Original subtitles

♪♪

Narrator: Next on "doomsday caught on camera,"

The sky explodes with fury...

[ thunder claps ]

...As thousands scramble for their lives.

Glova: When tragedy happens at an event like that, it hurts.

You can't win against nature.

Narrator: A brutal assault of ice...

Man: Holy [bleep], we've got some hail!

...Blasts down from above.

Man: Oh, my god, have mercy on us.

I was honestly scared for my life.

Narrator: A vicious vortex rips through a town...

...Threatening to tear everything to shreds.

Woman: Please, get in here!

That's when it really hit that this was bad.

Narrator: What happens when raging floodwaters...

[ women screaming ]

Woman: [ bleep ]

Narrator: ...Trap a car full of friends?

[ women speaking indistinctly ]

Oh, god, are we going to make it out of this?

Narrator: And even more jaw-dropping weather phenomena

That'll make you thank god...

Woman: Heavenly father, please help us.

Narrator: ...It didn't happen to you.

♪♪

♪♪

From violent volcanoes to horrifying hurricanes,

Mother nature has no shortage of tricks up her sleeve,

And one of the rarest is a deadly weather phenomenon

Known as...

[ dramatic music plays ]

...A microburst.

A thunderstorm on steroids,

Packing severe winds and merciless rain.

[ crowd screaming ]

But what if you and thousands of others

Were all caught in this massive death trap...

...With no shelter and no way out?

[ crowd screaming ]

♪♪

August 18th, 2011,

Near hasselt, belgium.

It's the official kickoff of pukkelpop,

Europe's biggest annual outdoor music festival,

Where 60,000 music fans gather

To see and hear their favorite artists.

♪♪

This year, one of those artists is brandon glova,

A.K.A. D.J. Bonics.

I've been a d.J. For about 20 years now,

And it's taken me all over the world,

I get to connect with different people all over the place.

It's been a blessing, you know, to bring people

Together through music.

Narrator: Brandon is hip-hop artist wiz khalifa's official d.J.,

And he's pumped to take their act

To one of the festival's main stages.

Glova: Wiz was just kind of popping off at the time,

So we were kind of a big deal

And it was a pretty exciting time for us.

♪♪

Narrator: It's a clear summer day

As huge crowds pack the grounds.

Around 4 p.M., brandon and wiz khalifa take the stage

In front of thousands of screaming fans.

People are going crazy, the performance is nuts.

Narrator: But then, completely out of nowhere,

A thick mass of dark-gray clouds suddenly rolls in,

An ominous sight not lost on the d.J.

You can tell that the weather is changing,

We see it go from light to dark,

And as soon as we were finished performing our last song,

Our tour manager runs onstage.

♪♪

They grab wiz and they said, "hey, you need to come with us,"

And that's when it hit.

It was coming in fast, and nobody was prepared for it.

♪♪

Narrator: That's because the freak and violent storm now upon them,

Known as a microburst,

Is nearly impossible to predict.

Fueled by intense winds, monster hail, and sleeting rain,

60,000 people are now about to be under siege.

A microburst is bad any time.

We're talking about this column, this downdraft of air,

Coming down anywhere between 100 and 150 miles per hour.

♪♪

Glova: I don't think I've ever seen rain like that,

Just straight sideways, and it's heavy, and it hurt.

If you watch it, the chandelier is shaking,

The tent's moving, and you could see people frantically,

They weren't sure if they should be running in or running out.

They told me, they said, you have to tell people

To evacuate the tent.

Please exit the tent!

And then they all went out and then they all came back in

Because they probably saw what was going on outside,

Which was...A ridiculous storm.

Narrator: Everywhere, concertgoers desperately tried

To find protection from the hell unfolding above.

Glova: People are running for their lives.

Some people were just acting out of pure survival.

People were trying to take shelter

Because there was hail and there was sideways rain.

Delgado: They're all standing underneath this tent.

That tent is a death trap.

You have to get somewhere with four walls,

Something that's going to have some type of barrier

To protect you.

All I was thinking is, "oh, my god,

These people are not going to make it out of here alive."

♪♪

[ crowd screaming ]

Narrator: The microburst knocks down scaffolding

And collapses multiple performance tents,

Sending metal debris flying.

Still on stage, the d.J. Is worried that he's next.

Glova: No one was telling us what to do.

