Extensive damage done to Placida homes after EF1 tornado

Five tornadoes touched down across Southwest Florida in the span of four hours. Gasparilla Mobile Estates in Placida was one of the hardest-hit areas in Southwest Florida. Nearly one-quarter of the homes there that were under development were destroyed in Sunday’s tornado.

You can see piles of twisted metal lying in the streets. The insides of homes and debris are scattered everywhere.

Douglas Cutler lives in Gasparilla Mobile Estates. “Oh, it’s devastating,” said Cutler.

Cutler has lived in Gasparilla Estates for three years. But he says the sounds he heard Sunday morning were once-in-lifetime and he’ll never forget them . “Started raining, and then heavy rain came through. And then a roar. It was like a train like they say, the train ran through there and then silence,” Cutler said.

Here in Placida, in Charlotte County, an EF1 tornado with 110 mph winds swept through. There are 187 homes in Gasparilla estates and the tornado destroyed 21 of them.

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