Workers escape moments before tornado completely destroys Lincoln ice cream shop

The National Weather Service says a tornado touched down in west Lincoln Sunday evening.

Four employees of local business C & L Dairy Sweet were on the clock, when things took a turn for the worst.

“I ran down there and I said, ‘get the girls, there are sirens, we gotta go,'” said Tiffany Blackwell.

Tiffany Blackwell helped to get the workers out.

Including her mother, who was hesitant to leave.

“She’s like, ‘I have this cheeseburger for this guy,’ and I was like, ‘forget the cheeseburger, we gotta go.'”

The women were forced to run to a nearby house’s cellar, about 100 feet away.

“By the time we got up and were running to the cellar, we saw some clouds circling right in front of the house and you could feel the pressure change and then we got in the cellar and had to hold the door down so it didn’t fly open,” said Blackwell.

They were crammed inside, holding the door shut, as the tornado ripped through the area.

“It probably was only two minutes, maybe three, but it felt like forever,” said Blackwell.

After it was all over, Blackwell’s mother took a peak outside to see the damage done.

“My mom said, the garage is gone and the storage shed is gone. We went out a little bit further and she said diary sweet is gone too and I was just thinking maybe a roof or some kind of damage, but it was gone gone,” said Blackwell.

Store manager Cassey Hladik says they’re thankful Blackwell heard the sirens, because the other workers couldn’t.

“With the machines and everything in there being so loud none of the girls heard it. It could have been a huge family tragedy for everybody,” said Hladik.

Workers say when they investigated the damage the tornado had done, the building’s roof was on the bottom of the debris pile, and the floor was on top, meaning the tornado picked up the dairy store and rotated it upside down before dropping it.

Since last night, workers with C and L say hundreds of people have been reaching out, giving their support.

They say right now, the focus is on cleaning up the mess.

Moving forward an official Go Fund Me page will get started, you can find it on their Facebook.

“We’re just very thankful and lucky, I mean there’s just no words to describe it. It’s horrible to see our family owned business and the thing my grandma worked so hard to build all of her life and to see it gone in the blink of an eye,” said Hladik.