe weather risk on the 26th, what happened that day, the aftermath, the crucial role that storm chasers such as Grif, who I interviewed, had in the immediate response, the response from governmental officials, charities, businesses, and citizens alike, the struggles with recovering, and finally MY experience when I went to the Great Delta Bear Affair on October 28, 2023. You’ll learn that and more in this episode of Nature’s Fury.
Thumbnail photo taken by @LandandSkyPhotography (USED WITH PERMISSION)
Rolling Fork Rising Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/p/Rolling-Fork-Rising-100093147414765/
@OayxYT video on Rolling Fork (Coming 3/24/24): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0t-8vE2t2A
@stormchasersummit pannel: https://youtu.be/SFG1xrnU_M0?si=sQdqz4BRDVBW73lZ
Footage given with permission from @SparkService , @OayxYT , @SawyerWX
Want to request a storm for me to cover? Fill out this form! (Please read the instructions on the form before sending a request): https://forms.gle/y24TaENXChddrXuH6
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
2:26 State of Severe Weather (2023)
3:46 Synopsis & Forecast (3/24/23)
8:05 The Outbreak: Before the Tornadoes
12:09 Rolling Fork-Silver City, MS EF4 Tornado
22:56 Black Hawk-Winona, MS EF3 Tornado
24:39 New Wren-Amory, MS EF3 Tornado
27:23 Brief Synopsis & Forecast for March 26, 2023
29:13 West Point, GA/Troup County, GA EF3 Tornado
30:20 The Rest of the Outbreak & Other Impacts
31:45 Damage & Aftermath From the EF3 Tornadoes
34:58 Grif’s Experience Doing Search and Rescue in Rolling Fork
56:55 A Brief Commentary On the Search And Rescue Efforts
1:01:41 Aftermath in Rolling Fork and Silver City
1:09:57 Response To the Disaster
1:13:06 The Struggle to Bounce Back
1:17:36 My Experience At the 2023 Rolling Fork Great Delta Bear Affair
1:29:49 Credits
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER:
Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. All Images, footage, and music are NOT OWNED BY ME AND ARE OWNED BY THEIR RESPECTFUL OWNERS Unless stated otherwise. I own nothing but the video itself.
Please see the verdict for Matt Hosseinzadeh v. Ethan Klein and Hila Klein (https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/summaries/hosseinzadeh-klein-sdny2017.pdf) for more information regarding fair use on YouTube.
Tags (Ignore): #Weather, #documentary, Alferia, Weather Documentary, Science Documentary, Weather Videos, Natural Disaster Documentary, Disaster Documentaries, #Tornado, Tornado Outbreak, Rolling Fork EF4, EF4 Tornado, Rolling Fork Tornado, Dixie Tornadoes, March 24 2023 Tornado Outbreak, Deadly Tornadoes, Wedge Tornadoes, Troup County , Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Mississippi Tornadoes, Destructive Tornadoes, Storm Chasing, Storm Chasers, Amory Tornado, WInona Tornado, Black Hawk Tornado
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Wow. Powerful piece, beautifully researched, as always.
I live not far from Lancaster PA! (Local pronunciation is "Lenk-iss-ter" just fyi ;} )
If you should have occasion to eat out, may I recommend The Family Cupboard. Get the buffet. It's to die for. :9
Yknow, I'm very thankful to have never been trapped in debris, but if i was, and i heard a group of people close by, i dont think id go 'oh well if theyre not EMS professionals they better just leave me here!"
I cannot imagine anyone being against storm chasers acting as first responders in the absence of qualified first responders. Can you imagine being trapped under your house AND your car and the first person you see says, "I'm sorry, I don't have the proper qualifications to help you, good luck."
I dont understand how people even get close to HP storms let alone a tornado at night!! I've seen whole friend groups get divided over this mindset of thrill seeking, instead of just enjoying the awe of nature, and helping others. I think it's important to bring lots of first aid, flashlights, working shoes, couple pairs of gloves, etc.
You’re best video yet! Loved hearing the personal stories.
We got a couple nados in Indiana in this outbreak if I remember right
I was watching this storm on Vince Waelti's livestream. It was a harrowing, horrible night. He has EMT training and worked on two kids who were rescued from collapsed trailer homes in Silver City.
of course these chasers should have helped in these circumstances. As a human being doing something might be a mistake but doing nothing is a worse mistake. It's probably a good idea if chasers had basic first aid knowledge and maybe CPR kits, just in case, because the little tiny towns are out there alone with little resources at first.
