WELLINGTON, Fla. — While many in our five-county area are picking up the pieces left behind by last week’s storms, local leaders are starting to plot the storms’ paths.
WPTV’s Michael Hoffman walks us through the paths of the terrible twisters.
“The extent of the damage here in a short amount of time in a concentrated area is unlike anything we’ve seen,” said Wellington Village Manager Jim Barnes.
Wellington Village Manager Jim Barnes shows the mapped path of an EF3 tornado. The 20-mile track, with 140 mph winds, ripped through Wellington, Loxahatchee, Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter.
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“To see that damage and to understand that there were people in the vicinity of that damage, it’s difficult to comprehend how somebody, or others, were not more seriously injured or, worse case, fatally injured,” said Barnes.
The WPTV First Alert weather team has been hard at work plotting the latest on six other tornadoes we saw in our area. From an EF1 and EF2 in Stuart ripping through the Mariner Sands community, to three EF0s hitting Dixie Ranch Acres in Okeechobee, to a devastating 21-mile EF3 cutting through Lakewood Park claiming six lives in the Spanish Lakes community.
“All in all, at least 8 to 900 structures that have some impact,” said George Landry, St Lucie County’s administrator.
It’s something Chief Meteorologist Steve Weagle has never seen before.
“It’s incredible,” said Weagle.
He’s been forecasting weather in South Florida for 30 years, and walks us through the unprecedented nature of the tornadoes.
“In this case we had conditions similar to what they see in the Midwest,” said Weagle. “It’s what we call a dry line. It’s just dry air that’s getting sucked into the center of the hurricane and it enhances all the dynamics for stronger storms and longer track storms. Some of these tornadoes were on the ground 15 to 20 miles, which is unheard of here.”
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20 homes in Wellington sustained major damage from tornado
Lives will be forever changed now that homes, lives and dreams have been reduced to piles of rubble as the clean up and further recovery enter into the eighth day.
