Florida, how are you?

[maxandgeorgia]

We have many forum members living in Florida, and if you've heard the news this morning, you know that an area north of Orlando just had devastating weather, probably a tornado, with loss of lives and property. This brings our thoughts and prayers for the safety and wellbeing of everyone in that area, especially for any of our forum members who may have been caught in this. When it's possible for them, I hope we hear how they've come through. With concern, ~G

[balrgn]

Too Early in the season to start having this happen! Hope all is well.......

[rickandsandi]

To Florida Friends and Members. I realize that if have been hit by any of the worse weather you are not reading this thread in a timely manner. With that said, those of us here hope that you are all well and unharmed.

Rick

[SwampBillies]

Every thing is good here in the Plant City area. We are between Tampa and Orlando. Just had some rain, nothing out of the ordinary.

[Happycampers]

We are here in Arcadia.. just lots of heavy rain this am .. put down the awning early this am... some streets in town were flooded this am... clearing now... still very overcast

[Pick]

No problems here in the Gainesville area that I am aware of. We got quite a bit of rain last night, but it is welcome, as we had a very dry year here. Santa Fe and Suwannee rivers are very low, as are most of the springs.

[safari25-05]

We are about a 1/2 mile from all the damage, it is really bad in the Villages. So far 13 deaths, so sad. We heard all the noise, but..we just had winds and rain. We pray for all those affected by the tornado..

[vonkamp]

All okay in north Florida. I do have some friends in the affected area though. When I saw Fox news this morning< I got on the phone. It took a few hours to get thru to them and they are okay but sustained some damage. I may go down there with my chainsaw & generator this weekend. Right now they are telling everyone to stay away and let the rescue crews work. The news is saying the best help right now would be a donation to the Red Cross.

[clancy_boy]

Originally Posted by safari25-05

We are about a 1/2 mile from all the damage, it is really bad in the Villages. So far 13 deaths, so sad. We heard all the noise, but..we just had winds and rain. We pray for all those affected by the tornado..

Is the "Villages" that retirement community I see advertised on the TV all the time?

[Minnie's Mate]

Originally Posted by clancy_boy

Is the "Villages" that retirement community I see advertised on the TV all the time?

Yes.

My mom lives on the other side of HWY. 41 from safari25-05 and I spoke with her this morning. She said she, too, could hear the tornadoes. Yes, they were tornadoes. At that time she knew of 6 deaths. safari25-05 and my mom don't actually live in "The Villages". Their neighborhoods start at the county line where The Villages end. The Villages were developed by a single developer, IIRC. My mom's neighborhood was developed by Del Webb, developer of all of the "Sun City" retirement communities. Not sure about safari25-05's neighborhood.

Anyway, as it turns out, some neighborhoods in The Villages are mobile home parks with the mobile homes permanently located on permanent foundations. Some, IIRC, are a combination of mobile home and stick built. Anyway, according to the Weather Channel, the area hit hardest was the mobile home neighborhoods. You know what they say about mobile home parks and tornadoes!

Anyway, these people that are affected are all senior citizens. You have to be 55 or older to buy a home (when they are new) in these neighborhoods. To loose your home at that age, and in many cases, everything you own must be devastating. On the weather channel they interviewed one lady who was able to make it to their walk-in closet and her husband was knocked down on the floor outside the closet. She said the closet door came crashing down on top of her and then the roof was ripped off above her. That door may have saved her life. I didn't get to watch long enough to see if her husband was hurt. My mom said a friend went to check on one of his friends in one of the neighborhoods that was hit and the lady had no warning. She was in bed and she was awoke by the room being shaken and her being nearly bounced off the bed. She grabbed onto the mattress and held on for dear life as the roof of her home was ripped off. My mom's friend said the lady holding onto the mattress probably kept her from being sucked up off the bed by the tornado when the roof went.

I'm just glad my mother and a sister that lives in Leesburg some 17 miles away are OK and didn't have any injuries or damages. My sister said a pot on her patio was blown over and that was all of her damages. These are the times I would not want to be full-timing.

[dbradhstream]

I'm in Orlando - my office overlooks I-4 - and traffic has been a mess all day, I think partly because of the destruction and accidents east of here around Deland. I've heard that the speculation is that there were about 3 tornados through Deland/Lady Lake that all took approximately the same path, causing just unbelievable damage - a pretty wide swath. Latest death toll I heard was 19. Just awful ... One survivor that was interviewed on the local news this morning said when it came through his neighborhood it was all over with in about 10 seconds. Unbelievable.