It was chaos.

Narrator: Brandon runs offstage,

Only to discover a nerve-wracking sight.

You could see people just bailing backstage,

And there was kids trying to take shelter in the truck

With equipment in it.

Like, these kids aren't supposed to be back here,

So I'm like, "man, they're just letting everyone

Kind of take cover."

That's when I knew it was serious.

♪♪

So, it's bad enough to be caught

In a sudden microburst by yourself,

But to be among a crowd of people

Escalates the fear and really intensifies it

As you have a kind of mass panic.

Glova: We're not talking about hundreds,

We're talking about thousands,

And so they're scattered everywhere

And running in all which way in every direction.

It was definitely panicked. It was frantic.

Narrator: Everyone prays for survival.

♪♪

After what seems like forever,

The fast and furious deluge is over,

Leaving the ravaged festival grounds

Looking more like a war zone than a party zone,

Even claiming the lives of five innocent people.

If there's not a clear exit strategy

And if people don't evacuate quickly,

People are just stuck,

And then that's why you have a lot of destruction,

Because people just didn't get out of the way quick enough.

[ crowd shouting ]

Glova: You just kind of realize, wow, we got lucky.

I mean, if five people were there

And they lost their lives,

I feel like that any of us could've.

And so, very thankful to be able to talk about this today.

Narrator: For brandon, this terrifying experience

Has been impossible to forget.

Glova: It started as a gathering for music.

We want to bring people together and have them celebrate

And feel good and forget their woes.

[ crowd screaming ]

When tragedy happens at an event like that, it hurts.

You can't win against nature.

Narrator: But he also knows the show must go on.

Glova: I've done many festivals, certainly, after that,

And I don't think it's really necessarily changed

The way that I approach it,

But it certainly has changed the way that I think about

How a great day can turn into a doomsday.

[ crowd screaming ]

Narrator: Coming up...

Woman: We're in trouble now!

Narrator: The commute from hell...

Woman: [ screaming ] oh, my god!

Narrator: ...Puts three women in unthinkable danger.

Woman: Oh, we're floating! We're floating!

Narrator: And a massive twister...

Woman: Now, guys! Let's go!

Narrator: ...Tears through a neighborhood.

Woman: Please! Get in here!

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: Traffic is something we all loathe

But have to deal with.

Stuck on the highway, bumper- to-bumper with nowhere to go.

Now imagine if you were sitting in traffic

And suddenly caught in...

...A flash flood turned mudslide.

Helplessly trapped in a cesspool of dangerous debris...

...With no idea if you'll make it home alive.

♪♪

October 15th, 2015,

Outside tehachapi, california,

In the antelope valley, two hours north of los angeles.

About 5 p.M., rhonda trott and two coworkers are driving home

After a regular day at the office.

My friends and I worked at department of human services.

We were headed home from work that day,

So I was driving carpool.

Narrator: Though the weather's been quiet,

Just before leaving the office,

A flash flood warning is put into effect.

I did work in the front lobby of that building,

So I could see the weather outside,

And there was certainly no urgency to me.

I mean, the weather looked fine, but we understood,

"oh, there's a flash flood warning?"

You know, like, "we better get on the road."

Narrator: Rhonda's at the wheel,

While rae sits in the passenger seat,

And kim is in the back.

It's only a 20-minute drive home,

But rhonda picks a different route to avoid traffic

Just in case the weather acts up.

And that's when I remember us coming up on rain.

It was raining really, really hard,

And we could see dirt and rain coming off of the mountain.

We got halfway up the back road

And it was way too flooded for us to get through,

So we turned around and went to the highway.

Narrator: And that's when the weather gets even more intense.

Trott: I had never heard rain pelt a car.

I mean, it sounded like it was big, giant hail pellets.

I had the windshield wipers on, high as they can go,

And you couldn't see.

It was insane.

This was probably one of the more terrifying events

Of flash flooding and mudslides I have ever seen.

I mean, talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Narrator: The three women are now caught

In the middle of the rapidly-rising water,

Full of mud and debris.

Woman: Oh, my god!

Woman #2: Oh [bleep]!

Ecklund: It was horrifying,

And it was rushing at us at such a fast pace

That it was just scary.

You know, we were trapped, there was nowhere to go.

Trott: At the driver window,

That's how high up the mud and the water now is.

