Episodio 22: Tornadoes (Tornados)

Duolingo English for Spanish Speakers Podcast

Chelsea Ardisson por poco y no llega al altar.

Doce días antes de su boda, su novio la despertó a mitad de la noche, preocupado por su perro, que estaba escondido en el sótano, o basement.

My boyfriend Preston was awake in the middle of the night because our dog, Theo, didn’t want to leave the basement.

It was so strange.

Theo hates storms, but it was calm outside.

It wasn’t windy or raining or anything.

We thought that maybe Theo was sick, but then we turned on the TV.

Cuando encendieron el noticiero en la televisión, Chelsea y Preston se enteraron de que un tornado, un enorme torbellino de viento, se dirigía a su barrio en la ciudad de Nashville, en el estado de Tennessee.

Ambos pensaron inmediatamente en sus mascotas, incluido su erizo, o hedgehog.

In a panic, Preston ran upstairs to get our hedgehog, Pepper.

Then, I saw on the TV that the tornado just hit a school very close to our house! I screamed for Preston to come to the basement.

Welcome, bienvenidos y bienvenidas a “Relatos en inglés”, un podcast de Duolingo.

Soy Diana Gameros.

En cada episodio podrás practicar inglés a tu propio ritmo, escuchando historias reales y fascinantes, contadas por las personas que las vivieron.

Los protagonistas hablan en un inglés sencillo y fácil de entender para quienes están aprendiendo el idioma.

En cada capítulo, yo te acompañaré, para asegurarme de que entiendas todo.

Hoy: dos historias de personas que se enfrentan a tornados, una sin quererlo y la otra… deliberadamente.

Chelsea y Preston se conocieron por internet en el 2017.

Después de un año de salir juntos, decidieron vivir en la misma casa… junto al perro de cada uno, pero no sin antes hacer un pacto:

Preston had his dog, Theo, and I had a dog named Olive.

They were like our children — they meant everything to us.

Before our relationship became serious, we made a pact.

We agreed to break up if our dogs didn’t like each other.

But we were lucky because our dogs fell in love — just like we did.

Our dogs basically started dating too.

No mucho después de ponerse a vivir juntos, Chelsea y Preston se comprometieron.

Planeaban casarse en una pequeña ceremonia en el estado de Colorado, donde la familia de Chelsea ya estaba planeando unas vacaciones de esquiar.

La fecha se fijó para el 14 de marzo del 2020.

We already had the big things that we needed for our wedding, like my dress, Preston’s suit, and our rings.

There were still a lot of small things to do before the wedding, but I planned to do them all during the first week in March — when I was on a break from my university.

Chelsea estaba estudiando una maestría en “patología del habla”.

También era chef y dirigía una pequeña empresa que prepara eventos y comidas para grupos pequeños.

Agregar a todo eso la planificación de una boda fue difícil.

It was March 2nd, just after my university break started.

There were only 12 days until my wedding.

So, I started packing for the trip to Colorado, and I fell asleep pretty early.

Then at 12:40 am, Preston woke me up.

He said that our dog, Theo, was acting strange.

Preston doesn’t usually wake me up when Theo is upset, but he felt like this time was different.

Theo estaba tendido en el suelo del sótano y se negaba a moverse.

Theo seemed really scared, like how he acts during thunderstorms.

But it was clear and calm outside, so we didn’t understand why he was acting so strange.

Then, we turned on the TV.

Attention: A tornado has touched down in Davidson County.

Seek shelter immediately.

That’s when we realized that a tornado was going to hit Nashville.

You are safest in a basement or a closet on the lowest floor of your building.

Los tornados se dan en todo el mundo… pero son más comunes en los Estados Unidos debido a la geografía del país.

Cada año en los Estados Unidos hay aproximadamente 1200 tornados.

No es que sean muy comunes en Nashville, pero Chelsea sabía que tenían que buscar refugio bajo suelo, en un lugar sin ventanas.

Preston immediately ran upstairs to grab our hedgehog, Pepper, and I stayed with our dogs, Olive and Theo.

