NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla. — A resident of the Harbour Point neighborhood in North Palm Beach is now recovering in the hospital after, his wife said, the winds from Saturday's tornado threw him off their back patio when it tore through the community.
Mariana Brenizer told WPTV her husband, John Brenizer, is now recovering at St Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach in serious but stable condition. She said her husband is awake and will be OK, but his recovery is going to be a long one.
Brenizer said her husband when out to their back patio Saturday when the tornado was approaching to secure their outdoor furniture and take down their umbrella's when the wind picked ripped him off the patio and catapulted him into a pile of debris.
"I'm feeling devastated," said Brenizer. "I watched and I saw everything that happened, it was so quick, in front of my eyes. I saw my husband flying everywhere with the boats and the pots and the tables, and I want to help, but he screamed to me, 'Don't come out.' And when I came out, I just find him over there, like all blood all over his body."
Brenizer called 911 and told her husband to hang on.
"I just told him not to die, because if he's in the water, that's it, there's nothing you can do," Brenizer said.
"What's going through your mind in that moment?" asked WPTV's Kate Hussey.
"At that moment, I screamed. I screamed for help," she said.
While the tornado may have passed and the cleanup is now underway, for Brenizer and her husband, the storm is far from over.
"He's not doing good. We don't know what's going to happen to him," Brenizer said, adding that her husband has bruises all over his body. She also said when she first saw him, she believed he had broken bones all over because of the blood.
Brenizer also said she's hanging on to the hope that the pieces of their lives can be put back together.
"I am hopeful, yes," she said. "I believe in God, and I thank God that he is going to bring him back."
Brenizer also said she is thankful for the many neighbors who have come with meals, prayers and support to help her pick up the pieces.
