Oklahoma farm used in film Twister devastated by real tornado in last weeks storm

FAIRFAX — A farm where scenes from the 1996 movie "Twister” were shot was hit Monday by a real tornado.

J. Berry Harrison Sr. lost a horse, two houses, five barns, two silos and miscellaneous farm and irrigation equipment in the storm, but his family was not hurt, he said Saturday.

"We built all this in 50 years and it blew away in 15 minutes. It was quite a wind,” he said.

Harrison’s son and wife, their son and a niece were in one of the homes when the tornado hit. He said the house lost its roof, but the walls stayed intact.

During the filming of a scene in "Twister,” film crews tracked actors along a road and taking shelter beneath a bridge as a tornado passed over. The track of the fictitious tornado in the film and the real one that hit Monday appeared eerily familiar, Harrison said.

"The path of the tornado came exactly the same way that they made it in the movie,” he said.

The two silos destroyed in the storm were also pictured in the film, as was the tractor left on the bridge in the movie. The tractor wasn’t damaged.

Forty utility poles along the twister’s path were knocked down, and Harrison said the damage goes in three directions, making him think several funnels may have touched down on his land. He has been told — but hasn’t confirmed — that the tornado was an EF-3 with winds of about 150 mph.

The storm also blew a tree branch, about an inch and a half in diameter, two feet through the wall of one of the houses that was destroyed in the storm.

"I’d always heard about that all my life, but that’s the first time I’ve seen it,” he said.

Harrison, a former state senator, said he lived on that land for 32 years, and his son has been living on it for 20.

"It wiped out every improvement on the Harrison ranch. We were just really fortunate that no one was hurt. That’s the main thing,” he said.