NWS surveys tornado damage as Lee County residents share their loss

The National Weather Service got a firsthand look at what people in one Lee County neighborhood have been dealing with for a week.

WINK News anchor Annette Montgomery and meteorologist Lauren Kreidler are providing team coverage to bring you reactions from the Orangewood community and explanations of what the NWS is looking for when evaluating potential tornado damage between Orangewood and Tufts avenues.

The NWS described the tornado as pretty strong, as evidenced by the damage on Barb and John Kelly’s property.

The 81-year-old couple have lived in this community for 52 years and have never seen damage like this.

The debris is everywhere, everything from ladders to roofs lying behind their house because of a tornado that swept through the area. The couple said 90% of the things in the yard aren’t even theirs.

Although the damage looks bad, it pales compared to what they lost right in front of their home.

The Kellys were inside the home they’ve lived in for 52 years when the tornado ripped through Fort Myers, here and gone in 12 seconds.

“I was sitting in here reading, and I heard whistling. My husband heard a vibration. Within 10 seconds this was done. Ten seconds, that’s all it took,” Barb explained.

It took something from the Kellys, something that took decades to create.

“That was planted as a memorial for my husband’s mother. In ’95, she passed away, and it’s a memorial tree, so that was the most devastating,” she shared.

“That’s 30 years, you’re not going to replace that at our age, we wouldn’t, even if we’re lucky, we’d get half that,” said John.

As the NWS surveyed the tornado’s specific track, stories like the Kellys weren’t far from their minds.

Jennifer Hubbard, the warning coordination meteorologist for the NWS in Florida, said, “It takes a toll after a while, for sure, but, you know, we’re trying to make sure we get in, get the job done, and, you know, be as objective as possible, but it definitely takes a bit of an emotional toll after a while.”

Although they try to keep their feelings at bay, emotion is the underlying factor in why they’re assessing it.

Hubbard explained, “What we take in is going to be put into a national database, and then the hurricane center uses that for their final assessment of the storm itself, and then it is also kept for use in research in later times beyond this.”

They know the Kellys are one of many who have lost something irreplaceable from a tornado.

The NWS said the purpose of what they’re doing on the ground right now is to ensure we understand how strong structures are and make them more resilient for future storms.