KCBD stormchaser remembers Tim Samaras
The storm-chasing community lost a friend last Friday when Tim Samaras, his son Paul and fellow chaser Carl Young were killed by the El Reno tornado in Oklahoma.
"Tim was probably the smartest man I have ever known. He was just a technical genius. Really, he created all sorts of things to do research," said KCBD storm chaser David Drummond. "He had an absolute passion for what he was doing. He just loved it."
David and Tim were friends. Drummond describes many roadside talks held in the midst of storm chasing, conducted while getting video of the weather.
"You couldn't have met a nicer guy at any time. He never talked down to anyone, or was condescending to new people or anything like that. I mean, he would talk to anybody. I can't speculate on what happened to him specifically but I knew it wasn't on purpose. For sure, it was something that happened and he couldn't get away."
David says Tim's loss will have ripple effects across the storm chasing community.
"It probably changed storm chasing forever... We've lost chasers to other things not related to the storm, like accidents on the way home and things - but this is the first time we've ever lost one chasing the storm," Drummond said.
David has seen devastation before and listened to people describe losing everything in a severe weather event, but after being in Moore, Oklahoma and losing a close friend, this is a year he'd like to forget.
"It's probably my worst one ever," Drummond said. "Every time you see the destruction of one of those events, everyone before it that you've seen comes back."