I couldn’t stop looking at the TV.

Luego, el presentador de noticias anunció que el tornado había tocado tierra… ¡a dos cuadras de su casa!

I started to panic, and I shouted for Preston to come downstairs.

Without saying anything, we got down on the floor and held each other.

Justo cuando la pareja se tiró al suelo del sótano… el tornado golpeó su casa.

I was so scared.

I said, over and over again, “I don’t want to die right now.” And I told Preston to hold me.

The tornado was incredibly loud.

At first, it sounded like someone put a big jar of coins inside a clothes dryer.

And then, when the tornado was directly over our house, it was so loud that I felt it in my body.

It was almost like the sound was coming from inside my head.

Chelsea y Preston se quedaron quietos en el suelo abrazando a sus mascotas, rezando para que todo terminara.

We could hear a lot of things crashing and breaking outside.

I even think I heard our house move off the ground.

I closed my eyes and kept holding Preston’s hands.

Pero como suele ser el caso, el tornado no duró mucho.

Después de sólo treinta segundos, se desvaneció.

It was instantly silent.

It was so strange.

After the tornado was gone, we were covered in water and dirt, and there was a strong smell of gas in the air.

Preston tried to get out of the basement, but the door wouldn’t open at first.

After a few hard pushes, it finally opened.

And immediately, we could see the sky.

The walls and the ceiling of our house were gone.

El cuarto de lavar en el sótano donde Chelsea y Preston se refugiaron fue la única habitación de la casa que sobrevivió a la tormenta.

The first couple of minutes after we left the basement were crazy.

Our house was destroyed and all of our stuff was broken.

We started looking for our car keys.

I thought they might be near the front door.

But as I lifted the door, I found something else: my wedding dress!

El vestido estaba a dos habitaciones de donde Chelsea lo había colgado.

Y ahí estaba, guardado en su bolsa, completamente intacto.

I was in shock.

The wedding dress blew across the house in the tornado, but it was still in perfect condition! Almost everything else was destroyed.

There were pieces of wall, broken windows, and furniture in our yard.

Some of our stuff was even hanging in nearby trees.

But somehow, the dress was fine.

El tornado destruyó cientos de hogares en Nashville… y mató a cinco personas.

Había registrado velocidades de viento de hasta 250 kilómetros por hora.

Árboles y postes eléctricos cayeron en toda la ciudad, incluso en el barrio de Chelsea.

Everything in our house was destroyed, including all of our furniture, our artwork, and special things from our childhoods and our time as a couple.

It was so hard to lose those things because they were impossible to replace.

But we were just so happy that we didn’t die.

We still had each other — and our pets.

La pareja hizo una lista de todo lo importante y dónde recordaban haberlo visto por última vez en la casa, para poder tratar de encontrarlo.

Preston es un trompetista profesional, por lo que sus trompetas fueron las primeras en la lista.

Después, los anillos de boda…

I remembered putting the rings on a dresser in the bedroom, but after the tornado, I thought they might be lost forever.

My parents came to help us clean the parts of our house that weren’t destroyed, and my mom was determined to find the rings.

After searching for 12 hours, we finally found them! One ring was in the yard, and another was under a piece of furniture.

After we found the rings, our friends and family all agreed: we still needed to have our wedding later that month.

Pero Chelsea no estaba tan segura… ¡acababan de perder su casa! Había cosas más importantes por las cuales preocuparse que los detalles de la boda.

I still needed to get flowers for the wedding and find someone to do my hair and makeup.

There was too much to do.

But on the second day of cleaning up the house, I turned to Preston and asked, “Are we really going to do this?” And he said, “Absolutely! I am not going to let a tornado stop our wedding day!”

Chelsea pasó los siguientes días en el teléfono con las compañías de seguros, tratando de averiguar qué hacer con la casa y con todo lo que había en ella.

Mientras tanto, ella y Preston se fueron a vivir a casa de sus padres.

Planning the wedding was difficult because I had so many other important things to do.

But my friends and family insisted that my wedding was important too.

