Brave Teacher Races a Tornado to Warn Parents Waiting for Their Children

Stock image of a tornado. Barroa Artworks/Pixabay

A brave teacher raced a tornado to raise alarm and warn parents waiting for their children in North Texas city of Rockwell on May 29.

As eleven tornadoes stormed North and East Texas on Wednesday and Megan Parson, a fourth-grade teacher at Hays Elementary in Rockwall raced one of them that was sweeping her area, reported Fox 4 News.

The school was dismissed due to bad weather and the teachers of the school were helping parents to take cover inside the building. The picture shows Parson running in the street with the tornado in the background.

“So we went into shelter mode at dismissal at my school. (There were tornados spotted). Since its dismissal, all these parents were lined up outside ready to pick up their kids. Sirens are going off and we had to get them inside,” Parson said on Facebook.

“I’m running down the blocks (yes running, which I don’t ever do) and yelling to parents to get inside the school quickly for safety. As I’m running I’m thinking, “WHY ARE THESE PARENTS WAITING FOR ME TO GET ALL THE WAY TO THEIR WINDOWS!?” she wrote.

Parson thanked the person who took the heroic picture of her.

“That is such a crazy photo, and thank you to whoever took it because I don’t think anyone would have ever believed me that I was running down the street and that I looked ridiculous doing it,” Parson told Fox 4 News.

“I’m just really grateful that everybody ended up being safe and we got a good laugh out of it.”

The school was having a year-end party when the tornado commotion happened and Parson was wearing a false mustache while she was running down the street.

“I left my fake black hairy mustache (from our party earlier) on my face. So, all parents see is this crazy girl running barefoot in the rain with a tornado in the background wearing a fake black mustache,” Parson wrote on Facebook.

She was running barefoot, she said, adding that she took her shoes off because they were new and she didn’t want them to be spoiled in the bad weather.

Record-Breaking Tornadoes

Dallas News reported that on Wednesday eleven tornadoes swept across North and East Texas.

On Wednesday alone, there were 24 tornado reports, CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said.

The last day without a tornado was May 15, making Wednesday the 14th consecutive day that the continental United States saw a tornado touchdown.

So far this year, there have been at least 960 tornado reports, compared to about 750 in an average year. In the past month alone, the National Weather Service has received more than 500 tornado reports across the country—an unusually high amount. Most of the reports have been from 22 states, with at least 50% of them from Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

A change in the weather pattern will bring relief for the nation through the weekend and into early next week, with less rainfall predicted over the next five days for the areas hardest-hit by flooding, Van Dam said.

CNN Wire service contributed to this report.