Amid the loud buzzing sound of chainsaws tearing through fallen trees, a Wellington neighborhood is recovering — and rebuilding — a day after at least one tornado ripped through this western Palm Beach County community.
At the Preserve at Binks Forest, where recent homes for sale are being listed for $825,000 and higher, everyone is still shaken by the power of a tornado spawned by Hurricane Milton.
Homeowner Todd Jobin told WLRN he’s grateful to be alive with his family.
“Portions of our garage door went through the house through the sliding glass door and into our backyard,” he said. “If my son had just gotten home right before that hit, he could have actually been in the garage when that happened.”
“We're very thankful that everybody is safe,” Jobin said.
Dillon Metz, a neighbor who lives in the nearby Paddock Park neighborhood, said he was stunned to witness a tornado so near his family’s home.
“ I was not expecting that many tornadoes hitting South Florida, and especially this one that came a couple hundred yards away from our house.”
The residents of the Preserve at Binks Forest and Paddock Park were among the dozens of communities statewide hit by tornadoes spawned by the massive Hurricane Milton.
The tornadoes caught many Floridians by surprise — especially those in South Florida who were 175 miles from where Milton made land.
Violent twisters were seen crossing highways, ripping off roofs and downing trees and power lines.
In St. Lucie County, the tornadoes were deadly.
Five deaths related to tornadoes occurred in the Spanish Lakes Country Club near Fort Pierce, according to authorities. At a White House briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said there were reports of as many as 10 fatalities from tornadoes, but he cautioned that the number was tentative.
READ MORE: Deadly tornadoes spawned by Milton tear across Florida
“Their whole homes with them inside were lifted up, moved, destroyed,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told CNN. “I mean everything in the hurricane or this tornado’s path is gone,” including a 10,000 square-foot, facility used to keep the sheriff’s office emergency vehicles and equipment.
Debbie Jones told the Associated Press she felt a drop in pressure and her ears popping in the Holiday Pines neighborhood of Ft. Pierce, and immediately knew it was a tornado.
“All of a sudden, the power went out. I started hearing the wind pick up and debris start hitting very loudly. So I cranked the hurricane shutters shut and bolted out of there with them,” said Megan Brown, whose boyfriend is Jones’ son. The family barricaded together with their four dogs in the back of the house away from windows.
In all, there have been 38 preliminary eyewitness reports of tornadoes in Florida since Wednesday night, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Storm Prediction Center. The state sees 50 tornadoes on average total in a whole year.
The number confirmed is expected to rise over the coming days as damaged sites are assessed.
“Certainly that will be a notable part of this storm, was how many tornadoes occurred within such a short period,” said Matthew Elliott, warning coordination meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Center.
Eyewitness reports came as the National Weather Service issued 126 tornado warnings Wednesday in the state.
The ferocity of the twisters was also an unusual aspect of Milton.
“It’s definitely out of the ordinary,” said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini. “Hurricanes do produce tornadoes, but they’re usually weak. What we saw today was much closer to what we see in the Great Plains in the spring.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
