THE ACREAGE, Fla. —
The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado touched down in the Acreage Monday morning.
The EF-0 traveled 1.5 miles in the Acreage.
Neighbors in the Acreage and Loxahatchee have begun cleaning up after the twister left heavy damage throughout the area.
Lazaro Santos awoke to the sound of his home’s alarm system.
“When the door pushed in, the alarm went off,” Santos said. “It was really windy and within seconds, it was over.”
On his farm off 74th Street and Seminole Pratt Whitney Road, gates were torn down, an entire chicken coop was destroyed and a trailer turned over. The storm damaged a horse carriage, and Santos said that will impact his livelihood, but he’s grateful his family and his animals are OK.
“Considering my kids are fine, my wife is fine, all the neighbors I checked on them at 4:30, we all came out and started surveying the damage, and everybody is fine. That’s what’s important,” Santos said.
Theresa Morrison also lives off 74th Street. She heard her phone’s tornado warning alarm early Monday morning.
“All of a sudden everything went black, and I heard it whoosh up, and I told my son “drop to the floor!” and that’s what we did in the kitchen, we dropped to the floor,” Morrison said.
Morrison’s porch, patio and shed were ripped off her home. In the shed were precious family heirlooms that are now ruined.
“All my parents’ memories, memorabilia and everything like that… I pulled out whatever pictures I could because that’s the most important thing,” Morrison said.
But Morrison said she’s still feeling grateful this morning.
“Blessed, blessed to be alive,” she said.
by Tori Simkovic (2018, May 14) WPBF