Woman: Oh, my god!

That was not a smooth water flow,

There was branches galore,

It was very rough, choppy water.

They were in very real danger there.

Narrator: Then, things go from scary to petrifying.

You could feel the water lift us.

It was literally like we were suddenly in a boat.

Woman: Oh, my god, it's all just [bleep]!

It's going over the [bleep]!

Woman #2: It's going over the thing!

Woman: Oh [bleep]! No, no, no, no!

It wasn't until we started bumping into other cars

That I was like, "oh god,

Are we going to make it out of this?"

Woman: [ screaming ] oh, my god!

We would just bump into one another

And float into another one.

I had never seen anything like it before.

Woman: Oh, my god, this car is going to hit us!

[ gasps ] oh, my god!

We're in a little ford focus,

And we have giant moving trucks and diesel trucks

Coming towards us.

Woman: I'm scared.

At one point, we landed next to a truck,

And so that was my concern,

Is we're going to get crushed to death.

And in my head, I'm thinking, "do we get out?"

These ladies find themselves

In the most lethal of no-win situations.

Woman: I think if we got out of the car, we'd get killed.

Woman #2: Oh, yes. Oh, yeah.

No, no, we're not getting out of this car.

We would have just been swept away

And then we would have been dead for sure.

Cano: But by staying in the car,

If that level rises higher than their windows,

Higher than the car itself, they are in greater danger.

Oh, it was horrifying,

And what were we going to do?

How is this going to end?

Well, I do remember, you know, saying a prayer,

Just like, "god, please bring us through this."

We thought, for sure, we're going to die on the freeway,

You know, trying to get home from work.

Woman: [ screaming ] oh, my god!

♪♪

Narrator: Thankfully, the water begins to recede,

And their car stops.

Trott: So I rolled down my driver's side window,

And I climb out.

Rae climbed out my driver's side window, as well,

And then we get kim out of the back seats.

Narrator: For the first time since the ordeal began,

The women are able to process the apocalyptic scene

They just lived through.

There was just cars every which direction.

Most of them were either buried

Or they were pinned in between each other.

Ecklund: Mud up to people's rooftops,

People standing on their cars -- it looked like devastation.

Narrator: But their escape from the devilish deluge

Isn't over yet.

Trott: It was a disaster just getting out of it.

Ecklund: It was mud up past our knees,

And the other girls lost their shoes.

Trott: We're walking barefoot, on the freeway,

Through all this mud and debris,

Just trying to get out and find somebody,

Anybody who can, like, help us.

Narrator: Exhausted, over the next few hours,

The ladies trudge several miles to the nearest exit,

Where an emergency vehicle drives them back to tehachapi.

Rhonda, rae, and kim's nightmare is finally over.

♪♪

Woman: No! Woman #2: Oh, my god!

I think it was girl power.

They were able to talk through the situation

And how to get out of this alive.

Woman: If we got out of the car, we'd get killed.

Woman #2: Oh, yes. Oh, yeah.

No, no, we're not getting out of this car.

Trott: We will always be bonded.

And we now get together every October 15th

And we have a mudslide party.

We still celebrate that we made it and everybody came out ok.

Woman: Oh, my god, this car is going to hit us!

[ gasping ] oh, my god!

Narrator: Coming up...

Barreling snow traps the innocent.

And...

Man: Holy [bleep], we got some hail!

Narrator: Vicious chunks of ice blast down from the sky.

Man: God have mercy on us.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: An avalanche is one of the most destructive

Natural catastrophes on earth.

An unstoppable force that instantly spells doom,

Usually sparked by heavy snowfall, strong wind,

And changing temperatures.

But there's another catalyst

Far more surprising, that can unleash the same fury.

What if the trigger to a massive avalanche...

Is you?

[ motor whirring ]

♪♪

March 13th, 2016,

Golden, in british columbia, canada.

Doug lakeman and a few friends

Are out at gorman lake riding area

Doing what they love most -- snowmobiling.

I've been an adrenaline junkie all my life,

I raced 3-wheelers as a kid,

Been around motor sports all my life,

So I've been snowmobiling for 40-plus years.

Narrator: Gorman lake is known for its steep climbs

And jaw-dropping descents.

[ motor whirring ]

We'd been riding that area for three days previous.

It was just hopefully going to be a nice, gorgeous day

And fun day of riding.

