Entire roof ripped off of small plaza in northern Pueblo after intense storms, clean up begins

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) - Residents and business owners are in clean-up mode after an intense storm with whipping winds slammed the north side of Pueblo. The winds were so strong that they ripped an entire roof off a small plaza, leaving a business and a church closed until further notice.

Witnesses in the Taco Bell restaurant next door to the plaza, describe the moments the roof ripped off during the storm.

"Loud, terrible noise, sound was horrible, horrible." explained Colby Pippin, who says he was eating inside when it all went down, "I said, god, this can't be real. I thought there was a tornado I couldn't believe it." he added.

Businesses in the plaza, such as Tortured Souls Tattoos, are feeling lost and uncertain, now forced to lock their doors for weeks or even months.

"I just hope that we can resume working soon because I have no idea what we're going to do. I have three artists here and we all, like, rely on this for, you know, our families," said Britteny Miles, the owner of the tattoo shop.

Members of the Vision Missionaries Family Christian Church, also in the plaza, working quickly to save their chairs and begin cleanup efforts.

Meanwhile, other neighbors on the north side of Pueblo just a few blocks away were feeling the impacts of the afternoon storm as well.

"We came home to this lovely tree angled on the edge of the house and then toppled over," explained Tammy Julian who was out working for multiple hours cutting apart a massive tree that broke off into her son's front yard.

She says, as a native of Houston, Tuesday's 20-minute storm wasn't very far off from a hurricane, in her eyes.

"The only thing that you have a difference between the hurricanes there and here is the hail that we had," she remarked.

The landlord for the building tells KRDO13 the roof actually had been replaced a few years ago, and that unfortunately, they had just put in a new air conditioning unit this year, which now sits in a pile of debris in the parking lot below.

In the meantime, they say roofers will be tarping the roof until restoration work can begin, hopefully soon.