Within minutes of a powerful tornado ripping through Joplin, Mo., Sunday night, the Weather Channel’s Mike Bettes arrived on the scene.
Bettes is the on-air face of “The Great Tornado Hunt.” The day before he had been in high spirits, posting a picture to Facebook of himself and Greg Forbes, the Weather Channel’s severe-weather expert, standing outside the Topeka Hooters with several of the restaurant’s wait staff.
But as Bettes broadcast from the parking lot of St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, he found himself for the second time in as many months confronting the grim reality of how storm pursuit sometimes ends.
“Take a look — everything is completely demolished,” Bettes told viewers as his cameraman surveyed the landscape of tree stumps, debris piles and twisted metal where a neighborhood once stood.
“All I can say is it looks very reminiscent of what we saw last month in ...”
His voice trailed off. The camera pointed away from Bettes, taking in the wreckage in silence.
“.. in Tuscaloosa,” he finally said, his voice breaking.
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