Recovery efforts are underway in western Palm Beach County after Hurricane Milton spawned a series of tornadoes that ravaged nearly 150 homes in the Village of Wellington, where garages collapsed, roofs ripped off and even a car flipped and crashed into a house.
“It looks like a bomb went off,” Wellington Mayor Michael Napoleone told WLRN.
“You've got windows blown out. You've got roofs torn open. You've got piles everywhere. You've got impact windows that failed,” he said.
The removal of construction and vegetation debris, like downed 30-year-old trees, is in progress but officials say there are challenges posed by the lack of equipment.
Wellington City Manager Jim Barnes, in a Facebook statement, said the village is "competing with the rest of the state for recovery equipment.”
READ MORE: Tornado spawned by Hurricane Milton ravaged homes in Wellington
Barnes said Wellington is operating with six tri-axle dump trucks, supported by a loader and skid-steer. Napoleone said they “don't have as much as we had hoped for,” but that it should be enough, for now, until officials secure additional equipment this week.
“We contract with outside private vendors because we don't have enough equipment on hand all the time to deal with the disasters that hit us because we live in South Florida,” Napoleone said.
“So we have contractors on board who have bigger and different equipment than we have to come in and help us with the process.”
Wellington’s public works team is responsible for removing all debris from their streets, roadways, and public areas within private neighborhoods. In all, he said it should take roughly two weeks to clear all of the construction and vegetation debris.
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 landfall.
In St. Lucie County, the tornadoes were deadly, with confirmed five deaths related to tornadoes. No deaths and injuries were reported in Wellington.
Wellington is working with multiple agencies
Napoleone said the tornado left a 21-mile track of destruction. Many residents in Wellington have been displaced since the storm, with more than 20 homes inhabitable after suffering severe structural damage.
Today, Wellington established a one-day, multi-agency resource center at the gym at to help residents impacted by the storm.
Representatives include the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA, American Red Cross, the School District and several nonprofits.
Napoleone said Wellington will likely add more days for the resource center in the upcoming weeks.
In the meantime, he’s requesting residents to “keep their debris in separate piles, keep your vegetation debris separate from your construction debris, and separate from your other, your household waste” because emergency personnel “can't bring mixed debris to the dump site and take it to solid waste.”
“We will get to everything, eventually,” he said.
