'Rare' EF-2 tornado hits Gardens, North Palm

PALM BEACH GARDENS — A "rare" EF-2 tornado packing winds of up to 130 mph hit Palm Beach Gardens and North Palm Beach on Saturday evening, leaving widespread damage and rendering at least one apartment building uninhabitable.

The tornado was 320 yards wide and traveled through Palm Beach Gardens for 11 minutes, tearing through about 2.6 miles of the city. The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado of this magnitude in South Florida is unusual.

"In general, it is pretty rare down here in South Florida," Miami-based NWS meteorologist Shawn Bhatti said Sunday. The weather behind it will be an improvement, he said.

"There will be quite a reprieve here for a week," Bhatti said. "It will actually be very quiet compared to what it has been, which has been a kind of historically active April."

No injuries were immediately reported, but television reports did say two people in a car were injured when their vehicle was hit by the wind.

Patricia Colby was working Saturday evening at the Hobby Lobby on Northlake Boulevard when she got a call from her housemate.

Diane Butler was calling from their laundry room at the Sanctuary Cove apartment complex in North Palm Beach.

"It was shaking. The whole apartment building was just shaking," Butler said. "It was so noisy. You could hear it smashing. It lasted maybe about 10 or 15 minutes. … It was in and out of here real fast."

For the second day in a row, a tornado touched down Saturday night and inflicted damage on Palm Beach County. This time, the EF-2 twister hit Palm Beach Gardens at about 5:10 p.m. and slammed into the Sanctuary Cove apartments about 10 minutes later.

A tornado with a rating of EF-0 passed through Boynton Beach on Friday night, causing damage in the Golfview Harbour neighborhood.

Colby and Butler's apartment has been deemed uninhabitable by village officials, but the two say they are happy to have survived it.

"We're alive," Colby said with a smile. "They're just things and they can all be replaced."

The tornado touched down near Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, officials said, and came on another day of unsettled weather in advance of a strong front. From 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. Sunday, the entire county was under a tornado watch issued by the National Weather Service.

Another resident, Gina Guy, lives with her boyfriend in an area of Sanctuary Cove, which is near Prosperity Farms and Monet Road north of the village community center, that had less damage to apartments than to cars. Guy stood Sunday afternoon in the parking lot next to a stray charcoal grill that once sat on her porch on the opposite side of the parking lot.

"We are very fortunate, we didn't have any damage," Guy said. "My boyfriend was at work and I was here with my dog. We were in the bathtub. I heard the sounds of the building and heard the water moving, like it was draining. Like how it sounds when water drains in a shower, but it was in the walls."

North Palm Beach city workers were out cleaning up damage early Sunday, including boats that had been upended from their moorings.

"Village crews [are] working to clean up debris & ensure safe passage. Heavy damage to residences in Sanctuary Cove north of Community Center," the village announced in a tweet Saturday night. "Electricity and several traffic lights are out in the area, treat all intersections like a 4-way stop."

In the photos that North Palm Beach included with the tweet, a boat was shown sitting right-side up on a dock, a car with a fallen branch on its hood and roof damage at Sanctuary Cove.

Palm Beach Gardens also had damage from the storm, but there were no injuries, the city said in a tweet late Saturday. "The City partially activated its Emergency Operations Center with personnel from Police, Fire and Public Works to address cleanup," the city said.

Gardens police closed the intersection with U.S. 1 and PGA Boulevard and staffed four intersections where residents had lost power, the agency said in a tweet.

Officials from Palm Beach Gardens and North Palm Beach were unavailable for comment Sunday.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Strong tornado hits Gardens, North Palm Beach