LONGWOOD, Fla. — A home collapsed Monday morning in Longwood, in the area where a tornado is confirmed to have touched down. It happened in a neighborhood off Markham Woods Road.
The National Weather Service confirmed that over the course of about five minutes, an EF-1 tornado carved a 1.8-mile path through Seminole County in the Markham Woods Road area.
According to the NWS, the EF-1 tornado, which had wind speeds of 115 mph, briefly strengthened to an EF-2 in the area of Blue Iris Place before downgrading again as it traveled toward the area of I-4 and Skyline Drive.
Severe Weather
- ABOVE: William Ulrich, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service, speaks Monday afternoon about the tornado and damage
- Klystron 13 Radar
- Power outages
- Sky 13 Cameras
Debris is everywhere in Emily Sless’s Markham Woods Road home.
“This is worse than a hurricane,” she said.
Sless is a homeowner in the Whispering Winds neighborhood in Longwood. She has lived there for eight years. Her backyard faces the collapsed home on Blue Iris Place where two people escaped the tornado unscathed.
Sless said her husband and son were home when it all happened.
“You couldn’t even see out the doors, and everything was completely white,” she said.
That’s when she says her husband screamed for her son, who was asleep, to run over and take cover.
John Lanzetti is conducting a damage assessment for homes like Emily’s. He’s on the disaster action team for the greater Orlando chapter of the American Red Cross.
He said the red cross has a “significant operation” going on here.
“We have a whole team standby gearing up for sheltering if we need to have a shelter opened up,” he said.
At least 3,500 people were left without electricity as powerlines and lots of trees were knocked down.
A unified command has been set up with the Seminole County Sheriff's Office and emergency management. Deputies and County Roads and Stormwater crews are also working to clear roadways, while Duke Energy works to restore power.
The county said Building and Emergency Management teams are also assessing the damage and providing tarps to impacted residents at St. Stephen Lutheran Church.
Officials ask residents in the area to stay home and not "sightsee," allowing crews to finish their work. The county also wants to remind people to register for local emergency alerts at prepareseminole.org.
The National Weather Service is also in the field, and released their report Monday afternoon.