I think the chasers were heroes that night. When there are no search and rescue people there, you have to pitch in. It's a moral obligation in my eyes.
Hey everyone. I'm Packie and play a background role for SparkService though I may also be the voice of a lot of our non-chasing video content in the future. I can't overstate how mind-altering Rolling Fork was for us. The lives of hundreds to thousands of storm victims were changed on this day and for those people we continue to pray for full recovery every day. Prior to our Rolling Fork chase, we had mostly been chasing for the thrill as we hadn't been in a really awful situation where search and rescue was needed so desperately. I knew that the possibility was there on every single chase day of how valuable to people's lives we could be, and this encouraged me to work harder for the team and continue to improve. However, when this possibility was unfortunately realized for our first time at Rolling Fork, it still hit me and the rest of us like a truck. I may not have seen out of my own eyes the extent of loss of life and property in the town, but seeing the footage first-hand and hearing the first-hand accounts of our chasers who were there that day was far more emotional than I expected. And it made me even more proud of Grif, Tonya, Josh and the ULM crew who I am so privileged to work with. After the Rolling Fork disaster, I knew that I was in the right place and part of the right team. I am extremely lucky and honored to call these front line heroes my friends and I know that Rolling Fork will continue to rebuild stronger than ever.
I was a part of the virtual internship NWS Jackson offers at the time, and I will never forget the look on their MIC's face when we asked him about Rolling Fork. We had a meeting about interview tips with him, and when we got to the end he told us we could ask any question we wanted. The first question was someone asking about his thoughts and experience with Rolling Fork and his face darkened immediately. He said it was some of the worst, if not the worst, damage he had seen in his entire career. He described how in a situation like that, he and the other people apart of the NWS survey showed up as NWS employees, and then became just people who were there for residents to have a shoulder to cry on, or someone to vent to. He shared in the frustration with residents about the issues with the warning not reaching some of them in time and it led into a discussion on the frustration in the NWS with the warning infrastructure in rural areas. I cried listening to him talk about what he saw firsthand, and while I never travelled to Rolling Fork myself, it changed my perspective on it. I knew it was bad as I had watched it on radar as it happened, but the true gravity of what happened hit me while he was talking about it. I'll never forget it.
grif, wow. thank you for sharing your story
11:05 partway thru the video but as an Ohioan I have to say I love the southern figures of speech Grif uses!
I rewound to see the sunburn on the forehead lol
Damn Idk Which EF4 Was Worse
Mayfield Or Rolling Fork😢
I was watching a Radar Omega stream at the time of this, and I recall a lot of tornado warnings popping prior to the Rolling Fork cell.
And none of those touched down, there'd been some shifts in the patterns that'd caused a few people to even say that the night might be a total bust, everyone was acting like it was time to settle down. Then that cell crept through one of the worst radar coverage areas in the Arkansas/Louisiana/Mississippi area and it was just so depressing.
Everyone who helped is an angel, everyone who suffered I hope you're doing better.
went through rolling fork a week after this, the damage was unreal.
this griffin guys a sharp individual
Grif and the storm chasers are heroes. I know if I were in that situation as a survivor of a storm that I don't care who pulls me out, as long as someone does as soon as possible. And if I came across a storm ravaged town, I would want to jump in and start helping ASAP
My first experience with a major natural disaster aftermath was in Mississippi. Gulfport and Pass Christian, specifically. I helped with Katrina relief in January and March of 2006. I remember seeing the devastation go on for block and blocks in some areas, I saw homeowners breakdown and cry even though the hurricane had occurred over 6 months ago, I celebrated a birthday surrounded by rubble, I ate meals in a tent at the same table as people who had lost everything. It changes you, even if you aren't first on the scene like Grif. Even if you're there months later, you still see the devastation and the look on people's faces. It's something you just got to experience for yourself.
Also, I'm very much at home in the Appalachians. There's nowhere else I'd rather live. Speaking of, when you're travelling through Virginia on your way to Lancaster (unless you're talking about South Carolina) and if that takes you up 81, I know of plenty of stops through the Shenandoah Valley to make the trip more fun.
