A German Shepherd dog with brown and black markings, standing amidst debris in a rural or suburban area after a post-disaster scene.

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Storm chaser frees a foal pinned by a tornado

Name: Storm chaser frees a foal pinned by a tornado
Uploaded: 2017-05-18T08:00:04Z
Duration: 4 min
Description: The tornado has barely moved on when Jason Weingart slows down on a Texas highway and sees a woman crawling out of the rubble, screaming for help.

The tornado has barely moved on when Jason Weingart slows down on a Texas highway and sees a woman crawling out of the rubble, screaming for help. more

Jason chases storms. He had been following these storms across Eastern Texas for about an hour, and they kept dropping tornadoes. The second one did a lot of damage just south of Canton, in rough country thick with trees and houses, which made it hard to track.

Coming up Highway 19, he watched it cross the road maybe a quarter mile ahead, a huge tornado wrapped in rain. When it moved on, there was damage everywhere he looked. "Look," he said. "Everything is destroyed right here."

Then he sees her. He jumps out, runs to her fence line and asks if it is all right to come in, and if she needs help. "Yes, I do," she tells him.

Her name is Sally Knox, and hers isn't a usual farm. She keeps camels, zebra, monkeys, parrots and horses. Some are missing now, and some are hurt. One of Jason's first questions inside the fence is a fair one. "Is he gonna spit on me or what?"

Sally walks him down toward the spot where her house used to stand and shows him what the wind tossed across her yard. Then she looks down and sees one of her foals, only a couple of months old. "Oh, no," she cries. "Help me. The baby is stuck."

Jason figures the wind picked the little foal up, carried him across the yard and jammed him under the fence, then threw debris on top of him. Sally tells him he will have to drag the foal out that way. So he grabs his tiny legs and pulls as hard as he can.

A woman with long blonde hair bends over muddy ground, reaching toward a small plant while a dog stands nearby. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — Sally's foal is wedged under the fence, and Jason has to pull him free.

After a couple of seconds, the foal slides free. Then nothing happens. He lies there and doesn't get up, and Jason is afraid he is hurt.

Then he stands. "There he goes," Jason calls out. "There he goes. He's good. It's alright. Let's just get him out of here." Then he says it again, and again. "He's fine. He's fine."

A German Shepherd dog with brown and black markings, standing amidst debris in a rural or suburban area after a post-disaster scene. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — The tornado has barely moved on when Jason Weingart slows down on a Texas highway and sees a woman crawling out of the rubble, screaming for help.

Later, Jason says it was the first time he had come across a damage path that fresh and that wide. It's not what he likes to see on a chase, but a storm chaser has to be ready for it. This time, at the end of all that damage, there was a foal back on his feet.

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