This weekend marks 16 years since a deadly tornado outbreak ripped through Central Florida, killing more than 40 people. The worst of it tore through Osceola County.
Sandra Osborne, who was living in Kissimmee at the time, recalls what happened, and looks at what the areas hit look like now.
Residents living in Kissimmee's Ponderosa RV Park know the history all too well. The memories of deadly tornadoes ripping through their park still hit close to home.
"That part of what happened to this park will always be here," said Tracie Manchester, a longtime resident of the RV park. "It took out over half of this park and killed quite a few people."
Images taken by News 13 on Feb. 23, 1998 showed RVs on their sides and trailers ripped apart. What once was a community was reduced to a field of debris.
"It was totally just wiped out and devastated," Manchester recalled.
A total of seven tornadoes ripped across east Central Florida from 11 p.m. Feb. 22 through 2:30 a.m. Feb. 23, 1998, killing 42 people and injuring more than 260. Before the Fujita Tornado Damage Scale was enhanced, they ranged from class F1 to F3.
Meanwhile, across the highway, that's where my family stopped just hours before the devastation began. What's now a shopping plaza used to be a gas station. I was with my little brother and my grandmother just about three hours before a tornado touched down and completely ripped apart the place.
We were lucky to have missed the storm. We rode it out not too far away, in a closet. But unfortunately, someone died in that gas station.
Of the 42 deaths, 25 were in Osceola County.
But despite the stories of death and destruction, there were also tales of amazing survival.
"Another trailer was found about 4 miles away off the Florida Turnpike," said Manchester. "A man was found alive about four days later in that one."
Today, 16 years later, the Ponderosa RV Park has been rebuilt, and it's business as usual. But the memories are not left far behind.