LAYTON, Utah – In Layton trees were toppled, power lines were snapped, and, in a few cases, roofs were blown off buildings as a storm with strong winds hit the area.
According to the National Weather Service it wasn’t a tornado, it was straight line winds. However, a tornado did touch down in Washington Terrace around the same time.
“The tree came up and it went ‘timber’ and just came down and went ‘boom’ right on top of the car, and I was like, ‘holy crap,'” said Todd Ramirez, describing the scene in his front yard.
Ramirez said he was outside taking video of one fallen tree when a second tree almost came down on top of him.
“Everyone was telling me, ‘Duck, get down, go inside.’ I was like, ‘No, I got to record it on my phone,'” Ramirez said.
Trees across the city didn’t just fall, they were snapped and uprooted.
In many cases power lines were tangled up in their path, knocking out electricity to more than 17,000 customers in Davis County.
Major shopping centers were forced to close their doors.
At UST Manufacturing, a combination of rain water and insulation covered the floor. If you look up, you’ll see why.
“We heard some rumbling, we thought it was thunder, but then the roof totally disappeared from above us and we saw the sky,” said employee Haden Hancock.
Large chunks of the roof ended up landing 20 feet away, out front and in the middle of the street.
“And when I came out of the building it looked like it was snowing outside, there was insulation everywhere, blowing all over the street,” said witness Doug Anderson, who works next door.
Witnesses said it looked like a tornado and felt like an earthquake.
“It sounded like what I’d imagine a hurricane would sound like,” Anderson said.
One man said he saw a funnel cloud right before running for cover.
“You could see it in the air just kind of spinning, rain and dirt and stuff,” said Jason Udy.
About 50 employees were inside at the time. Once everyone was safe and accounted for it was back to work.
“We didn’t run out of the building immediately because we had to cover everything with plastic and tarps to prevent further damage,” Hancock said.
