ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. – A tornado ravaged through the Spanish Lakes Country Club Village, a retirement community in St. Lucie County’s Lakewood Park neighborhood, and killed six residents.
Collin Kelly, a village resident, compared the destruction to “a war zone” and said it was “devastating.” He didn’t want to go back. Just down the road, Rev. Leo Vollbracht was hard at work.
Lakewood Park Church off Turnpike Feeder Road was serving free meals even though the tornado had ripped off a section of the sanctuary’s roof, blown out windows, and uprooted trees.
“There is hope and we are here,” he said. “We are here for our community and that is what our focus is.”
West of Fort Pierce North, in an agricultural area of St. Lucie County, Jeff Schorner, the owner of Al’s Family Farms, said a tornado decimated the community landmark — just minutes after he went home.
“A lot of work went into this,” Schorner said. “It is going to take a lot of work to get it back into shape.”
Some Floridians had yet to recover from Hurricane Helene when Milton landed as a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, near Siesta Key, in Sarasota County, and crossed central Florida.
During a news conference, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he expects Milton’s death toll to continue to increase. Last checked, there were 16 dead.