Montana: Tornado Destroys Rimrock Auto Arena
June 21st, 2010The only reason I’m posting this is because you have to see the video.
Via: AP:
A tornado that ripped the roof off a sports arena in Billings, Mont., Sunday evening also tore through businesses, damaging a bar and a casino and leaving just the walls of an auto glass shop standing.
The tornado struck at about 5 p.m. as a big storm system with golf ball-sized hail passed through the area.
After running through Main Street in the city’s northeast area, the twister moved toward the 10,000-seat Rimrock Auto Arena about a half-mile away, where it hovered for about 15 minutes, snapping trees and telephone poles.
“It would touch down and suck back up and touch down and touch down again,” said Trooper Toman Baukema of the Montana Highway Patrol, who saw the tornado from a patrol station about a mile away.
Big pieces of metal could be seen hanging from power lines near the arena, and tangles of insulation and metal debris were strewn for hundreds of yards in the surrounding industrial area.
There were several employees inside the arena when it struck, but there were no reports of injuries, Baukema said.
