The twister — part ofsevere weather that killed more than 20 peoplewhen it moved through the area on Friday — came bearing down on Chuck’s Dairy Bar in Rolling Forkjust after 8 p.m., owner Tracy Harden told FOX Weather.

Tracy said she received messages from both her mother and sisterwarning herof a tornado shortly before an employee at the restaurantrushed to herwith the same news, according toUSA TodayandGood Morning America.

Then, the lights flickered.

“I just hollered ‘cooler!’ And my husband opened the cooler door and started shoving us in,” Tracy toldGMA.

Once inside, Tracy’s husband “lost control of the door” as wind whipped around them and he tried to close it, per the report.

“Just before it shut, he looked up and he said, ‘I see the sky,’ so that let us know that this was way worse than anything we could have imagined,” she toldGMA. “And the roof was gone.”

Barbara Pinkins, an employee at the restaurant, said she could hear the ceiling falling around them as they waited out the storm, per the report.

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When the storm subsided, a customer helped clear debris away from the cooler’s door so those who sheltered inside could get out,USA Todayand FOX Weather reported.

The refrigerator was the only part of the restaurant left standing after Friday’s tornado.

“We stepped out to the back of the building … we stepped out through what would have been the back door, and our vehicles were totaled,” Tracy told FOX Weather.

“But then when we looked up, we just saw what used to be two motel buildings and 35 or more trailer houses are all gone, and they were all flattened,” she added.

Tracy and her husband have owned Chuck’s Dairy Barn for 16 years, per the reports. She said many of the town’s few thousand residents enjoyed meeting up there.

“I care so much for my town, and our business is the place to go, not just to eat, but to be loved on and be comforted during anything,” Tracy toldUSA Today.

Now, she and others that were in the path of Friday’s tornado are picking up the pieces.

“We are okay,” she toldGMA. “I feel like I’ve said that a million times, but we are hurting, we are grieving, but we are alive so we are okay.”

source: people.com