Cleanup continues after tornado wrecks town in Florida
CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WTVD) -- All it took was seven minutes for an EF-2 tornado to touch down and destroy nearly 180 homes in Cape Coral, Fla on Saturday. Personal keepsakes were lost, property was damaged, and debris is still scattered around town.
Marni Sawicki, the mayor of Cape Coral, spoke out after witnessing the devastation. "I feel for our residents, I mean this is a frustrating time... this is their belongings. This is what they've worked their lives for," she said.
The National Weather Service estimates winds reached 132 miles per hour. The storm was on the ground for 3.4 miles before dissipating. More than 100 power poles were knocked down, leaving thousands in the dark.
Governor Rick Scott visited the storm ravaged town Sunday. Scott is pledging to do everything possible to help the community ripped apart by Mother Nature.
"This is a pretty big area it went around," he described. "You see these things like impaled in the garage, and it's pretty scary. It broke all the windows. If somebody would have been outside, it would have killed them."
Damage reports now add up to $5.5 million. To add insult to injury, torrential downpours rained in roofless homes, causing flooding concerns. Power is still out for nearly 200 people.
Jesse Spearo, a spokesperson for the fire and emergency management division says crews are working overtime to help with the cleanup.
"The biggest thing is we want to get everybody back to their homes. We want to get the power back on, the kids back in school."
Despite the damage, no one was injured.
