Once you’ve seen Twisters, it’s time to get personal with some extreme weather! In the Eye of the Storm is a limited television series currently airing on Discovery Channel that will truly gut you with devastation. Sometimes, mother nature is a bitch.
As listed in the cold open of each episode, “This series uses video footage captured by people who experienced these harrowing events first-hand.” But how much will you be able to tolerate before you actually break down? After watching four of the six completed episodes, I can safely say it didn’t take me long at all.
Through eyewitnesses who had boots on the ground during some of the most unfortunate circumstances, this program allows meteorologists’ archive footage, vehicle dashcam video from storm chasers driving directly through these storms (sometimes accidentally), front door cameras featuring flying debris, actual cameras filming confusion, chaos and fear, and cellphone recordings (which are most frequently used, often pieced together from multiple locations during simultaneous events) to provide the most harrowing intimate experience overall, where no one’s completely safe. Unfortunately, the surprise element led to many deaths.
This real-life terror is one that shouldn’t be regulated to just horror-movie or reality-TV fans.
“I don’t want to storm chase again. I’m done storm chasing…:
The series premiere, “Trapped in a Twister,” documents the development of a rare three-week-long weather phenomenon that was centered in the Midwest during the Spring of 2023. After an EF4 tornado touches down with winds up to 195 miles per hour, multiple supercells developed less than a week later, bringing with it a massive storm. The violence is gut-wrenching, and the aftermath is tearful. Tables are turned as certified weather spotters — as well as everyday citizens — become rescue workers.
Small towns and big cities are destroyed equally. The damage is immense, taking place in real time. With little to no warning (to those who ignore daily weather forecasts), many people are forever changed at a high rate of speed. Some that are shown survive another day; some do not. There are no recreations here. Everything appearing on your screen actually happened as it’s depicted.
But tornadoes aren’t the only highlighted topics here. Subsequent episodes focus on Hurricane Ida, the formation of a freak superstorm “derecho” and the unpredictable wildfires of Maui. There’s a whole a lot of praying, a whole lot of shouting, lots of flying objects — but no cows (yet) — and enough emergency alerts and sirens on display that will haunt my nightmares for years to come.
“To be honest, I really didn’t think I was gonna make it…”
if you haven’t witnessed a natural disaster firsthand, you probably won’t get as emotional as me. But then again, if you can appreciate human nature and the need to help others within your community after catastrophes have forced people to completely start over after losing everything while maintaining their faith, then this might be the show for you. After dealing with multiple straight-line winds, tropical storms and hurricanes in my life, I’m incredibly thankful for all of my time here on Earth and this show did affect me.
I just don’t understand how anyone would be willing to tolerate these once-in-a-lifetime storms multiple times during their lives, as shown in these episodes. All the hail, rain, lightning, thunder and sirens…it’s more than I could handle. It definitely feels like you’re watching an apocalyptic movie — one which I’ve already experienced a few times.
Of the more unexpected elements in this program that I was fascinated with is the briefly unexplored claim by an eyewitness, who believed he filmed two objects orbiting around a tornado within the sky. It seems odd that this paranormal aspect wasn’t really discussed at all, but the truth is out there…
The unknown future can be scary to those left homeless by these storms. In the Eye of the Storm is an incredibly intense experience. When you’re afraid the end of your life has arrived, some people will rise to the challenge. These people take center stage of this program, which offers a glimmer of hope at the end of the world.