A tornado which touched down near the transport hub on Wednesday forced passengers to take cover in a cramped tunnel.
A video of the cramped conditions inside Chicago O’Hare International Airport during a tornado alert has gone viral, prompting social media users to describe the packed scenes as a „new definition of hell.“
The clip, uploaded on Wednesday evening and which, as of 4 a.m. ET, had 1.4 million views, shows people descending a set of escalators into a crowded underground hallway containing what appears to be thousands of travelers.
The original poster, local news reporter Hannah Follman, said passengers were asked to seek shelter due to „several“ tornadoes.
It came as a severe storm system moved in over the Great Lakes region on Wednesday night, prompting a number of tornado warnings across the area by the National Weather Service (NWS). The service confirmed that one had touched down near the airport at around 7 p.m. local time (8 p.m. ET).
It added that the tornado had been „touching the ground intermittently so far“ and that there were „additional circulations along the line south of O’Hare.
