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.
