PALM BEACH GARDENS, FLA. (WSVN) - Following Hurricane Milton‘s path of destruction in Florida, residents and cleanup crews assessed tornado damage in Palm Beach Gardens.
7Skyforce on Thursday hovered over a neighborhood in the area of 87th Street North and Coconut Road Drive, where some homes were damaged and debris was scattered after Milton made landfall on Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm.
“Here’s what’s left of somebody’s place here. May have been a shed,” said 7SkyForce reporter’ Ralph Rayburn.
In someone’s front yard, there was a trailer that was flipped on its side.
Several cleanup crews were at the scene and used heavy equipment to clear out the debris and trees that fell over.
Overnight, confirmed tornadoes touched down in the area.
Surveillance video shared with 7News shows a tornado ripping through the back of a home in the area and ripping apart the family’s back porch. And just as fast as it touched down, it was gone in under 35 seconds.
In North Lake Boulevard, the roof of a Publix that was being built at a shopping center partially collapsed.
“You can see, there’s brand-new trees in the parking lot that have come down. They just re-striped and paved everything here. So, it looks like it’s just getting open,” said Rayburn.
The police department used the shopping center parking lot as their base of operations as cleanup continues in the area.
The shopping center and homes around it are part of a new development that was in the process of being built.
Across the street from the construction, a home was shredded by the storm as parts of it were spread all over the yard.
Cars and trucks nearby were badly damaged as well.
“You can see vehicles flipped on their side, some of them up against the house there. Fences are all gone,” said Rayburn.
In a nearby neighborhood, a car was seen upside down and against a garage door after the severe winds threw the vehicle against it.
The car belongs to a woman who left the west coast of Florida to ride out the storm in Wellington thinking it would be more safe.
“Naples, Naples. To stay with us to avoid the hurricane that was coming through. Unfortunately, her car blew up towards the garage,” said Yvonne Nesbeth, who witnessed the tornado.
Nesbeth and her family were picking up the pieces left behind from the tornado and recounted their scary moment.
“They ran and grabbed the baby, and we all hunkered down in our bathroom,” said Nesbeth. “And he just said, ‘Down, down,’ and we stayed down, and we just heard ‘woosh, woosh!'” she said.
No one was hurt in the home.
“Our lives are spared. Thank God,” said Nesbeth.
7News cameras captured an industrial dumpster on top of someone’s roof after the winds picked it up as well.
Residents continue to clean up with front-end loaders and other construction equipment and wonder how to move forward from the destruction.
Another resident said he was thankful he was OK.
“My mind went out of control, I can’t believe it. I thank God we are OK, we are OK,” said Romero Pedro.
“I was pretty scared, I just went into my parents’ closet,” said a young man.
Some residents were relieved to see the sunshine on Thursday, as they were worried about further damage to their homes from potential rainfall after Milton.
But not all were safe. As of 10 p.m., at least 14 people were confirmed statewide due to Hurricane Milton.
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