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Storm Victims Hoping For Quiet Holiday

News Channel 8 photo by PAUL LAMISON

On Christmas Day 2006, a tornado ripped through Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club.

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By GEOFF FOX, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 25, 2007

SAN ANTONIO - It hit almost without warning.

Although there had been a tornado watch on television, Mitch Cross and his wife, Marge, didn't pay much attention. How many tornado watches had they seen before, without incident?

Besides, it was Christmas morning and there were merrier things to ponder.

Unfortunately, the Crosses, and about 100 other families in Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club, learned last Christmas that Mother Nature doesn't rest on holidays.

"My wife and I were in the kitchen when we heard this loud bang! Crash! Boom! Bam!" Mitch Cross said. "The front door blew open and blew a cabinet across the back room; it hit the back wall.

"The glass doors to the lanai were open, so it blew through there. It bent the screen door, and the chair that was in front of it was blown onto the golf course."

Cross, a member of the development's first responder team, said the sudden, violent storm also left his living room and furniture full of debris, destroyed his outdoor grill, downed his flagpole and deposited part of the gutter from over his garage into his neighbor's driveway.

In Cross' backyard, a small tree was snapped in two.

Shingles and insulation littered his lawn.

It was a familiar scene around the 55-and-older community off State Road 52, just west of Interstate 75.

What still astounds the residents is the tornado's sudden severity.

"I didn't hear anything at all," said Lace Williams, who also belongs to the first responders unit. "Most residents I talked to later did not hear anything. It seemed to bounce up and down through the community as it made its swath.

"A couple of people saw it coming across the golf course. One gentleman was ready to deep fry a turkey when somebody's lanai flew across his yard. He didn't hear a thing. There was none of that locomotive sound or whistling - nothing at all."

The twister whipped through northeast Pasco County shortly after 11:30 a.m. The storm damaged or destroyed homes in a line stretching from Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club through the St. Joe Road area to Lacoochee.

Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt in the storm, which brought 125 mph winds.

Although damage was extensive, the Federal Emergency Management Agency denied the county's request for aid. Pasco officials estimated the twister inflicted about $3.6 million in damage. That simply didn't meet FEMA's criteria, county Emergency Management Director Jim Martin said.

"The second day after the storm, we had FEMA and the state come through and they said it didn't appear" that victims would be eligible for aid, Martin said. "We appealed, but we still didn't get it. Fortunately, 99 percent of the folks had insurance.

"And, we were really blessed that there was only one minor injury."

'People Were Pretty Distraught'

As soon as the storm passed, the community's first responders hit the streets.

Barbara Klingensmith, unit chief and a training instructor with the state Bureau of Fire Standards in Ocala, said she was waiting for guests to arrive when one of them, resident Rick DiFrancesco, called her.

"Rick said he just saw a neighbor's lanai go by," Klingensmith said. "We thought maybe it was a tornado. I got my husband, who's also a first responder, and at that point the county got a phone call and were dispatching as a service call or investigation. I drove up the street and saw the destruction and talked to the county and they upgraded it to a probable tornado.

"There were houses damaged and scared folks coming out of their houses. My first responders were all given jobs and they did search and rescue, and damage assessment throughout the community."

DiFrancesco was among the responders.

"We just started going into houses and helping people get out," he said. "We showed the walking wounded where to go. Some people were in wheelchairs and half their house was gone. People were pretty distraught.

Guests Turned Away

"There were families trying to get into the neighborhood, coming for Christmas dinners. They couldn't find out what was going on and we couldn't let them in."

Because it was Christmas, there was already a meal planned at the community center, so many people sought immediate refuge there. Some people were displaced to area hotels.

For some, repairs took several months.

"We had to repaint the whole house," Mitch Cross said.

Residents hope the storm's first anniversary is uneventful.

Since the tornado, Klingensmith said, many residents have bought weather radios.

"It was a big wake-up call," she said. "Every time the wind picks up we don't ignore it anymore."

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 948-4217 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

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