At least four people have been confirmed dead in St. Lucie County, Florida, after a series of tornadoes brought by Hurricane Milton ripped through a senior community and surrounding areas on Wednesday. The tornadoes left tracks of devastating destruction in the Spanish Lakes Country Club Village in Fort Pierce, damaging hundreds of homes, leaving residents trapped under debris.
According to St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson, the destruction level was unprecedented: “They didn’t stand a chance. Everything in the tornado’s path is just devastated.” National Guard members and police officers are working their way through piles of rubble, now that rescue teams have joined the search and rescue missions in the worst-hit areas. More than 300 responders have already been deployed in rescue work.
Exactly how many people remain trapped is not known; however, Pearson said all resources are being used to locate and rescue as many survivors as possible. “We’re going door-to-door, doing everything possible to ensure that no one is left behind,” he said.
Several destroyed buildings stand in a row, one of them 10,000 square feet, and which was part of the sheriff’s office. A tornado had reduced the office facility to rubble. People were lucky no one was inside when the tornado struck. Sheriff Pearson was visibly shaken as he was going through the place to see the devastation caused by the devastating storm. He said he has never seen anything this bad in his 21 years of service to the county.
Hurricane Milton made land near Siesta Key as a Category 3 storm Wednesday night, and the Category 3 storm brought mayhem throughout Florida, overrun more than 3 million with power outage. Since then, the system has weakened to a Category 1, moving off the east coast of Florida, but its influence remains, especial in places where storm surges and flooding easily take place.
Over a dozen tornadoes struck the state in a 20-minute period, said a report from the St. Lucie County Emergency Operations Center. Spanish Lakes, a modular home community, was among the places with the worst damage. Two people were reported dead, after a tornado crushed a home. In another, a couple only narrowly escaped when they moved to a nearby house with a generator just before a second tornado hit.
Rescue workers suspended their efforts overnight because of severe weather, but resumed their work Thursday morning. St. Lucie County spokesman Erick Gill confirmed the death toll but declined to give details regarding the victims in the senior mobile home community.
The governor, Ron DeSantis, said at a news briefing on Wednesday night that 19 tornadoes touched ground in the state, which was a trigger for over 100 tornado warnings. A twister had touched down in western Broward County but failed to unleash real damage or injury in the area.
As of this today, the extent of the damage continues to be monitored; however, search and recovery efforts are being led by teams consisting of Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Florida Highway Patrol, and state wildlife officials.
As Florida starts to recover from the effects of Hurricane Milton and the tornadoes it brought, authorities advised residents to remain indoors while allowing first responders to complete their work. Governor DeSantis said that everything is being done to provide assistance and relief to the communities.
The recovery path for the residents of St. Lucie County has just started to unfold, just as the full impact of Hurricane Milton continues to unfold.
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