DEEP CREEK — A tornado spawned by a fast-moving squall blew through a Deep Creek neighborhood at about 5:40 a.m. Friday. It blew a gaping hole in an elderly man’s rooftop and brought a drywall ceiling down on top of another family that was cowering together in bed.
“Thankfully, no one got a scratch,” said Dee Hawkins, spokeswoman for Charlotte County Fire/EMS.
In several locations, the storm twisted off pieces of soffit and facia and found its way in under the eaves. It then blasted sheets of plywood off the rooftops or knocked the ceiling down.
At a house on Nuremburg Boulevard, the twister even lifted the entire roof up a tad and set it back down — all while 80-year-old George Dudley was lying awake in bed.
Firefighters subsequently found a telltale crack surrounding the ceiling that was serious enough to render the house unsafe, Hawkins said.
Dudley recalled being awakened by heavy rain and heavy wind.
“Then it looked like a big blast, like somebody set off a cannon in the middle of the street,” he said. He figured the blast was a power transformer blowing up.
“I didn’t think there was damage to the house,” he said. “I thought I was going back to sleep.”
Within minutes, however, firefighters were knocking to alert him his that roof and bay window had been blown out.
Dudley’s neighbor, Kathy Gill, offered to let him stay at her house until an insurance adjuster was to arrive Friday afternoon. The Charlotte County chapter of the American Red Cross, which dispatched nine relief workers to the area, also was arranging a hotel room for Dudley, according to Bonnie Jacobs, Red Cross manager.
Asked if he felt lucky, Dudley replied, “No, very unlucky, I would say. “Keep me in your prayers,” he added.
County Emergency Management Director Wayne Sallade said his staff emailed photos of the damage to the National Weather Service in Ruskin. Based on the photos, a meteorologist concluded the house had been struck by an EF-1 tornado, with winds from 90-105 mph, Sallade said.
The tornado also hit a condominium unit a few blocks away on Royal Tern Street, in the Heritage Lakes complex. Resident Jada Webb said her son climbed onto to the foot of her bed after hearing what sounded “like a freight train.”
“At about 5:40 a.m., my ceiling fell down on top of us,” she said. “My son was screaming. He had some white stuff in his mouth (from the insulation). He was choking on the foam.”
The twister also blew a few sheets of plywood off at Corner Store at Rio de Janeiro and Rampart boulevards. Owner Sandip Patel quickly summoned roofers to patch up the damage. That gave him time to chat with customers about the harrowing storm.
“Ain’t nothing you can do to change it,” Patel said. “You might as well smile.”
Email: gmartin@sun-herald.com