Narrator: Even for expert riders,

Living life on the edge is a gamble,

Because danger is always lurking along these challenging trails.

Lakeman: When you're looking for deep and steep,

You take risks each and every time you go out there.

Narrator: But there's one dormant beast more intense

Than anything else, that can awaken at any time --

An avalanche.

Most avalanches tend to happen

Within 24 hours of a fresh snowfall.

So when you have a hard layer of snow and ice,

Where you have fresh snow on top of it,

That's in a very unstable environment,

And all it takes is a little bit of a trigger,

Then I can cause an avalanche.

Narrator: Despite the warnings and the chance doug and his friends

Could actually help cause an avalanche,

They're willing to take the risk.

Lakeman: I've climbed that face many a times before.

It's a very steep face,

And so it's an adrenaline rush

Just to make a climb like that.

That sense of adrenaline rush

Can sometimes be addictive for some people.

[ motor whirring ]

Narrator: Doug heads up the slope first,

Followed by the others.

Lakeman: I was full throttle, so I had a track speed,

Probably, you know, 100 miles an hour.

Narrator: Doug follows a path left by a previous snowmobiler,

Considered to be the safer strategy.

But when he spots an area with half a foot of fresh snow,

He ventures into the unknown.

When I got into the new snow, I could tell that

Maybe I should get the heck out of there,

But I had to get pulled on, so I wanted to go to the top.

Narrator: Suddenly, doug senses his snowmobile shift below him.

[ motor whirring ]

And then, the barrage of snow strikes.

An avalanche is upon him.

[ man groaning ]

♪♪

When the avalanche actually broke,

You instantly know that you're in trouble.

I went over backwards, consumed into the avalanche...

[ motor whirring ]

Oh [bleep].

[ man groaning ]

It was like I was getting ran over by a truck.

I couldn't breathe.

My face and body was completely full of snow.

Phoenix: Snow, in an avalanche,

Exerts like 9,000 pounds of force per square foot,

So a person caught up in an avalanche

Will actually start sinking.

Lakeman: I tried to swim in the avalanche,

And that's kind of a technique to try and stay above the snow,

But I called it "the doggy paddle from hell."

Narrator: But it's not working.

Doug is now fully buried.

Lakeman: Words don't really explain it,

But it was definitely the scared-est I've been in my life.

I thought what a burden I'm putting on my friends --

Gonna have to dig my body out of the snow

And got to tell my family that I didn't make it.

I'd be thinking, "is it over?

Is this the end for me?"

♪♪

[ heartbeat ]

Abbott: We house 22 years' worth of avalanche data

From western canada,

And we find that 77% of the people

Died by suffocation.

The other 23% was blunt force trauma.

Narrator: And then, a ray of hope.

Lakeman: I was breaking through the surface with my hands

And was actually able to get my helmet off

And take my first breath.

[ helmet scraping ]

♪♪

[ motor whirring ]

Narrator: Doug's friends rushed to the scene.

Lakeman: I was actually able to wiggle out of the snow

On my own power, without having to get dug out.

[bleep]! [bleep]! [bleep]!

[ snow crunches ]

I was in a state of shock,

And I really just kind of sat there and got my breath,

And, physically, I was definitely beat up,

But all in all, I was in pretty good shape.

The fact that he came out of this alive is a miracle.

Lakeman: It's like, "wow, I'm pretty happy

That I'm going home with my friends

And not in a pine box."

Narrator: And even though doug's daring choice

To ride over the fresh snow likely caused the avalanche,

He did find clarity in the face of death.

I lost my oldest son in 2008,

And I had a moment where it was like, "I really miss you,

But I didn't think today was going to be the day

That I got to see you."

And so I was thinking, you know, if I do die here,

I'm going to die doing something that I love to do,

And, you know, I was kind of at peace with it.

[ motor whirring ]

♪♪

Narrator: Coming up...

Woman: Now, guys! Let's go!

A swirling funnel cloud terrorizes a family.

Man: Oh, my god!

And...

Woman: Heavenly father, please help us.

Will anyone escape this raging inferno?

Woman: [ whimpering ] oh, my god!

♪♪

♪♪

Man: Got a violent tornado over there.

Narrator: Volatile...

Holy cow!

...Unpredictable...

Two tornadoes on the ground right now.

...And beautiful?

