Last night, as a tornado ravaged Greensboro, North Carolina, a local teen was just staying put trying to survive the storm in Fortnite Battle Royale, he told local news station WXII 12.
The 135 mile-per-hour tornado, which prompted a state of emergency, did significant damage to Greensboro homes and has claimed one life. Tens of thousands lost power as the tornado uprooted houses, mobile homes and trees.
In an interview with the local news network, teen Anton Williams stands in front of an overturned van near his home. The reporter explains that the house behind them had been lifted off its foundation, adding that Anton’s house had lost siding and was pierced by a power line.
The reporter asks Anton what he was doing during the storm. He responds, “I was sitting at home and I was playing Fortnite and all the sudden I just heard a bunch of noise. I looked out the window and I started seeing the roofs come off the houses in front of me. Then I sat back down because I only had a couple of people left in my game. I was going to try to finish the game.”
The storm intensified, Anton continued, and the power lines came down. A truck flipped over. He herded his sister and nephew into the bathroom to keep them safe.
“What was going through your mind when you were in the bathroom with your sister and nephew?” asked the reporter.
“Honestly,” Anton responds, “I was just thinking about the game,” adding, “I was hoping everybody was okay around me.”
It’s a well-documented fact the the teens love Fortnite. It’s destroying classrooms nationwide. Teachers are using it to make school suck less. Of course a kid was playing it during a deadly tornado. Actually, on /r/FortniteBR, where fans posted a phone recording of WXII 12’s clip, a half dozen other Greensboro, NC locals piped up to say they, too, were surviving two storms at once.
Anton didn’t win his Fortnite game, but IRL, his strategy is winning: Stay safe from the storm and protect your squad.