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Tornado touches down in Pierce County

FREDRICKSON, Wash. — The tornado that touched down in Pierce County was about a mile in length and caused $25,000 damage, according to the National Weather Service.

The tornado touched down in Frederickson, damaging buildings and lifting a car off the ground.

PHOTOS: Damage from tornado, storms

The tornado occurred at 7:45 a.m. Monday and ripped off roof tiles on a Boeing plant at 190th Street and Canyon and blew windows out of cars in the parking lot.

Central Pierce Fire said a car was lifted during the event, and video from Chopper 7 showed two rail cars nearly overturned. The National Weather Service said the tornado was on the ground for about five minutes and had wind speeds estimated at 110 mph.

Employees at Northwest Door, which manufactures garage doors, said they were working when the twisting winds came up, knocked over a huge stack of material,  hit the roof and ripped several trees out of the ground.

Employee Tony Lopez said he thought it was a piece of equipment blowing up at the garage door manufacturing plant.

"Then the ceiling just started rippling," Lopez said. "Pieces started falling out. We thought it was an earthquake at first."

Workers went running out of the building, not knowing that it was a tornado that had just cut a path through the roof and their parking lot.

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