Not a word typically used to describe

Such destructive forces of nature,

Which are as terrifying as they are mesmerizing.

But be warned, these treacherous twisters

Can strike with surgical precision,

Proving their beauty is only skin deep.

Oh, my god.

♪♪

[ wind whistling ]

March 2nd, 2012,

West liberty, kentucky.

Kevin adkins and his wife

Are headed to his sister's house for a celebration.

Adkins: We took off from work a little early,

My wife, kelly, and I,

To go to a birthday party,

In west liberty, for some family.

Narrator: But as soon as they hit the road for their two-hour drive,

Kevin and kelly get a rude awakening --

A tornado warning is in effect.

Adkins: There were lots of warnings on the radio

For the lexington area,

So we thought we were moving away from the tornado threat.

Narrator: The couple make it safely to kevin's sister patsy's house,

But they're not in the clear yet.

And as soon as I got to my sister's house,

She was watching some of the lexington area tv stations

That were providing 24-hour coverage on the tornado.

And we kept checking outside, and within 15 to 20 minutes,

It was very evident just looking at the sky that it was coming.

Narrator: Before their eyes, dark clouds begin to swirl and then,

Sure enough, a monster twister is now barreling their way.

Adkins: The scale of it was so large, I mean, the noise alone,

It sounds like a thousand freight trains.

[ wind howling ]

Narrator: And kevin's sister's house is directly in the line of fire.

Adkins: My sister's house is up on a ridge

And there's another ridge about 400 yards in front of that

That was blocking our view

Of what the tornado was doing actually on the ground.

The only things that we could see in terms of debris

Were really large, blocky-looking things

That were basically getting pulled all the way up,

You know, two or three hundred feet up into the cloud.

Narrator: But patsy is not taking any chances,

As she can be heard frantically pleading

For everyone to seek refuge in the basement.

Adkins: Because of her time living in kansas,

My sister had been exposed to quite a bit of tornado weather.

She was truly in fear that her house

Was actually going to get leveled.

Patsy: [ shouting ] get in here!

Vagell: She's taking this very seriously, and she's right,

It's a serious, dangerous situation.

This wholly-disorganized, spinning mass of air,

Going something like 140 miles an hour...

[ thunder claps ]

...And you realize this is destruction,

This is possible death,

This is not something to fool with.

Narrator: Despite his sister's desperation,

Kevin and wife kelly remain on the porch outside.

Adkins: Truthfully, I was just awestruck,

And it just glued me to the spot.

You just can't believe this thing is unfolding

Right in front of you,

That you're actually seeing what you're seeing.

The noise was just -- it's unbelievable.

[ wind howling ]

I didn't actually move off the porch until my wife

Just very quietly said, "kevin, it's time to go."

That went right through and broke

Whatever spell it was that this thing had on me.

Narrator: Kevin and kelly finally retreat to the basement

Along with patsy and her husband.

Narrator: And then...Darkness.

[ heartbeat ]

[ women exclaiming ]

Adkins: What we had not thought about

Was that the power would go out and it would be dark.

It definitely created a sense of foreboding,

Of, "oh, this is coming now."

And, about 20 seconds later, it was on us.

Man: Oh, my god!

Woman: Oh, it's gonna be insane!

Narrator: Through a window in the top of the basement door,

Kevin continues to record as the massive funnel cloud

Rips apart everything in its path.

You can actually see what the size of it was

And what's churning up on the ground --

Pieces of siding, metal roofing, pieces of small buildings.

That kind's of when it really hit me --

This was bad.

Delgado: That's too close for comfort,

Because any of that debris could come flying through

Some of those windows that you're seeing,

And you never know exactly how strong

A structure of a home is.

Adkins: The absurd vision that kind of flashed through my head

Was this thing going by in front of me

Was the finger of god,

Just doing this,

And I really couldn't reconcile why this was happening.

Pinn: Tornadoes are mentioned throughout the bible,

The hebrew bible, the new testament.

They are typically associated with god's will,

A demonstration of god's power.

Man: Oh, my god!

Adkins: I said, "we're ok. We're ok,"

Trying to comfort my sister.

[ laughing ] I was kind of saying it to myself

As much as to her.

Narrator: Kevin and his family members wait it out in the basement

Until the twister eventually passes and they are safe.