A lot of rescues workers and fireman are volunteer, they would be home with their families in a safe spot.
Your inclusion of the people who were actually there is really powerful and adds a lot to the video, wonderful job!
Grif is a hero for all the things he did. He saw things he shouldn’t have, yet he pushed through. All my respect goes to Grif.
People who say storm chasers shouldn't help people. are disgusting people.
love how max olsen makes a video retrospective about rolling fork 6 days ago. so alferia has to join on the bandwagon and copy him for views. it's not the anniversary yet. so that's not an excuse, that's on the 24th.
love the "original content" here.
How did I not hear about this tornado or tornado outbreak until now despite all it did?
As for the controversy surrounding chasers aiding in search and rescue, it seems to be a very situational thing that not only depends on location but also on what kind of chasers get there. If they're professional chasers, or chasers who really want to make a difference, they can be extremely helpful in the immediate aftermath even just by getting word out so first responders can be quickly dispatched. If they're the kind of chasers who rear end others because they're single mindedly focused on pursuing the storm, they're the kind of chasers who aren't going to be prepared to help anyone.
Hey Alfie! Glad you’re coming to Pennsylvania! Question, why are you coming to MY STATE, hold on, nvm, Pennsylvania? To me, tornadoes in Pennsylvania are not known as much, and maybe you can do a little digging about the May 31st, 1985 tornado outbreak, since, you know, you make really good videos about everything! And where do you find all this information at? I’ve been searching a lot for these types of things and I can never find them. But, thank you for making another fantastic video and thanks for coming to Pennsylvania! 😂
The rolling fork tornado animation is way cleaner then the joplin video, good job! 👍
Im a buddy of Marcus and am forever grateful he survived the tornado with relatively minimal injuries. He's a very good chaser, but the Rolling Fork tornado was one of those tornadoes that break the normal rules.
I watched this happen live on tv. I’ve never seen something like this happen in real time and it was a…weird feeling. Helpless is a way to describe it. Knowing that this was actively happening and there’s nothing anyone can do about it was horrifying. I remember about an hour or so after it happening searching “rolling fork” on Twitter and seeing the first damage pictures. I remember crying for these people because everything was just gone. There was a donation trailer outside one of our local banks for about 2-3 weeks and it was always packed with stuff people were dropping off. It was amazing to see basically an entire state come together to help.
You did such a fantastic job on this video!!
God bless the people of Rolling Fork! God bless the chasers who warn people when dangerous weather is close by, and then help those in need after it's over!
I love watching these. You got me really into severe weather and learning more about it and how to be prepared for it. Your voice also helps me sleep at night lol I fall asleep watching your videos some nights
This is definitely a night I will never forget. The sounds, the sights, the smells, all things that still stick with me. Every time I think about that night, and it’s still pretty often, I get chills. At the end of the day, I’m just glad that me and other chasers were there to help out people in need.
Reminds me of what happened in Pilger, Nebraska
I actually have some weather radar screenshots of specifically the Rolling Fork tornado. I knew it was bad at the time I took the screenshots but I had no idea just how bad it was until the damage photos came out.
Now I hope that this doesn’t sound weird but hearing about what the storm chasers did in Rolling Fork makes me want to pursue a career in meteorology more. I want to because I want to save lives. I want to do good things and help people and that’s exactly what the storm chasers there were doing. They are helping people and saving lives.
excellent work as always
39:58 Not a fan of tobacco, myself, but it beats wasting energy bawling and flailing.
I was glued to radar screens that night. First the radar from Jackson, then the one in Amory, another town that got hit pretty bad. Had all my emergency stuff ready to go. The next few weeks, the place I work at was selling so many supplies it was nuts. It's a haunting feeling, watching some pixels on a screen and knowing people's lives are being destroyed. I'm not from this region, but that doesn't mean I don't feel for these people here. Rolling Fork was a disaster zone.
Hey man could you possibly do a video on the Lake Township Tornado in wood county Ohio from 2010? That tornado is not talked about enough even when I live by Lake I don’t hear about it much. It was a night tornado, killed 7, destroyed the police station, destroyed the high school the day before there graduation, and so much more. Look it up it was a terrifying tornado.
I was watching ryan hall's stream when it happened, it was terrifying just to watch 🙁