Take a close look at this surveillance video…
It was just after 3 p.m. Saturday when all of a sudden you see what appears to be a funnel cloud forming in the right corner of the screen. The wind tosses a bunch of pipes, then the power goes out, and seconds later part of the roof lands in the parking lot.
"It looked like a small little whirlwind. It was like a miniature tornado, is what it looked like to me. It wasn’t a very big thing, but you could definitely tell the wind was in a circular motion," City Mill employee Christopher Ivey said.
"We came out, we heard the sounds of the canopy tent hitting Nimitz Highway and a customer said they saw a small funnel cloud touch down on the corner of the building, lifting up the roof and blowing apart the garden section over here. Something lifted it up and actually was airborne onto Nimitz Highway," City Mill employee Barry Murasko said.
"It was very intense. I thought for sure those cars over there would were gonna get annihilated. Fortunately it was minimal damage," Ivey said.
The piece of roof, bigger than the size of a car, landed near an area where propane tanks are refilled.
"We had a couple of employees out here and a couple of customers around. We did have one EMT who was off duty making sure no one got hurt. So that was nice," City Mill employee Justin Perkins said.
But people inside the store knew something went wrong when the store went black.
Some came out to see the commotion, others kept shopping away.
The store remained open while power was out for about 45 minutes, taking out traffic lights and electricity to neighboring Iwilei businesses.
Harbor Police were directing traffic on Nimitz Highway and Pacific Street.
"When I walked out the door I noticed we had one of our canopies in the middle of the road so Carlos, who is the other supervisor, and I ran out and grabbed it and pulled it onto our property to keep the traffic flowing," Perkins said.
It was a freak accident that left a trail of destruction that could have been so much worse.
"Luckily nobody was hurt in that area because that’s a traffic area where people come in and out of all the time, too. So we’re just fortunate no one got hurt because there’s a lot of damage," Murasko said.
"Definitely a very interesting way to end my work day, that’s one thing for sure. A crazy experience that I will definitely remember for the rest of my life," Ivey said.
City Mill is continuing with its normal business hours. They said they will contact their insurance company on Monday to plan a repair schedule.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
