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Billings arena ripped apart by tornado

Posted: Jun 21, 2010 12:21 AM by Amanda Venegas - Q2 News
Updated: Jun 25, 2010 5:43 PM

BILLINGS - It's like a scene out of a movie, as a tornado rips through Billings premier concert venue.

"What's been tossed around and stripped, it's totally mind boggling," said Bill Dutcher, MetraPark Arena General Manager.

He says he's never seen anything like this before, "Obviously these trees were just uprooted, like little toothpicks and everything."

Dutcher says he was in shock when an employee who lives on site called him and said the structure was in the path of a tornado.

She "started telling me the 'Oh my, power lines, about a shed and all of a sudden it appeared the pond by her house. The shed from over by our shop. I mean things just started disappearing."

The facility holds nearly 11,000 people at it's prime.

"That's where people are supposed to go in a civil defense emergency and so when you look at how that, you can't even walk down the stairwells from the building down to the lower parking lot. There's just steel shredded everywhere."

Hours after the tornado touched down, ripping off the roof and its sides, debris was just a reminder of the intensity of this incident.

"Just knowing 189 acres doesn't appear to be any injuries on site here and in between events and all the different things going on. That's what's you gotta look at, so fortunate and still just a numb sick feeling," Dutcher said.