Rescue Teams Resume Work in Florida

Wolf · #1 02-03-07, 01:55 PM

Quote:

LADY LAKE, FL - Search and rescue operations resumed amid fresh rain at daybreak Saturday across a swath of central Florida devastated by tornado-bearing thunderstorms that killed at least 20 people

Curfews had been in effect overnight as displaced residents slept in shelters.

The storms struck early Friday, spawning a tornado that ripped roofs and walls off single family homes and threw mobile homes off their foundations.

The twister hit between 3 and 4 a.m., when few people were awake to hear the tornado warnings broadcast just minutes in advance. Few communities in the region have warning sirens.

Gov. Charlie Crist toured the battered areas Saturday as rescue and recovery workers began making rounds in Lady Lake, about 50 miles northwest of Orlando.

"Your heart pours out to the people affected and you want to help," the governor said Saturday.

Thirteen people had been confirmed dead in the Paisley area plus seven in Lady Lake, about 30 miles to the west, emergency officials said. The victims included teenagers and at least one child, according to authorities and witnesses who helped pull bodies from the debris.

State emergency management chief Craig Fugate said determining the exact number of dead could take days, and the priority was finding survivors who may be trapped under rubble.

Rescue workers going house to house searching for survivors found people who awoke to the storm's roar and watched their homes disintegrate around them. Residents talked about rescuing neighbors from the rubble and the roar of the storm.

The wind picked up one tractor-trailer rig and slammed it down on top of another one. A church built to withstand a Category 4 hurricane was destroyed.

Crist, dealing with his first natural disaster since taking office a month ago, said he'd canceled plans to attend the Super Bowl in Miami. "It's more important for me to be in central Florida," he said.

James Pietro, 42, was sleeping inside his RV when the rumble of wind and snapping trees woke him just in time to take cover with his girlfriend beneath their bed.

The RV was lifted into the air and rolled several times, coming to a rest a few feet from a pond, upside down and nearly torn in half. The two came away with only scratches.

"I'm thinking 'God help me.' I was praying, praying hard," Pietro said. "I don't see how I lived."

The Volusia County Property Appraisers Office put preliminary damage estimate at $80 million and said as many as 500 properties were damaged.

The deaths made Friday's tornado the second-deadliest in state history, behind five twisters in February 1998 that killed 42 people in central Florida and damaged or destroyed about 2,600 homes and businesses.

Jason Pawelczyk, 32, said he and his mother took cover in a closet and emerged seconds later to find half his roof gone.

"We finally made it outside, and all you heard was people screaming for each other," he said. "It was pouring rain, flashlights everywhere. All you could see was silhouettes, people yelling for each other. It was crazy."

Living with the thought of tornados must be pretty scary.... :\ It must have been pretty bad too for 20 people to have died.