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NYT February 3, 2007
Twisters Hit Central Florida, Killing at Least 19
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
PAISLEY, Fla., Feb. 2 — At least 19 people died when thunderstorms and tornadoes devastated parts of Central Florida before dawn Friday, flattening hundreds of homes and leaving thousands of residents who had little or no warning of the storms in grim shock.
Rescue workers combed what remained of toppled houses for survivors, and Gov. Charlie Crist, who declared a state of emergency in Lake, Volusia, Sumter and Seminole Counties, said federal aid would arrive soon.
“It looked like a bomb went off on some of these homes and it breaks your heart to see that,” Mr. Crist said after arriving by helicopter at Lake Mack, near Paisley in rural Lake County, where most of the dead were found.
The worst of the storms touched down north of Orlando between 3 and 4 a.m., jolting people from sleep with a noise some compared to a jumbo jet. Though a tornado watch had been posted for many Florida counties late Thursday, the National Weather Service issued warnings just minutes before the twisters hit in the middle of the night, when hardly anyone was watching or listening for them.
At a trailer park in Lady Lake, about 30 miles west of Paisley, Marie Magana said her daughter Brittany May, 17, died when an oak tree crashed into her room at the height of the storm. As evening fell, Ms. Magana was picking Brittany’s porcelain dolls and award ribbons for horseback riding out of the rubble where her bedroom had been.
Ms. Magana said she had turned on her television in the middle of the night and seen the tornado warning, grabbed her 5-year-old daughter, ran into the bathroom and called for Brittany. It was not until 4 a.m., after neighbors had arrived to help clear felled trees with chain saws, that they found her.
“We found her hand,” Ms. Magana said. “And we weren’t able to get a pulse.”
At least one other teenager died, officials said. They had not released the names of the other victims as of Friday night.
Joseph Demar, who said he huddled with his son while a tornado ripped the walls and ceiling off their mobile home outside Paisley, said tornadoes were common in the region and he had not expected anything disastrous when he went to sleep Thursday night.
“They usually go north of us,” said Mr. Demar, 57, whose recliner and television remained intact but whose other possessions were broken and strewn around his yard. “Ain’t much you can do about it but grit your teeth and clean it up and start over.”
Forecasters said El Niño weather conditions helped create the deadly tornadoes, which originated as thunderstorms over the Gulf of Mexico and resembled a string of tornadoes that hit the region in February 1998. Those killed 42 people over two days, damaging or destroying more than 2,500 homes and businesses.
“Unfortunately, again, we’ve seen what Mother Nature can do without warning,” Craig Fugate, the state’s emergency operations director, told reporters in Tallahassee.
Unlike in parts of the Midwest where lethal tornadoes strike regularly, warning sirens for tornadoes are almost nonexistent in Central Florida, officials said.
“We get all these sudden, different weather patterns,” said Christopher Patton, a spokesman for Lake County, where all of the confirmed deaths occurred. “I wouldn’t say they’d be useless, but it would be tough to have some kind of threshold on whether you’d sound them off or not.”
About 4,000 customers remained without power Friday night, but crews had restored it to about 40,000 others. Dozens of people were treated for broken limbs, lacerations and other injuries at local hospitals, and dozens more showed up at emergency shelters for the night.
Although no comprehensive damage estimate was available Friday night, officials said at least 400 homes were destroyed in the Villages, a retirement community that sprawls across parts of three counties, and nearly 500 in Lady Lake, a town of 13,000 in Lake County about 50 miles northwest of Orlando.
In Volusia County, where parts of De Land and New Smyrna Beach were battered, officials estimated damage at $80 million, including roughly 350 homes that were damaged or destroyed.
Gia Crawford, 31, of De Land, was in tears as she described how her 2-year-old son had woken her by hitting her face as a tornado approached in the pitch dark.
“It just seemed like it was never going to end,” Ms. Crawford said, describing how her brick home shook and things fell off the dressers when the storm hit.
In Lady Lake, where at least six people died, Alan Berryhill, 17, said he grabbed his sister and hid in the bathroom after debris started pounding their door and he heard a noise like a train.
“We got on our hands and knees and started praying in the shower,” he said. “At some point I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t cry in front of my sister.”
Linda Blickenstaff, 56, clutched her medicine and a few belongings as she stared at what little was left of her home in Lady Lake.
“I was petrified,” she said. “I got up from my bed and stopped in the middle of my trailer and laid down on the floor over my dog, Little Bit, and I prayed.”
Many people wondered whether and how soon the Federal Emergency Management Agency would send help. Some were still incensed that the agency denied a request for assistance after three tornadoes tore through parts of Central Florida on Christmas Day. Mr. Crist has appealed the decision.
Many of the structures destroyed Friday were mobile homes, but sturdier and more expensive homes were damaged, too. The destruction was widespread, but concentrated in pockets; one neighborhood in Lady Lake was in tatters, but less than a mile away, people were golfing on a pristine course Friday afternoon.
The Lady Lake Church of God, built to withstand winds up to 150 miles per hour and used as a shelter in past storms, was leveled.
“That is just the building,” said Larry Lynn, the church’s minister. “The people are the church, and we will be back bigger and stronger.”
For now, he said, Sunday services will take place on the empty lot.
Terry Aguayo, Dennis Blank, Amy Green, Christine Jordan Sexton and Lynn Waddell contributed reporting.
