PALM BAY – A tornado spawned by rain bands during Hurricane Irma’s approach destroyed six mobile homes Sunday morning near Turkey Creek, police reported.
Lynn and Rodger Grimes were standing on the back porch of their Palm Bay Estates manufactured home when they noticed a noise that sounded somewhat like a train.
“I turned around. I ran into the glass door. I closed it. I said to my husband: ‘Tornado!’” Lynn Grimes said after the squall had passed, standing in front of her damaged home.
“We watched all of the trees back there start to bend. All of a sudden, you saw things flying. We ran into the bathroom. It was fast. It was hard. There was water,” Lynn Grimes said.
“We just put this mobile home in three months ago,” she said, fighting back tears.
The tornado, described as an F0 storm, the lowest on the tornado scale, struck Palm Bay Estates about 11:15 a.m. Sunday. The mobile home park is located off of U.S. 1, roughly midway between Palm Bay Road and Port Malabar Boulevard. The National Weather Service has not yet verified the twister’s strength.
No injuries were reported, said Lt. Mike Bandish, police spokesman.
The mobile homes were damaged during a National Weather Service tornado warning for southern Brevard County. It was one of several: Warnings blared out on cellphones and weather radios throughout the morning as Irma’s approach spun off powerful storms.
“We saw the tornado come in, and it looked like two swirls coming from either side,” Rodger Grimes recalled. “And they kind of converged in the middle and went right over the top of us.”
As a neighbor approached on foot amid the park’s tornado-damage zone along Indian River Drive, Rodger Grimes said, “Bill, you got some bad news, buddy. Your living room’s open to the weather.”
Palm Bay police also reported that another structure – a two-story building behind Ozzie’s Crab House on U.S. 1, had it’s upper floor ripped. The Palm Bay tornado was one of several possible funnel clouds spotted across Brevard. One turned up in a social media post shared by Indialantic Mayor Dave Berkman. The photo, take by Indialantic Police Chief Mike Casey, showed a funnel cloud stretching downward against a backdrop of grey clouds.
Berkman confirmed that tornadoes were spotted and had damaged homes on Avenue B in Melbourne Beach and Fifth Avenue in Indialantic. Power poles received damage, causing many to lose power in the area. He added that many roads had become flooded and were impassable, and he urged residents to stay inside and remain cautious amid the storm.
A possible tornado was being investigated in the Indialantic area.
In Melbourne there were also other reports of traffic lights down and other minor damage.
Palm Bay police officers — about two dozen of them — fanned out along U.S. 1 where several mobile home parks are located to look for other possible damages. They also searched for other residents to evacuate as Irma’s bands swept through. The winds are expected to intensify throughout the afternoon.
by Tyler Vazquez and Rick Neale
Sept 10, 2017
