Communities coming together to clean up after an EF2 tornado rips through Iona

After seeing the most extensive damage in Southwest Florida after Sunday’s storm, the community in Iona is taking the first steps toward recovery. The tornado that touched down there was confirmed to be an EF2, the strongest in six years.

Home after home, roof after roof, were damaged or destroyed by the 118 mile-per-jour winds that spun from the tornado.

Lee Anderson and his family, who live in the Century 21 Mobile Home Park, are okay, but their home is not. “That’s the top of our lanai hang in the tree.”

For most people, the focus of the day after is the clean-up. Anderson is still trying to make sense of what happened Sunday morning.

“If it wasn’t for my daughter, we wouldn’t be here. We got in the middle of the house and hugged and prayed, and it was gone in seconds. But glass all over coverage blown off. An experience I don’t want to experience again. It only lasted seconds but glass was all over it, and where my granddaughter was sleeping there glass all over it. If she was there, it was awful,” said Anderson, who got emotional speaking about how close of a call it was for his family.

Sunday was awful for many families, but Monday is hopeful. Anderson said, “unbelievable that we’re alive. And the people are just phenomenal.”

People like Doug McGregor, “I met him about ten minutes ago.”

McGregor watched as the powerful winds spared his home nearby, so he decided to lend a hand to those not as fortunate. “Watched it come right through. The twirl, the sheet metal, the roofs flying through the air.”

“We gotta do what we gotta do. Gotta help neighbors. It’s better than sitting around in the dark doing nothing when you can help a fellow man. Get their house cleaned up and hopefully get them back to their life,” said McGregor.

Submit