I started a project for National Geographic at the end of July about storm chaser Tim Samaras and the El Reno, Oklahoma tornado. Tim, his son Paul Samaras, and teammate Carl Young were killed in the 2.6-mile wide tornado last May. Tim had worked closely with National Geographic on many projects through the years and my story was to be both tribute to the three men and a closer look at the record-breaking tornado.
This was probably the most difficult story I’ve ever worked on for a few reasons. The time we had to work on this story was much, much less than we typically take to produce a story of this size. More importantly, I felt a responsibility to tell the most honest story of Tim, Paul and Carl that I possibly could. I traveled to Germany and across the United States with one of my teammates collecting interviews about the men and learning more about what happened during the El Reno tornado. Here are the final products–a huge group effort from the talented people I work with. You can see the rest of the story in the November issue of National Geographic Magazine.
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