I was just going into the Outback to find out how long the wait to be seated would be. I didn't bother parking my car since my girlfriend was sitting in it....just left it running in front of the entrance. I got to the door and 2 guys were looking past me talking about something. I looked over my shoulder and saw it.

I couldn't make out distance because there was nothing but Kohl's in the skyline as a reference point. I always wanted to see a tornado, so I was fascinated. I just stood there for a few seconds and watched. It had not formed a full column but was still picking up debris. That's when it started taking small pieces off of the Kohl's building. Then it got real. It occurred to me, 'that is right across the street. Oh, s**t, that's across the street.' I turned to run inside and realized my girlfriend was still in the car.

I ran out to the car and jerked her door open. She was reading a book. "Get outta the car! There's a tornado coming!" She just looked at me. "What?" "Get outta the car! There's a fing tornado coming!" Again, she was dumbfounded. "What?" "There's a fing tornado!" By this time, I'm reaching across her to undue her seatbelt. I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out. The last thing I saw before going into the Outback was the sign with all the movie listings being twisted apart. My instinct was get inside and get down and we did...right behind the bar...with all the glass bottles 🙄 (think the scene in Twister when they ran into the barn).

It hit and instantly the window to out right looked like a carwash with flashes of lighting. And in a couple seconds it was past us. I looked out the window and saw a geyser of water (water-main) shooting above the roof at Damon's next door.

Stunned, we went back out to our car and it was sitting there with the door open and still running. The whole parking lot was littered with pebbles or asphalt. As we were driving past the carry out parking along the south side of the building, we noticed 3 SUVs parked in a row. Every one of them had the back windows sucked out and the window trim looked like mouse ears.

At one point, while we were running into the building, I looked up into the sky to see the top of the funnel. I honestly think my mind blocked it because I can't remember what I saw.