So, I stopped cleaning up the house for one day, and I went to the hair salon.

But I couldn’t stop crying.

It felt terrible to get ready for my wedding when I really needed to concentrate on our lost house.

Así que menos de dos semanas después de que el tornado golpeara su casa, Chelsea y Preston tomaron un avión a Colorado para ir a celebrar su boda.

The first night in Colorado was wonderful.

It was the first time that I could relax and stop thinking about the tornado.

It was so nice to escape from that difficult situation.

It was the first time our families were all together after the terrible storm.

It was great to be with each other and to talk about our future together as husband and wife.

Y el 14 de marzo del 2020, se casaron.

The wedding was outside in the woods near the Rocky Mountains.

There was still snow on the ground so we had to wear hiking boots to walk to the ceremony.

It was so private and intimate.

Just our families were there.

After we said, “I do,” we had a big picnic.

I lost my house — and almost my life — but at the wedding, I was just so happy to be with everyone I cared about, starting my new life with the person I loved the most.

It was perfect! I’m so glad the tornado didn’t stop our wedding.

Chelsea y Preston aún tienen pesadillas sobre el tornado que casi les quita la vida, pero no todos le temen a los tornados; algunas personas están obsesionadas con ellos.

Ese es definitivamente el caso de Hank Schyma.

Él es un cazador de tormentas, o storm chaser, es decir, viaja por el país en busca de tornados.

Hasta ahora ha visto más de doscientos.

I have been interested in weather since I was a kid growing up in the state of Texas.

We had a lot of storms in our area.

And of course there was the movie The Wizard of Oz.

I watched it with my family every year around Christmas.

During the scene when the tornado hits Dorothy’s house, I couldn’t look away from the TV.

The tornado looked alive as it moved and turned.

En El mago de Oz, una joven del estado de Kansas llamada Dorothy vuela a una tierra de fantasía llamada Oz gracias a un tornado.

I can’t even explain why I’m so obsessed with tornadoes.

A tornado is just dust, water, and air moving very quickly.

I think some people are just born with this attraction.

Hank creció en la parte central de los Estados Unidos, donde los tornados son más frecuentes… pero todavía poco comunes.

Y un tornado dura, en promedio, sólo cinco minutos, por lo que es fácil perdérselo.

As a kid, I saw a lot of storms but never a tornado.

I really wanted to see one in real life.

So, when I got my driver’s license at the age of 16, I started to drive around and look for tornadoes.

I always brought my family’s video camera and I tried to follow every storm in my area.

I got a lot of videos of lightning and dark clouds, but never a tornado.

I was so fascinated by weather.

I never saw the same thing twice.

Aunque Hank estaba obsesionado con los tornados, también tenía la ambición de ser una estrella de rock.

Era guitarrista en una banda, y esa era su prioridad.

We traveled a lot for concerts, and that meant that I missed a lot of storms.

I tried to look for tornadoes when I could, but I was often traveling from April to July — which is the time of the year when tornadoes usually occur.

Así que, durante más de una década, Hank persiguió tormentas… pero nunca vio un tornado.

Un día del 2002, mientras descansaba en su casa en Tejas después de una gira, el hombre del pronóstico del tiempo dijo que una gran tormenta con posibilidad de tornados llegaba a Kansas… un estado a once horas en auto hacia el norte.

I got in my car with a friend and drove directly to Kansas.

When we got close to the area where the tornado was going to land, I turned on my camera.

And there it was.

It was so big.

There was dust everywhere.

I kept asking, “Is that a tornado? Is that a tornado?” I couldn’t believe it! I felt like I was dreaming.

I finally got my Wizard of Oz tornado!

Hank finalmente vio su primer tornado, y lo inmortalizó con su cámara.

Estaba muy emocionado.

Cuando él y su amigo regresaban a casa, se toparon con un equipo de noticias locales.

The news team wanted to buy my video of the tornado.

I thought that was amazing! We got enough money to pay for the gas we used to drive to Kansas.

I never thought I could make money from storm chasing, but in that moment, I realized that I could at least make enough money to continue doing it.

