Loxahatchee community comes together for tornado cleanup

Melody Russell, whose home was hit by a tornado, said it happened immediately after they finished putting the shutters up on the entire house. She said, “The whole house was shaking, and I was screaming so I don’t remember the sound, but my family says it was very loud, like a train. All of a sudden it stopped, and that’s when my husband ran outside.”

Her husband took a video of the twister as it left their property. He panned the camera to show trees left bare and debris scattered all around. “Oh my gosh, we just got hit by a tornado,” he said in the footage.

Cleanup efforts entered their second day for many in the Loxahatchee area of Palm Beach County. Tornado left a distinct path of destruction.

A truck landed in a corner of a nearby park. The sheriff’s deputies said it was blocks away and picked up by the twister. In the Avenir Development, it was a similar scene. Another truck tossed down the street came to rest there on it’s side.

No deaths have been reported in Palm Beach County, official said.

Brianne DeSellier, whose own home was hit by a tornado said, “It somehow ended up on the other side of the street. It’s amazing, the power. It was scary. Her daughter Brinley, who is nearly a year old, made the best of it. She added, “It was funny enough, she thought it was hilarious. We were in the closet under the stairs, and we were kind of like, panicking because we could hear it all, and she’s like laughing.”

The cleanup has become a community effort thanks to neighbours like Rachel Skirkanich. “I just lended out my generator to a family. I’m going around  handing out water. I just want to help as much as I can,” she said.

Russel said, “The outpouring of love was just so amazing. Everybody’s stuff is like now where it needs to be picked up, and the cleanup was just amazing.”

Others have shown up to clean debris, bring food and lend a hand.