As books, newspapers, and News 9 has taught us over the past 20 years, it's hard to discuss or remember the infamous May 3rd, 1999 tornado without an obligatory mention of legendary Severe Weather Savior Gary England.
As the deadly grinder carved its way through Moore and towards the Midwest City, Lord England – from his perch within the News 9 Severe Weather Command Center – gave the dire warning that viewers and listeners in the twister's direct path either needed to get below ground or out of the way to escape unharmed. To this day, many people still credit Gary for saving their life.
Knowing that, it's kind of strange to see that KWTV Channel 9 managed to find a way to cover the May 3rd tornado's 20th anniversary and not mention Lord England even once. Check out this story / video:
News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports |
Strange stuff, huh? That would be like Channel 4 producing an anniversary story about the May 31st, 2013 tornado and not mentioning Mike Morgan's call for everyone to drive south! Okay, that's probably a bad example, but you get my point.
Anyway, in case it's not totally obvious, it looks like News 9 and Gary England's relationship is worse than it's ever been. I guess Gary didn't like being forced out earlier than he probably wanted, and Channel 9 didn't like Gary talking shit about David Payne on social media. Hopefully they get things straightened out soon, otherwise we may have one hell of a drought this summer. They always follow disturbances in the severe weather force.
