Man captures a EF-4 Tornado approaching his house

What happened?

On April 9, 2015, Clem Schultz, aged 85, was at his home in Fairdale, Illinois, with his wife, Geraldine, known as Geri.

"We just finished supper," Schultz, 85, told ABC News. "My wife called me in the kitchen. She said, 'Look out the window.' And sure enough I looked out -- we see this big, ugly tornado coming."

"It looked like it was going to miss us," he said.

Geri stayed in the kitchen while he went upstairs to get some lanterns.

As the loud tornado loomed, Schultz decided to start recording cell phone video.

The video shows the tornado move closer and the sky darken, before the picture goes black.

"Up until the time the house started moving, it still looked to me like it was going to go to the west -- and miss us," he said. "Suddenly, I realized I was wrong.

I was standing next to the chimney when the whole place went down," Shultz said.

The chimney fell on top of him; he remembers he was buried in a pile of rubble.

"All of a sudden it kind of got quiet," Schultz continued. "'I asked myself 'Are you dead?' But then I said, 'No you can't hurt when you're dead,' and I hurt."

He said he later learned he had a crushed vertebrae.

As several people helped Schultz dig his way out, he said one of them told him, "'Don't look down because your wife is under you -- and she's dead.'"

He looked for her pulse, but couldn't find it.

Clem also said that he wont be living in Fairdale anymore. However some time later, he did return to Fairdale with a Black Shepard to meet his former neighbor, Joe Wiegand. Clem didn't plan to rebuild the house because of his "memories" and looking at moving close to his kids.

Why did Clem keep recording and did not seek shelter?

The reason Clem wants this to be out there is to "save lives". Clem also stayed in the attic because he thought the tornado was tracking away from him, but when he realized it was coming for him; it was already too late. He was unable to move fast because of his age.

Joe Wiegand

After the incident, Clem showed the infamous video to Joe, this is what the conversation was like:

CLEM: About two minutes into this, my house came down and knocked the phone out of my hand and it kept recording.

JOE: So now you are still standing up taking video right now?

CLEM: Right about now is when I realized ‘uh-oh.'

JOE: See the shaking? Your house is shaking apart right now, isn't it?

CLEM: Yeah. At this point, I was laying under several feet of rubble, wondering why I was still alive.

CLEM: He said ‘okay, now you're by this beam, I want you to sit down and put your feet down here on the floor, but don't look down.' I said ‘why don't look down?' He said, ‘because your wife is right under you and she's dead.'

JOE: You look down?

CLEM: Of course. I reached down, and got her pulse…no pulse. We had propane leaking. They told me, ‘you gotta get out of here.'

Who's dead and who's not?

Clem miraculously survived with a broken vertebra. He was send to a hospital in Madison for back issues, likely due to the tornado. His wife named Geri Schultz(aged 67) and a neighbor named Jacklyn Klosa(aged 69, the house in front that Clem filmed was Jacklyn's house) both were killed. His dog named Missy was uninjured but went suddenly missing after.

Clarence "Clem" Schultz:

Geraldine "Geri" Schultz:

Jacklyn Klosa:

Aftermath photos of Clem's now destroyed house:

The tornado itself:

Hope Clem is feeling better now