The owner of Midwest BBQ at South Broadway and Lake says he’s lucky to be alive after a tornado hit and tore apart his building while he was inside.
Buddy Miller says he could hear the storm coming.
“One of the big doors blew out and part of the roof popped up and the black refrigerator started sliding across the floor. It was very loud. I grabbed the fridge and thought it was big so if this thing doesn’t go anywhere I’m not going anywhere. The next thing I know I’m outside out back, the fridge is gone and the back door hits me as it’s swinging back and forth so I grabbed it and pulled it to me and got between it and the wall.”
Miller believes that is what saved him as the storm moved over.
“The power poles snapped, explosions happened, sparks flew. You couldn’t hear. I was screaming at the top of my lungs behind that door and I couldn’t hear my own voice. I never want to do that again. It calmed down and the wind switched and it jerked the door out of my hand and everything stopped. Then the pole slid down the building and hit me in the shoulder but it was over and already passed the neighborhood behind me. It was so quick.”
Miller estimates everything happened in about 30 seconds.
After neighbors checked on neighbors in the badly damaged neighborhood, Miller says Salem Police and Fire and then volunteers arrived to help.
“Restore some of the faith in humanity I was losing a little of but I got some restoration of that the last couple of days. The response has been great. I really love this community, it’s my hometown. If things work out right, I will work hard to keep Midwest BBQ here in Salem.”
A Go-Fund-Me account has been set up for Miller with the goal of raising enough money for him to locate in a new location on the west side of Salem. He spent the weekend trying to recover what he could from his rented location that the owner now plans to tear down.
The battered Midwest BBQ building following Friday night’s tornado. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
