Two full days later, the shock had passed. Hundreds of Palm Beach County storm victims are busy surveying the damage and beginning reconstruction following an F3 tornado that ripped over Wellington, the Loxahatchee area, and Palm Beach Gardens.
The storm directly damaged a brand-new Publix store in that city’s Avenir development, set to open in three weeks. It blasted a massive hole in the roof and also destroyed the foundation. It’s a total loss, and Palm Beach Gardens city authorities told us that the structure must be dismantled and reconstructed from scratch.
“You know, you just don’t think it will happen to you, and not here, we don’t have these kinds of tornadoes,” Melody Russell told me. The tornado hit her house on the side. Her area was like a battle zone, with large trees split in half and automobiles thrown around like toy cars.
“The power went out, and it was just like you see in the movies, like the whole house was shaking and I was screaming, so I don’t remember the sound, but my family says it was deafening, like a train, and then you could tell that it passed over us because everything just stopped,” Russell told me. The extent of devastation in the tornado’s path was unexpected because they were not inside the hurricane cone.
Raj Belanger, a firefighter with Hialeah Fire-Rescue, returned home after work to find something he would ordinarily see on the job. His roof was shattered, windows were blown out, and vehicles were totaled. The tornado passed over his house. “I don’t believe we were even under a hurricane watch or warning; I think we were in tropical storm watch or warning, but yeah, tornadoes, you hear about ’em all the time on the TV, and you hope that you’re not affected, but when they do hit they beat you up pretty good,” Belanger told the audience. His home has a leaking roof, no electricity, and no water. I asked Belanger if it was an emotional situation.
“Yeah, when I got home, my wife called me when I rolled up Wednesday evening. It’s just that shock people talk about. You can’t soak it all in immediately,” he told me. Belanger is now in recovery mode, as is everyone else who was hit by the tornado. It’s challenging physically and emotionally to recover after being pounded so hard.