But the ef3 tornado, which spared them,

Sadly crashed head-first into west liberty,

Flattening everything.

Delgado: West liberty took a beating,

Because this tornado,

It was on the ground for almost forty minutes.

Can you imagine having that outside your door,

That beast of a tornado, for forty minutes?

I mean, I couldn't handle that just for a few seconds!

Adkins: We were extremely grateful,

Not only for ourselves,

But because we have family all over that area.

We were very, very fortunate.

It doesn't hit you until afterward,

Just how dangerous the situation was.

This tornado was a punch in the mouth, for sure,

And it was a big reminder that, you know,

Nature is definitely large and in charge.

Narrator: Coming up...

Man: Oh, my gosh!

Massive balls of ice on a vicious warpath.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: Imagine being out on the lake on a beautiful summer day.

A little swimming, boating, maybe a picnic on the shore --

It's the perfect way to spend an afternoon.

Unless...

That lake starts getting battered

By huge flying chunks of ice...

Man: Holy [bleep], we've got some hail!

...Which then attack your house.

Oh, my god! Where do I go?

Oh, my god, have mercy on us.

♪♪

August 18th, 2011,

Carter lake, iowa.

Joseph eibes is enjoying a relaxing trip

To his parents' house on the state's western edge.

Eibes: Living on a lake is great.

You get to go fishing, tubing, you know.

Hot summer day in the midwest,

You got to love just being able to cool off on the water.

Narrator: About 9 a.M., his parents head out for the day,

Leaving joseph home alone.

Eibes: I was just hanging out, drinking coffee,

Taking care of some chores.

Next thing I know,

The sky starts getting real dark and gray,

And then it started getting the green color.

Narrator: Not surprisingly, a few seconds later, rain.

But nothing could have prepared joseph

For what would fall from the sky next.

[bleep]!

Narrator: Hail, indeed.

But not the size of golf balls, tennis, or even baseballs...

...The sky is shooting down monster ice chunks

The size of softballs.

Eibes: This was the biggest hail I've ever seen.

It's huge!

They went from, "are we going to get wet? Maybe?"

To softball-sized hail coming down in like a minute.

It was crazy.

[ banging ]

Oh, my gosh!

Delgado: This is incredible!

In the very beginning, you're thinking,

"wow, what a great house.

This house is so close to the lake,"

And then, all of a sudden, the hail starts coming down.

Wow!

Hail in the united states is primarily concentrated

In oklahoma, nebraska, iowa.

You have the warm, moist gulf of mexico air

Collide with arctic air,

And so those are the ideal conditions to make hail.

Narrator: Joseph can't believe the scene unfolding before his eyes.

Oh, my god!

But then, the situation goes from captivating to frightening.

[ glass breaks ]

As soon as I heard that glass break,

And I'm hearing hailstones coming into the kitchen,

Hitting the wood floor, ricocheting off the furniture,

And that was a terrifying sound.

Oh [bleep]! I'm shaking.

My adrenaline was going off. My heart was racing.

Oh, my --

The whole earth is shaking around you, it feels like,

As your house is just getting pounded to death.

Pinn: It's a pretty scary scenario.

The power of this ice hitting the house,

It's terrifying.

You're thinking, "I should be safe because I'm in my home."

No, I'm not. Look at the windows at this guy's house!

This is incredibly dangerous.

All I could just hear was the roar

Of these massive chunks of ice just pounding the house,

Pounding the windows, glass breaking.

[ banging ]

Oh, my god.

It just felt like, "is this ever going to stop?"

Narrator: Joseph is now a prisoner being held captive by mother nature.

And if that isn't enough of a nightmare...

I was terrified that I was going to get hit

With glass in the face.

I went to as far back away from that glass side of the house,

Where all the hail was coming in.

It was just chaos, this hell amount of hail,

Brutal, absolute destruction from the skies above.

Oh, mercy!

[ banging ]

Oh. Oh, my god.

I was honestly scared for my life.

I couldn't turn away, my hands were shaking,

And I was just terrified, thinking I might die.

[ banging ]

Oh, my god, have mercy on us.

Narrator: Just as quickly as the brutal hailstorm started,

It stops.

The hail just went away, and it was really calm.

The intensity of that five minutes of terror

Just turned into a very calming, "whoa,

What did I just go through?"

God was raining down death by hail.

The house saved me. The house protected me.

