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CNN Live At Daybreak

Tornadoes Bring Death and Destruction to Siren, Wisconsin

Aired June 19, 2001 - 08:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: To the upper Midwest: Tornadoes brought death and destruction to the small town of Siren. That's in Northwestern Wisconsin. At least three people were killed in and around Siren. At least eight others were injured.

Kent Boyer owns the Dairy Queen in Siren. He joins us now by telephone.

Mr. Boyer, what did you do when the tornado hit?

KENT BOYER, DAIRY QUEEN OWNER: Basically, I didn't have any customers in the store at the time. So we got all the employees into the walk-in cooler and just basically hung on for dear life. And that's when the tornado came through. So...

MCEDWARDS: And were you able to get into the cooler as well?

BOYER: I didn't quite make it. I was just outside, but I was pretty close.

MCEDWARDS: So how did you -- how did you hang on?

BOYER: Just decided that I was hanging on, and if I was going, this door was coming with me -- not much I could do. I just covered my head and crouched.

MCEDWARDS: Wow. I mean, what was it like? What did you feel? What did you see and hear?

BOYER: As far as hearing, it was just, you know, it sounded like the building was coming apart in bits and pieces. I mean, flying glass, debris, bits and pieces of the ductwork inside the store were, you know, dropping, falling down -- stuff flying everywhere.

MCEDWARDS: What did you do when it was over?

BOYER: I made sure the people in the cooler were all right. And then we went outside to see what it really looked like, you know.

MCEDWARDS: Was everybody OK?

BOYER: Yes, everybody was fine in the store, yes.

MCEDWARDS: And then when you got outside, what did you see? What was the extent of damage?

BOYER: A lot of stuff wasn't even recognizable -- I mean, no trees, you know, for landmarks or anything like that to go by. The gas station right across the street, if I didn't know it was a gas station, I wouldn't have been able to recognize it, you know -- just incredible.

MCEDWARDS: Mr. Boyer, do you have any sense now of the dollar figure you're looking at, the damage to your franchise?

BOYER: I would say close to probably half a million dollars, because we just built it. And we've only been open 2 1/2 months. So I know what we paid and what it cost us to put it up. So I imagine it'll cost most of that to rebuild.

MCEDWARDS: All right, Kent Boyer, thanks very much for your thoughts this morning. And good luck rebuilding. Kent Boyer owns the Dairy Queen in Siren.

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