First Hurricanes, Now Tornadoes. What's Next for Cape Coral, Florida?

Sure, here in southwest Florida, we are all pretty much used to hurricanes in the summer, and it's safe to say that we may actually be prepared in case of a hurricane. But what do we do when unsuspecting storms, such as the tornado that blew through Cape Coral on Sunday is headed our way? I'm sure it's safe to say that the majority of people in this area were not expecting such a strong storm to tear through our city, and now that the damage is done, what are we as a community doing to help pick up the pieces?

The storm began to sweep through on Sunday around, 6:30. According to NBC2 news, the tornado began as a water spout just off the coast of Fort Myers beach; it then came upon land and plowed Cape Coral as it moved north on it's devastating path. The speeds of the tornado were anywhere from 105 to 110 miles per hour, according to NBC2 news, making this tornado an F1. There are six categories of tornado's, F0, F1, F2, F3, F4, F5.

After the storm was over, people were able to leave their homes and see the damages for themselves. Over 150 buildings were damaged from this storm with 12 homes completely uninhabitable. Cape Coral chief inspector, Bill Selvia told the Fort Myers, News-Press that there are millions of dollars in damage caused from this one storm.

As I drove down Skyline Blvd on Monday morning, I could see the damage from the tornado; roofs were ripped off houses and thrown into canals, trees weren't just ripped out of the ground, the trees were actually twisted so much that they ripped off. Cars were upside down and thrown into one another and thrown into houses. At the local Wal-Mart, a semi-trailer was flipped over on it's side. The power company, LCEC was out repairing and replacing poles and putting up new electrical lines that had been ripped down during the storm. About 5,000 people were out of electricity for quite a while. I'm glad to say that during this whole scary mess, only one person was injured, and it wasn't life threatening.

Now, that the storm is over, people are starting to pick up the pieces, According to NBC2, 12 people are without a place to live today, making about 30 people homeless right now. Last night, the American Red Cross set up a shelter for the people who are homeless, while they were expecting around 20 people to show up, no one showed up. "Usually, in times like this family step in and help the people who are homeless", says the Red Cross. One thing that the county is doing to help speed the process of re-building is offering same day permits to those who's homes were damaged during the storm.
This was a completely unexpected storm, many homes and business were damaged as well as cars. Many, lives were turned upside down and many people have become homeless because of this storm, but we can thank our lucky stars that no one was killed.