EF0 tornado causes damage and debris in East Naples

In East Naples, all that’s left behind are downed trees, damaged homes and debris after an EF0 tornado swept through.

WINK News anchor Rachel Cox-Rosen went to the Victoria Falls neighborhood to speak to a woman whose 94-year-old mother-in-law was home when the tornado struck. Maria Ramirez saw the downed trees and a neighbor’s shed land in her backyard. But, for her, the most important thing was that her family was safe.

After Sunday morning’s mess, there were welcome signs of normalcy on Monday. Children played amongst the debris left behind from the tornado in East Naples.

Ramirez says she came home to piles of tree branches and a down power pole. “We couldn’t even come through here because there was all the trees on the street,” she said.

As she rushed to get home, all she could think about was her mother-in-law, daughter-in-law and son at home and in the path of a tornado. “We got in the car, and it passed us the tornado passed us on 951,” Ramirez said.

“And when I saw them, I was like ‘oh my God how lucky we are’ thanking God, but we were shaking. We started crying, and we hugged each other because it was just like, ‘oh my God, we went through a lot.’ It could’ve been worse. It could’ve been worse. But thank God, thank God,” said Ramirez.

In Lely Resort, Jean Hartman was hunkered down in an interior bathroom just five minutes away. “And then I heard that little train sound, and it went through really fast, and after a while, everything died down,” said Hartman.

After everything seemed to die down, she risked it and went outside. “I walked around and looked at all the damage, and it was pretty incredible how some houses were totally unscathed, and others had such damage,” Hartman said.

Hartman knows it could have gotten much worse. “Very fortunate, very blessed absolutely. Yeah, because it could’ve been so much worse,” she said.

Everyone Cox-Rosen spoke with is grateful because they realize how much worse this storm could have been.

Some work has already been done to clean up, including tarping roofs and clearing tree branches. While some damage remains, the journey to recovery and putting this community back together has already begun.