SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) -- Five years ago years ago this week, three tornadoes touched down in Sioux Falls leaving behind a trail of damage that took months to clean up. One of the hardest hit businesses was the Pizza Ranch on 41st Street. Two employees were inside the restaurant as the tornado struck. "Hard to believe it's been five years already," Mike Pharis said. It started out as just an ordinary day at the Pizza Ranch on 41st Street. "Just a normal Tuesday night, which is always kids night here at Pizza Ranch," Pharis said. It was closing time. "Just closing up the books and putting the tills away," Pharis said. And then the wind-driven chaos struck. "I had commented to him how it sounded like the wind's gotten really strong out there. And right as I said that, all our tiles, all our tiles up on the roof lifted up and then slammed back down," Cody Buchholz said. Multiple fire departments repond to Black Hawk fire Cody Buchholz and Mike Pharis sought shelter in the kitchen. "And by the time we got back up to the walk-in cooler, it was all done. I'd say it lasted 10 seconds," Buchholz said. But in that short time, the tornado tore part of the roof off the building. Multiple fire departments repond to Black Hawk fire "We could tell there was rain coming in the dining room and stuff, we could feel wind blowing in, so obviously, we were not sitting well at that point," Pharis said. Employees still drew a paycheck during the 15 months the restaurant was closed for repairs. "We found we had some great insurance that was able to pay our lost wages. So, we always have around 100 employees and we were able to retain most of those through that," said Pharis. Management put up pictures of the damage from the tornado here in a back hallway of the restaurant, which has picked up the nickname, 'tornado alley.' "We talked about one day, will we be taking those down? But I still see customers checking them out all the time and asking questions about it. So, it's still a good walk down memory lane," Pharis said. The restaurant was rebuilt bigger than before. Pizza Ranch says it's surpassed its sales goals ever since. They credit community support for the tornado turnaround. "Us being able to expand and rebuild bigger and better, ended up kind of being a good thing in the end. Kind of making lemonade out of lemons," Pharis said. The Pizza Ranch reopened in December of 2020. Receiving those paychecks during the repairs was a big help with all the financial uncertainty surrounding the pandemic.