Thursday, November 7, 2024

Eyewitness account of Sunday's tornado hitting business park

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With a tornado warning in effect, Scott Beyer and his co-workers at Russ Davis Wholesale decided to take a gander at the sky during break time Sunday night. What they saw sent them scurrying for cover.



"We could see the wall cloud building," Beyer said.



As the clouds swirled, a hole opened up in the middle. Scott suddenly realized he was staring into the eye of a tornado.



"The sky opened up and it was blue," he said. "The cloud dropped down and jumped back up. It shot down a little funnel and sucked back up."



Scott yelled to his co-workers to head for cover in the facility's bathrooms. As he fled, Scott took one last look over his shoulder and witnessed the tornado's destructive force as it hit a nearby factory building.



"I turned around and saw the whole roof come off of Northern Wire," he said. "It was all around us. The whole cloud dropped right to the ground."



As the building was torn apart around them, the Russ Davis crew was safe in the bathroom. Within one unimaginably loud minute, the tornado passed.



"It sounded like a freight train," he said. "It roared."



Coming back out to assess the damage brought disbelief.



"I was in shock when I looked outside," Scott said. The industrial park was in shambles. The Lincoln Wood and Northern Wire buildings were heavily damaged, along with the Russ Davis Wholesale warehouse, and debris was strewn everywhere. In the parking lot, Scott's truck was the only vehicle that still had all its windows.

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