Hank siguió persiguiendo tormentas siempre que pudo, pero la música seguía siendo su prioridad… y estar de gira significaba perderse tornado tras tornado.

It was difficult.

I saw videos of the storms that I missed, and I felt bad that I wasn’t there.

Then I realized that if I really wanted to do it, I had to put all my energy into it.

So finally, in 2013, I decided to make storm chasing my full-time job and play music only during the time of year when there aren’t many tornadoes.

Hay varios tipos de cazadores de tornados: están quienes los persiguen por las noticias, por la emoción de hacerlo o por la ciencia.

When I first started chasing storms, I just made videos to put online and sell to local news stations.

But as I got more experience, I learned more about the science of tornadoes.

And I started working with researchers to try to understand storms better.

El pronóstico de tornados ya se ha hecho bastante acertado, pero aún es difícil predecir exactamente cuándo aparecerá uno, y qué tan rápido o lejos viajará.

Las imágenes que cazadores como Hank registran, ayudan a los investigadores a comprender mejor los tornados… para advertir mejor sobre cuándo vendrán estas tormentas y qué tan destructivas serán.

Pero obtener esos videos puede ser bastante peligroso.

Sometimes, I accidentally get too close to a tornado or I get stuck in heavy rain and I can’t see anything.

Usually, once a year, I almost die while chasing a storm.

I try to be safe, but it’s hard to predict the weather.

It’s just part of the job.

Es muy raro encontrar un tornado que sea bueno para grabarlo en video.

Y en el 2014, Hank estaba teniendo un año particularmente malo en la caza de tornados.

It wasn’t a good year for storm chasing.

In June, when tornado season was almost over, most of the other storm chasers quit.

But I wasn’t ready to stop trying.

And on June 16th, I heard that there might be a tornado in the state of Nebraska.

So, I jumped into my car and started driving there.

When I got there, I met a friend.

Hank tenía todo su equipo de video listo mientras conducía hacia la zona donde esperaba que apareciera el tornado.

Cuanto más se acercaban, el viento azotaba más fuerte y las nubes se formaban más oscuras en lo alto del cielo.

When we arrived, we couldn’t believe what we saw.

There were two huge tornadoes on each side of a big field.

One was wide.

The other one was very thin.

And the two tornadoes were moving toward each other! When they got close to each other, there was a flash of lightning.

Then, the thin tornado started moving towards the wide one very quickly.

It moved faster than any tornado I have ever seen.

¡Hank grabó el choque de dos tornados!

It was incredible! When we finally got home and watched the video, my friend calculated that the tornado traveled forward at 150 kilometers per hour.

It was a new world record!

Solo por ver ese tornado, ya hubiera valido la pena el viaje en carro… pero durante los siguientes días en los estados cercanos, Hank y su amigo vieron varios tornados más.

2014 went from the quietest year for storm chasing to one of the most exciting years ever — in only three days! It made me remember that it’s important to be there for every storm.

You have to try to see all of them or you might miss something really amazing.

So that’s what I do.

From April to July every year, I jump into my car when a storm is coming.

I’m always looking for that perfect Wizard of Oz tornado.

Puedes encontrar en su canal de YouTube llamado “Pecos Hank” los videos donde Hank persigue los tornados.

Este noviembre, Hank cazará tornados en Argentina, en un área al oeste de Buenos Aires que es muy propicia para ello.

En Argentina, los tornados giran en el sentido de las agujas del reloj, opuesta a la dirección en la que giran en el hemisferio norte, algo que Hank está deseando capturar en video.

Nuestra primera narradora, Chelsea Ardisson, está construyendo una nueva casa con su esposo Preston.

Pidieron a un amigo que la diseñara y se han asegurado de que también tenga sótano.

Este episodio fue producido por Paige Sutherland, una periodista en Boston.

“Relatos en inglés” es una producción de Duolingo y Adonde Media.

Puedes seguirnos en Spotify o tu plataforma preferida.

Yo soy Diana Gameros.

Thank you for listening!