- April 18, 2024
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A tornado that punched through roofs and knocked down power lines in scattered areas throughout Palm Coast Saturday evening does not seem to have injured anyone, officials have said.
But there were some near-misses.
Palm Coast resident Giorgetta Scollo was in her house in Palm Coast’s F section when her back exterior motion sensor lights switched on and she caught a glimpse of the storm bearing down on her home.
She ran for an interior closet and huddled down to wait it out. When she emerged, the roof had collapsed in three places, littering the home with insulation.
“There’s still a bedroom. I can still cook. This is home,” she said as her daughter tried to convince her to leave.
Scollo agreed to stay with family — at least until her home can be assessed by building inspectors who will determine if it’s safe — but she’s anxious to start cleaning up the damage.
After the fire trucks left Saturday night, and the exposed roof was covered with tarps, Scollo and her children and grandchildren had walked through rooms gathering up valuables and photographs in case the rest of the roof collapsed with the rain forecast for the rest of the night.
Scollo's house is one of about 50 in the area without power.
Most are in the B section around Bayside Drive and Bannbury Lane, where residents milled around the streets Sunday morning inspecting the damage as Florida Power and Light crews worked to turn the power back on.
“There were about 6,000 homes without power in the immediate aftermath of the tornado,” said FPL spokesman Todd Zeranski. “We were able to get many of them working immediately, but we did have some damage to the feeders, and live wires down which delayed us getting our crews out there.”
FPL hopes to restore power to all areas of Palm Coast by about 9 a.m. Sunday.
