A Tupelo, Miss., meteorologist ordered his station to evacuate and then followed his own advice while reporting on a cluster of tornadoes that have killed at least 30 people across the U.S. South.
In a one-minute clip, Matt Laubhan, a meteorologist at NBC affiliate WTVA, points to the site of the tornado touchdown while explaining that the studio might be losing power. “This a tornado emergency for Lee County,” he says, growing increasingly frantic on air. “There is a damaging tornado on the ground… right now.”
Then, as the video briefly freezes up, he orders his colleagues to take shelter: “Basement, now! Basement, now!”
He soon follows those orders and flees the line of vision in a rustle of yells and microphone feedback. Here’s the clip, which serves as a glimpse of the severity of the storms sweeping through Southern states:
Those in the WTVA newsroom seem to be safe, though others in the region were not so lucky.
The storm cycle struck Arkansas and Mississippi with deadly force, leaving 23 dead and several hundred injured in those two states. Others have seen their homes or cars destroyed, while tens of thousands remain without power.
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