Clem Schultz has shared video of the tornado that killed his wife and destroyed their Illinois home in April 2015, the Chicago Daily Herald reports.
The Fairdale man says he went upstairs to get camping lanterns as he prepared for the approaching storm to knock out electricity. That’s when he looked out the window and started recording cell phone video of a massive tornado getting closer and closer.
There was no time for the 85-year-old to run back downstairs, and in an instant the tornado ripped his house apart.
A neighbor came to his rescue, helping to dig him out of the rubble but also warning him to not look down as his wife had perished in the debris below.
His cell phone video survived the tornado, but Schultz said he was scared to watch it at first. He recently released it to the public and is sharing it with meteorologists and students for research purposes - all in an effort to help save lives from future storms.