Tess Bentley knew the high-pitched whine that woke her early Saturday was a tornado. She took two steps and dived into her bedroom closet full of clothes.
Within seconds, Bentley, 48, and her two-bedroom house were spinning in the air. She was still in her closet when her home landed upside down on top of a neighbor’s house about 50 yards away.
More than 100 homes were damaged by the tornado that tore through the Lake Region Mobile Village, a retirement community 35 miles southwest of Orlando. The twister–part of a series of storms that swamped Florida’s Gulf Coast–left four residents hospitalized, but none of the injuries was life-threatening. Bentley suffered only bumps and bruises.
The storms destroyed 53 mobile homes in Haines City and severely damaged another 10 in nearby Winter Haven, said a Polk County emergency services official.
Fire rescue crews used rubber boats to evacuate frail and elderly residents at a mobile home park in Clearwater.
In the Tampa Bay area, homes, businesses and intersections in low-lying areas were flooded up to 4 feet deep because Saturday’s storms followed three days of rain.
