On 16-year-old, Riley Leon’s drive home from a job interview last week, he found himself in the middle of a storm that could have been deadly. In fact, storm chaser, Joel Berry, caught the scariest moment of Leon’s drive; a viral video shows the truck picked up by a tornado. Here’s what happened:
Silverado Truck Picked up by a Tornado
Riley Leon had a job interview that he didn’t want to miss; so he ignored the inclement weather warnings and headed out to Whataburger in his 2004 Chevrolet Silverado. Only, on the way to his home in Elgin, Texas, he ended up right in the path of a tornado, along with some storm chasers. Being only 16, he didn’t know how to avoid the danger of a Texas tornado. And the debris picked up by the wind certainly made it difficult to see. Riley explains that on his way home, he had missed two u-turns and as he made it to the third u-turn, that’s when the worst happened—something Riley says he “never expected.”
Riley told reporters that he was “speechless” when his truck was picked up and thrown “like paper” by the EF-2 tornado.
The truck picked up by a tornado, can be seen courtesy of Joel Berry, one of the storm chasers who caught the whole incident on camera. The video has since gone viral. Riley describes the video as, “Me spinning around in the truck” in what seems to be the eye of a tornado. Watch it here:
Chevrolet should immediately replace their Silverado commercials with just this footage. pic.twitter.com/0Hz1Xa5lYi
— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) March 22, 2022
In an interview with Fox 7, Riley said, “I felt my truck lift up, and it put me into a ditch, put me to my side, and (spun) me out.”
After the incident, Marcus Reynolds, another storm chaser who saw the truck picked up by a tornado, caught up with Riley to make sure he was okay…