Whipping winds ripped off the side of a building housing an essential business Monday.

Owner Paul Narici says he heard a loud thud that resembled an explosion Monday afternoon. That noise was actually the sound of the windows and a wall hitting the ground.

The East Farmingdale business owner says this all happened around 2 p.m., which is around when wind gusts were up to about 55 mph.

Narici says four employees were working inside Long Island Power Equipment on Milbar Boulevard when the collapse happened. He says no one was hurt.

"I dropped the phone and ran out the back and saw daylight, that was it. So, you know we evacuated the building next door, made sure nobody was in there, we could smell the gas leaking, because the gas line was knocked off the wall," says Narici.

He says the strong smell of gas brought multiple emergency response crews to the scene.

Narici says he's glad everyone is safe, but a collapsed wall is not what he needed right now.

"Business has been down as it stands with the coronavirus, the business is gonna ... eh, this too shall pass," he says.

A Town of Babylon representative says the building will be boarded up, and they are looking into what exactly caused the wall to come down.