ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — With 155 mph winds, an EF3 tornado took the lives of six people when it ripped through the Spanish Lakes Country Club community in St. Lucie County on Oct. 9.
Yet one survivor, buried among the rubble for nearly a day, will forever remain in Vaughn Yarnal's mind: a rottweiler named Sheba.
"It's definitely something that I'll never forget," Yarnal said.
Yarnal, an air and marine operations agent with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was taken off guard when Hurricane Milton spawned an unprecedented number of tornadoes across Florida.
"I remember that night we were getting the alerts on our phone, 'Tornado,' 'Tornado,' and didn't really think much of it at all. And I was not affected personally, thank God," Yarnal said. "But we had some text messages and communications from our other law enforcement partners that some tornadoes had struck a community in Spanish Lakes, and that they were looking for survivors."
He and his colleagues helped in recovery efforts the next day.
"We got out there first thing in the morning and joined up with St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office and started," Yarnal said. "It was an active search and rescue mission at that point."
Yarnal said when he first entered the community, the devastation was unlike anything he had ever seen before.
"Just seeing the rubble of the houses and trailers that were damaged. It just looked like a bomb went off. I mean, it was just debris scattered everywhere, just trailers, houses leveled, trailers that were in one location, and then, you know, 100 yards away from that location," Yarnal said. "It was pretty nuts."
Yarnal said he and other first responders were searching the rubble of one particular mobile home that was thrown about 100 yards, landing completely upside down.
That mobile home happened to be the home of Alejandro Alonso and Mary Grace Viramontez, both of whom lost their lives during the tornado.
Region St Lucie County
'He loved everybody:' Grandson of tornado victim shares grandfather's legacy
"We're climbing on the rubble, looking around, trying to pull stuff apart, to look underneath what was the trailer," Yarnal said. "As we're moving stuff, looking underneath a gap, we saw what looked like— at first, it just looked like a blanket or something. But then we realized, 'Oh, wait a second, is that a dog?' And it was. We saw its chest going up and down, and it was breathing."
Yarnal said at that point it sunk in: the dog had survived.
"It was just lying there, and you could see it was breathing pretty rapidly, and it was just wild, because this is, you know, 12 hours later after it happened," Yarnal said.
Yarnal said he and the other first responders immediately sprang into action to get the dog out of the rubble safely. The got a muzzle from FEMA in case it was injured and in pain.
"We didn't know if it was going to bite us or not, so put the muzzle on him. Once we had the muzzle on him, we were able to pull him out, and it was a bigger dog. It was a big Rottweiler," Yarnal said. "So we were able to pull him out, and we lifted him up together, and then we were trying to walk him out."
Yarnal said it was a challenging task: the rubble was wet and slippery, and it wasn't easy navigating through all the debris without losing his footing and falling.
"So, I gently put him down, and he looked up at me, and then, you know, I started walking him, and he was perfectly fine. I mean, it's absolutely amazing," Yarnal said. "This dog, underneath the rubble, there was about, like, maybe, a half of a foot of clearance ... where he was pinned at the trailer. He couldn't get out. There was no way. But there was enough room, I guess, to where he wasn't damaged at all. It was just absolutely amazing."
That dog, Sheba, is one of two Alonso had at the time of the tornado.
Yarnal said he gave Sheba to one of the neighbors who said he was going to contact Alonso's grandson, Victor Linero, who WPTV reporter Kate Hussey spoke to soon after the tornadoes hit.
"The grandson was contacted, and came in there, grabbed the dog," Yarnal said. "I saw they had an emotional moment, and it just felt good to know that that dog was actually going somewhere after that."
Yarnal said the rescue will stick with him forever.
"Yeah, I'm glad that, you know, it didn't feel like we were making much of a difference at all, just looking through the debris, not finding much, but at least, you know, we were able to pull a dog out that's alive and give him to his family," Yarnal said. "If that's something for (the grandson), then that makes us feel really good, so that's awesome."
Yarnal said he considered adopting Sheba himself before the dog was reunited with Linero.
"It was such a special moment. I was like, 'Man, should I take this dog home?' Like, I was concerned [the dog wouldn't have a home]. But, it went to the grandson, so perfect."
Click here to learn more about Alonso's story.
Click here to learn more about Viramontez's story.
