If you ever wondered whether you really need to pay attention to those weather reports while your hauling your next load, here's at least one reason why.

Trucker David Waller was traveling down Interstate 40 near Oklahoma City May 8 when the city was hit by a rush-hour tornado, according to media reports.

The truckdriver saw the twister and quickly determined that it was headed his way. Taking quick action, he parked his rig and ran for a nearby tree. There, he and two other drivers clung to the tree as the tornado passed close by.

Waller told The Associated Press that the tornado picked up his rig, and then, amid a rain of trash and other debris, set the tractor-trailer down on its side.

Later, talking to a reporter and covered in mud, Waller summed it all up.

"I'm scared to death," he said. "All I saw was a bunch of trash."

The tornado that struck Oklahoma City, which destroyed hundreds of homes, wasn't the only damaging storm this week.

Sunday night, May 4, a series of nine tornadoes struck the Kansas City, MO, area, damaging or destroying 1,700 homes. Tornadoes also struck that day in other parts of Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee, killing more than 30 people. And May 8, the day of the Oklahoma City storm, tornadoes also struck Lawrence, KS, and several rural areas along the Kansas-Missouri border. One of those twisters was more than a mile wide. Another threatened a nearby Air Force base.