A storm chaser in Iowa was trying to get epic footage of a tornado when he came across a family in need and ended up helping save an elderly couple from the wreckage of their home. His phenomenal footage of the rescue has since gone viral.
Storm chaser and devout Christian Tanner Charles Schaaf, 29, lives in Roseville in his home state of Minnesota.
On March 31, the highest category severe weather warning was issued in portions of the central United States. Tanner who has been chasing storms for the last 13 years got into his car and headed for a safe vantage point. He didn’t know it at the time, but a tornado that was rated EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita scale was coming, with wind speeds up to 170 miles per hour (approx. 273 kilometers per hour).
“It was the first storm chase of the year for me,” Tanner told The Epoch Times. “Usually tornadoes only last about 10 minutes, so when a tornado touches down, and one that’s really photogenic ... you have to treasure every second. You only get a handful of those each year.”
Initially, he was headed to Iowa and when he got there he had two targets: one being in southern Iowa and the other along the Iowa-Illinois border.
“I went into Illinois and I was like, I just don’t think this is right,” he said. “Then I saw some isolated supercells developing in Missouri ... so I turned around, followed my gut. I got into the storm about 10 minutes before it produced the tornado.”
The storm was headed northwest, away from Tanner, so the seasoned storm chaser calculated that he was safe to get close. He felt the familiar adrenaline mixed with a sense of peace and calm.
At 3:48 p.m., Tanner was filming some very good footage when he noticed the tornado approaching a town a few miles south of Hedrick, Iowa. His excitement turned to fervent prayer. “I was praying against it. I was just like, man, don’t you dare drop a tornado over a town,” he said.
All of a sudden, through harsh winds and heavy rain, a parked vehicle with airbags deployed emerged on the road ahead. Tanner pulled over and watched the driver of the other vehicle open his door and step out. It was Wayne Sanders and his wife, whose family had three houses nearby.
Tanner said: “They were trying to get to their parents’ house before the tornado hit. They didn’t realize how fast the tornado was moving. ... [Wayne] knew what he needed to do, but his wife was crying, and she had a dog. The door wasn’t opening properly so I had to really pull, got the door open, got her dog, and we put them in my vehicle.”
For Tanner, he explained that usually there is a disconnect from the time he sees a tornado to viewing visible damage or meeting people that were affected because of it.
“It didn’t click right away that these people necessarily went through the tornado,” he said.
“They said they barely got to the bathroom before it hit,” Tanner told The Epoch Times. “Every other room I looked at, the roof had caved in. There were wood beams on the ground ... even in the living room there was stuff scattered throughout, it was just the bathroom that was fine. They’re really blessed.”
Safe in Tanner’s car, Nancy and Clarence began dealing with the shock of their ordeal as a hailstorm raged overhead. Tanner held Nancy’s hand to comfort her.
Tanner knew that he needed to stop and help the couple.
“If you’re going through a damaged area, you’re evaluating, like hey, there might be a worse home down the road, there might be someone who actually needs my help. I try to evaluate the best I can,” he said.
That day, Tanner suffered his own loss before the afternoon was over; when a driver ahead broke unexpectedly. Tanner swerved into a ditch, totaling his car. Luckily, he sustained no injuries and hopes to be back on the road before long.
A former wedding photographer, Tanner is transitioning to full-time content creation on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Chasing storms is his passion and his forte. “[Y]ou never get tired of witnessing something so powerful and incredible, and the respect for it grows each time you see it,” he said.
Tanner said that the March 31 storm chase and rescue was one of the top three experiences of his career. At the time of writing, his footage has amassed 33 million views across social media channels and has resulted in a GoFundMe page for Nancy and Clarence to help them rebuild their home.
Tanner, who is still in touch with the family, is proud that his priorities were in the right place when his help was needed most.
“If I would have just taken 15 seconds while Wayne and his wife were getting into my vehicle, to get my camera out and take some photos of the trail as it was, those would have been career-making photos,” he said “It’s not like I regret what I did, at all ... it’s human life over anything. It has to be.”