Twisters Hit Central Florida, Killing at Least 19
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
PAISLEY, Fla., Feb. 2 — At least 19 people died when thunderstorms and tornadoes devastated parts of Central Florida before dawn Friday, flattening hundreds of homes and leaving thousands of residents who had little or no warning of the storms in grim shock.Rescue workers combed what remained of toppled houses for survivors, and Gov. Charlie Crist, who declared a state of emergency in Lake, Volusia, Sumter and Seminole Counties, said federal aid would arrive soon.
“It looked like a bomb went off on some of these homes and it breaks your heart to see that,” Mr. Crist said after arriving by helicopter at Lake Mack, near Paisley in rural Lake County, where most of the dead were found.
The worst of the storms touched down north of Orlando between 3 and 4 a.m., jolting people from sleep with a noise some compared to a jumbo jet. Though a tornado watch had been posted for many Florida counties late Thursday, the National Weather Service issued warnings just minutes before the twisters hit in the middle of the night, when hardly anyone was watching or listening for them.
At a trailer park in Lady Lake, about 30 miles west of Paisley, Marie Magana said her daughter Brittany May, 17, died when an oak tree crashed into her room at the height of the storm. As evening fell, Ms. Magana was picking Brittany’s porcelain dolls and award ribbons for horseback riding out of the rubble where her bedroom had been.
Ms. Magana said she had turned on her television in the middle of the night and seen the tornado warning, grabbed her 5-year-old daughter, ran into the bathroom and called for Brittany. It was not until 4 a.m., after neighbors had arrived to help clear felled trees with chain saws, that they found her.
“We found her hand,” Ms. Magana said. “And we weren’t able to get a pulse.”
At least one other teenager died, officials said. They had not released the names of the other victims as of Friday night.
Joseph Demar, who said he huddled with his son while a tornado ripped the walls and ceiling off their mobile home outside Paisley, said tornadoes were common in the region and he had not expected anything disastrous when he went to sleep Thursday night.
“They usually go north of us,” said Mr. Demar, 57, whose recliner and television remained intact but whose other possessions were broken and strewn around his yard. “Ain’t much you can do about it but grit your teeth and clean it up and start over.”
Forecasters said El Niño weather conditions helped create the deadly tornadoes, which originated as thunderstorms over the Gulf of Mexico and resembled a string of tornadoes that hit the region in February 1998. Those killed 42 people over two days, damaging or destroying more than 2,500 homes and businesses.
“Unfortunately, again, we’ve seen what Mother Nature can do without warning,” Craig Fugate, the state’s emergency operations director, told reporters in Tallahassee.
Unlike in parts of the Midwest where lethal tornadoes strike regularly, warning sirens for tornadoes are almost nonexistent in Central Florida, officials said.
“We get all these sudden, different weather patterns,” said Christopher Patton, a spokesman for Lake County, where all of the confirmed deaths occurred. “I wouldn’t say they’d be useless, but it would be tough to have some kind of threshold on whether you’d sound them off or not.”
About 4,000 customers remained without power Friday night, but crews had restored it to about 40,000 others. Dozens of people were treated for broken limbs, lacerations and other injuries at local hospitals, and dozens more showed up at emergency shelters for the night.
Although no comprehensive damage estimate was available Friday night, officials said at least 400 homes were destroyed in the Villages, a retirement community that sprawls across parts of three counties, and nearly 500 in Lady Lake, a town of 13,000 in Lake County about 50 miles northwest of Orlando.
In Volusia County, where parts of De Land and New Smyrna Beach were battered, officials estimated damage at $80 million, including roughly 350 homes that were damaged or destroyed.
Gia Crawford, 31, of De Land, was in tears as she described how her 2-year-old son had woken her by hitting her face as a tornado approached in the pitch dark.
“It just seemed like it was never going to end,” Ms. Crawford said, describing how her brick home shook and things fell off the dressers when the storm hit.
In Lady Lake, where at least six people died, Alan Berryhill, 17, said he grabbed his sister and hid in the bathroom after debris started pounding their door and he heard a noise like a train.
“We got on our hands and knees and started praying in the shower,” he said. “At some point I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t cry in front of my sister.”
Linda Blickenstaff, 56, clutched her medicine and a few belongings as she stared at what little was left of her home in Lady Lake.
“I was petrified,” she said. “I got up from my bed and stopped in the middle of my trailer and laid down on the floor over my dog, Little Bit, and I prayed.”
Many people wondered whether and how soon the Federal Emergency Management Agency would send help. Some were still incensed that the agency denied a request for assistance after three tornadoes tore through parts of Central Florida on Christmas Day. Mr. Crist has appealed the decision.
Many of the structures destroyed Friday were mobile homes, but sturdier and more expensive homes were damaged, too. The destruction was widespread, but concentrated in pockets; one neighborhood in Lady Lake was in tatters, but less than a mile away, people were golfing on a pristine course Friday afternoon.
The Lady Lake Church of God, built to withstand winds up to 150 miles per hour and used as a shelter in past storms, was leveled.
“That is just the building,” said Larry Lynn, the church’s minister. “The people are the church, and we will be back bigger and stronger.”
For now, he said, Sunday services will take place on the empty lot.
Terry Aguayo, Dennis Blank, Amy Green, Christine Jordan Sexton and Lynn Waddell contributed reporting.
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