Editor's Notebook

Last Sunday afternoon I couldn’t help but think about May 3 from 27 years ago.

What a glorious weather day we enjoyed May 3, 2026.

On the other hand, on that date in 1999 there were at least 66 confirmed tornados – including the F5 beast that struck Bridge Creek and Moore which killed 40 people.

At one point the massive twister, referred to that day as an elephant trunk or stove pipe, was 1.5 miles wide.

I read one harrowing account of Associated Press photographer J. Pat Carter. He followed the tornado, and would get out of his vehicle and take photos of the storm to send back to the AP brass in New York City so they could continually update the story as it unfolded.

Unbeknownst to Carter, Tammy Holmgren and her two young daughters had dropped their dad and her husband at Will Rogers to fly to Korea for a deployment.

They were headed home to Elgin down the H.E. Bailey Turnpike just outside of Newcastle, the same highway Carter was on.

Holmgren looked out her window and saw the massive tornado and pulled under an overpass on the interstate.

Among the multitude of problems that faced her that day was the fact she couldn’t get the door of her minivan to open to get her six-year-old and two-year-old daughters out of the vehicle.

Carter pulled his vehicle under the overpass and somehow got the door open.

He would say years later he didn’t know how he got it open.

Holmgren laid on top of one daughter and Carter laid on top of the other as the storm passed and somehow they all survived.

The last picture Carter snapped before the storm passed over them was a shot of the F5 and to the side, a satellite tornado, right by the monster.

It also captured the three Holmgren girls huddled under the highway.

That photo made its way to most of the country’s daily newspapers the following day.

Talk about a story to tell.