Last Tuesday night (10/18), shortly after 10pm, an EF-2 (estimated winds 120-130 mph) tornado tore through our neighborhood. Everyone in my family are ok, and there were only minor injuries to a few of my neighbors. My parents' house suffered only minor damage(downed tree, fence, broken window, small roof leak, dented cars). Some of our neighbors were not so lucky, having their homes completely totaled.
It happened very quickly. There was a tornado warning on TV about 30 minutes before it happened, but living in Florida you tend to ignore them because they are somewhat frequent. My father and I were watching TV together when the power suddenly cut to our house (typical during a Florida thunderstorm). 10 seconds later we started hear a loud rushing sound. My father quickly recognized it as a tornado and we ran into the hallway (interior of the house) as we screamed our heads off trying to alert my mother who was in her bedroom having no clue what was going on. We all down on the floor in the hallway, covering our heads with our hands. The rushing sound turned into a high pitched whistling sound. That was the signature freight train sound that seemed like it came straight out of a movie. I personally thought it sounded a bit more like a super loud boiling kettle. Then it suddenly passed. This all took place in only a minute.
It's kind of amazing, the way the damaged was so targeted. One house is completely destroyed, then two houses over it's like nothing happened.
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Full Album of my pics:
Photo Album - Imgur
Some selected pictures:
Downed 60-70 ft mango tree in our backyard, that survived both hurricanes Andrew and Wilma
Neighbors house that was completely destroyed. This was a 2-story house. This house is under 500 ft away from ours.
Another destroyed house in my neighborhood. That orange piece of paper in the doorway is a condemnation notice. There are 6 houses in my neighborhood that have been condemned.
