PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Across our viewing area, we saw so many lives changed in seconds during Wednesday's tornado outbreak.
One of those tornadoes was so powerful that it tossed a giant dumpster — which typically weighs a couple of tons — onto the roof of a home in the Avenir community of Palm Beach Gardens.
The owner of the home, John Ventrella, said the dumpster was located three houses down, but the fierce winds of the storm picked it up, tossing it like a Frisbee and depositing it onto his roof.
At the time of the storm, Ventrella and his wife, Bonnie, were trying to move into their new home. They were painting walls and decorating when Ventrella said he heard a loud noise.
"When we saw it, it was stunning," Ventrella said. "When we saw (the tornado) coming at our backdoor, it was just mesmerizing. You got frozen for a second just looking at this funnel [cloud]."
After the storm, he was shocked by the damage.
WATCH BELOW: Video of the destruction in the Avenir community
"We looked up and the dumpster [was] sticking into the room," Ventrella said. "It's crazy. We couldn't believe what we were looking at."
Crews were able to get the dumpster off his roof.
Ventrella said he's facing a hurricane deductible of $24,000, but he said he and his wife are just happy to be alive.
Before the dumpster landed on Ventrella's roof, it was swirling around and also smashed into a neighbor's home, taking out a corner of that house.
Multiple homes in the recently constructed Avenir community were damaged by the EF3 tornado, which the National Weather Service estimated had winds of 140 mph.
The storm left broken windows and pieces of debris scattered across the neighborhood.
Many residents of the area told WPTV they had moved in within the last two weeks.
Despite the destruction, no one in this community was killed by the tornado.