But one hit in the head by one of these hailstones

And it's over.

[ banging ]

Narrator: Thankfully, joseph survived the harrowing ordeal,

But his car and the house were badly damaged.

Eibes: We had to replace the entire roof of the house,

And it actually totaled my vehicle.

The fact is,

When you witness nature's power coming down on you,

It's humbling.

Oh! Oh!

This was definitely one of the scariest moments of my life.

I am absolutely ok if I never have to experience that again.

Oh, mercy! Oh, my god, have mercy on us!

Narrator: Coming up, an inferno from hell...

Woman: Go, go, go!

...Closes in on its victims.

[ whimpering ] oh, god. Oh, my god! It was so scary!

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: Whether it's a landslide...

[ people screaming ]

...Tornadoes, tsunami, or flood,

Escaping a natural disaster

Is an intense, harrowing experience.

But if you find yourself trapped in the dangerous clutches

Of a ravenous wildfire...

Man: What is going on?

...With nowhere to run and nowhere to hide,

Praying for a miracle may be your best bet...

Woman: Heavenly father, please help us.

...And only bet at getting out alive.

[ whimpering ] oh, my god! It was so scary!

♪♪

November 8th, 2018,

Paradise, california,

Nestled in the foothills of the sierra nevada mountains.

For many, this quaint ridge town

Is the perfect place to raise a family.

But there's trouble in paradise.

Just after 6:30 a.M., a fire ignites

In a remote canyon three miles away,

And the winds bellowing from deep within the canyon

Send the fire airborne, transforming it

Into an extremely fast-moving firestorm.

It's called wildfire for a reason -- it's wild.

It can spread wherever the wind goes.

Narrator: Residents are forced to evacuate immediately

With nothing but the clothes on their back.

[ car horns honking ]

With only four narrow mountain roads leading out of town,

Motorists are forced to make a death-defying escape.

Woman: [ panicked whimpering ]

Man: [ angrily ] come on, what is going on?

Phoenix: This is basically everybody's worst nightmare,

And the worst part is that they're just one family

Out of hundreds that are trying to flee on this same road.

Woman: [ panting ]

Man: Come on...

They're stuck moving at the pace of the cars in front of them.

So it just adds to the tension that they're boxed in.

Narrator: Evacuees everywhere are now facing a living nightmare.

Delgado: This is doomsday.

We're talking about a raging inferno of fire.

It looks like hell, excuse my language,

But that's what it looks like.

There's a sort of very deep,

Implicit relationship of trust there,

And she's asking for the help of the father,

In midst of this, this crazy fire.

Martin: She's really praying from her heart

And she's praying for a sense of calm, which she gets.

One of the most powerful gifts god gives us in these situations

Is the gift of calm,

Which enables us to see our way clear and move forward.

Narrator: But can god help them escape this inferno?

Woman: [ panicked whimpering ]

Oh, my god! [ screams ]

It's not going to take long for the smoke to start seeping in,

And that can cause more trouble beyond just breathing.

They're trying to maintain some sense of balance, some calmness,

But they are surrounded by the possibility of death.

But they know they can't just stay there,

They've got to keep moving.

Go, go, go! Just go this way, baby, just go...

Delgado: In a wildfire,

The temperatures range anywhere between

1,400 and 1,500 degrees fahrenheit.

You can't even fathom how hot that is.

So, yes, that is a real reality of your tires actually burning.

Narrator: Miraculously, the families in both of these vehicles

Made it out of this terrifying inferno alive.

Many others were not as fortunate.

86 people died.

The town of paradise was essentially destroyed

In just a few hours.

That's how quickly this wildfire came through.

[ screams ]

So these people were very lucky that they got out of here alive.

Woman: Heavenly father, please help us.

Woman: Oh, my god!

[ whimpers ] it was so scary!

Narrator: So doomsday has arrived.

What would you do if you were swept away by raging waters...

Woman: Oh, we're floating!

...Trapped in a crowd during a brutal microburst...

Man: Please exit the tent!

...Under attack by massive ice chunks...

Man: Oh, have mercy! Oh, my god!

...Or in the sights of a twisted twister?

Woman: Please, get in here!

Just hope and pray...

Woman: Heavenly father...

...You live to tell about it.

Woman: [ whimpering ] oh, my god! Oh, my god!

♪♪

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