PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. —Some of the damage from Saturday’s tornado, which had winds of more than 100 miles per hour, is now clearer.
In Palm Beach Gardens, the scene in a parking lot on Ellison Wilson Road, south of PGA Blvd., is shocking. You can see where the storm picked up a car like it was a toy and flipped it up in the air. It fell nose down, leaning against another car and a dumpster.
This shows how scary and strong the storm was.
As the tornado headed toward Palm Beach Gardens and North Palm Beach, people caught it on video with their cell phones. They watched in shock as the tornado ripped through the area with strong winds and a lot of rain. The National Weather Service says that it hit on Saturday at 5:10 p.m.
“It was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever been through,” said Claire Smith, a homeowner who was outside looking at her house and the tree branches that were all over the place.
Smith can’t believe that her two-story condo in Palm Beach Gardens’ Sandalwood Estates is still standing.
Smith said, “I knew it was a tornado when the trees started to shake and everything started blowing around and everything on my patio went flying.”
Huge trees were knocked over by the tornado in the Sandalwood Estates neighborhood, and some of the wooden fences that surround the patios of the residents were injured.
Crews with wood chippers moved quickly into the area to get rid of the tree branches and stumps.
Trees fell on top of cars because of the storm.
“I was cleaning upstairs when all of a sudden I heard this noise. I looked out the window, and it seemed to be coming right at me. Janet Widman, who has lived in the Sandalwood Estates neighborhood for 30 years, said, “It was just unbelievable.”
At the HMY Yacht Club on Monet Road in Palm Beach Gardens, the storm damaged boats by picking them up and throwing them into the air.
The National Weather Service says that the tornado had winds of 130 miles per hour and cut a path that was more than 2.5 miles long and more than 3 football fields wide.
The National Weather Service in Miami says that the tornado was there for about 11 minutes.
“What we’ve seen is destruction, but we’re very lucky that no one died, and from what I’ve heard, only one person was taken away by ambulance,” said Maria Marino, Palm Beach County Commissioner, District 1. Palm Beach Gardens is in her district.
People came to see the storm damage and take pictures. Some of them were shocked by what the tornado had done.
“That’s not something you see every day. Edward Thomas, who lives in Juno Beach and stopped to take pictures of storm damage on Ellison Wilson Road, said, “It’s a mess!”
