Tornado watch, wind advisory issued for South Florida
After nearly 24 hours watching the sky under tornado alerts from the National Weather Service in Miami — prompted by at least one damaging twister in Palm Beach County — South Florida residents emerged Sunday afternoon to sunny skies and an optimistic forecast.
The National Weather Service in Miami gave the all-clear sign at around 1 p.m. as the last of the storms pushed offshore. It also revised its original assessment of the Saturday evening tornado that menaced Palm Beach Gardens, saying on Sunday that it was more powerful than they thought.
The NWS predicted most of the region would experience breezy, sunny skies for the rest of Sunday as a cold front approaches the area, bringing with it overnight lows in the upper 50s inland and mid 60s near the coast.
Beginning with a cooler, drier Monday, the chance of rain is near 0% through midweek, the NWS said.
The improved weather was also critical to residents and business owners in the Palm Beach Gardens area who spent Sunday trying to salvage belongings from structures damaged by rain and powerful winds.
Delayed for two hours, the Fort Lauderdale Air Show began flying shortly after 2 p.m.
The entire South Florida region spent much of Sunday under a tornado watch, remnants of a system that spawned at least one tornado in Palm Beach County Saturday night, flipping cars off the roadway and tearing the roof from an apartment complex.
The damaging twister touched down in Palm Beach Gardens a little after 5 p.m. Saturday, leaving dazed and displaced residents and business owners in its wake.
Originally categorized on Saturday night as “at least” an EF-1 tornado of 100 mph, the weather service on Sunday revised its report, saying a damage survey indicated a more powerful EF-2 twister with peak winds estimated at 130 mph.
The NWS said the tornado rumbled through the area for 2.61 miles and was 320 yards wide, touching down just east of I-95 and passing south of Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center. Its north-northeast path took it to the intersection of PGA Boulevard and U.S. 1, then up U.S. 1 north before dying out short of Juno Beach.
The tornado was on the ground for 11 minutes, from 5:10 to 5:21 p.m., according to the NWS. It turned over cars, stripped bark from trees, shattered windows, sent a 3-inch-diameter tree branch through the metal roof of one residence and left a concrete electrical pole leaning.
Peak strength was reached as it spun through the Sanctuary Cove community, the NWS said, then hopped the North Palm Beach Waterway, destroyed a dry cleaners and tossed cars around like toys at the intersection of U.S. 1 and PGA Boulevard.
Zach Means was with his dog, Marlin, and approaching the intersection when the powerful winds lifted his car into the air.
“I could see a transformer popping, [then] it flipped my car. I was on the southbound side [of the road] and ended up on the northbound side,” he said on Sunday. Miraculously, Means and Marlin were unhurt.
The purple bungalow that John Riendeau was renting on the Intracoastal took a direct hit. He was at a friend’s house when his landlord called to tell him, “basically your house is gone.”
Riendeau spent Sunday morning salvaging belongings at the Melody Lane home, its roof peeled back like a tin can to reveal gray sky overhead.
“Fortunately I wasn’t home. I have a 3-year-old son, luckily he wasn’t there,” Riendeau said.
Dozens of cars and businesses along A1A and PGA Boulevard had their windows blown out.
Part of the roof was sheared off by Saturday’s tornado at the three-story Sanctuary Cove Apartments, two blocks south of PGA Boulevard.
“We were in the laundry room. The building was shaking, just like they say, a train coming,” said resident Patricia Colby on Sunday.
Colby was waiting in a park next door until law enforcement would allow her to remove belongings from her second-floor apartment.
“The police won’t let us in. The roof is off [and] it can collapse into the second floor,” she said.
Early Sunday, Todd Vidgen and his son Zeph, 12, were helping Gardens resident Manuel Clemente clear downed trees from his property.
“With a hurricane we have days of warning, but this came up all of the sudden,” said Clemente, whose wife hurt her knee during Saturday’s storm. She was treated at a hospital.
At The Point at Palm Beach Gardens, a five-story apartment complex at 2100 PGA Blvd., a few cars could been seen Sunday stacked on top of each other and tarps covered dozens of broken windows.
The surrounding area on Sunday was littered with broken pieces of red roof tiles, and tall oaks and palm trees were snapped like twigs.
One video shared on social media depicts a golf course with a tornado passing through in the distance.
Staff reporter Shira Moolten contributed to this report.
Source: South Florida Sun Sentinel
