‘The big boom’

The storm lasted for just five minutes. In that time, it caused at least $12 million worth of damage as it tore through its 1.14-mile path through Siesta Key and a small Sarasota neighborhood. But despite the damage, and the fact that it trapped two people in a collapsed home, only minor injuries were reported in Sarasota County. It was the worst tornado to strike the county since 2000. Here's how the five-minute storm and the emergency response that followed unraveled.

Sunday, Jan. 17

2:52 a.m.: Phones buzz with emergency text alerts. The National Weather Service has issued a severe storm alert for the Sarasota-Manatee area. 

3:17 a.m.: The tornado touches down on Siesta Key, with winds estimated at 70 mph, hitting the Excelsior condominiums on the Gulf.

3:18 a.m.: Wind speed reaches 107 mph. Nelly Vazquez, a 30-year resident of an Excelsior bayside unit, wakes up to a noise unlike any she's heard before as the tornado crosses Midnight Pass Road. 

"They say it sounds like a train, but I heard a big boom," she said. Vazquez is one of many residents forced to evacuate her unit after the storm after water pipes burst, filling her home with 6 to 8 inches of water.

On the bayside, the roof of Building 5, the Majorca, is ripped off.

Marc Blum watches his furniture move from the south side to the north side of their lanai in his bayfront Excelsior unit. He and his wife, Kathy, take shelter with their cats, and their unit was unharmed, but their next-door neighbors aren't as lucky. Their ceilings cave in, and the roof is lifted from the walls. Luckily, they weren't home.

3:19 a.m.: The tornado reaches the eastern shore of Siesta Key, with winds up to 120 mph. 

3:20 a.m.: The storm makes landfall on mainland Sarasota at Baywinds Lane, where 87-year-old Nancy Devito lives, with 132 mph winds.

Devito's home collapses, trapping her in an 18-inch gap in the debris. As the water pipes pour over her, she thinks she will drown.

The tornado also strikes the Baywinds home of Pauline Vileno. 

“The wind went right through, and all of these glass doors are in the pool,” she said. “When the wind came up I said, ‘Oh don’t take down the ceiling,’ but it did.”

Later, though, she says she feels lucky: The storm didn't damage the room where she was sleeping when the tornado struck. 

3:20 a.m.: Wind speeds decrease to 71 mph, and the storm travels northeast across Ridgewood and Shelburne lanes.

Viva Reinhardt hears what sounds “like a Mac truck” in her Ridgewood Lane home.

“It shook the house,” she said, “and then I saw all this glass and heard everything flying.”

For Terry Castleberry, who also lives on Ridgewood Lane, the tornado passes before she realizes what's happening.

“It was the scariest noise I’ve ever heard," she said. "It was this huge noise; you could see the wind swirling. It was maybe two or three minutes, and it was over."

She loses most of her pool cage, her boat dock is damaged, and the wind sends insulation flying from her attic into the bedroom and hallways.

3:22 a.m.: The storm reaches its final damage point near Beechwood Avenue and U.S. 41. Winds decrease to 65 mph. Much of the affected area is left without power.

3:38 a.m.: The Sarasota County Fire Department receives clearance to respond to its first calls. (Protocol required personnel to take shelter, like everyone else.) 33 calls to prioritize. The collapsed house on Baywinds Lane, where Devito is trapped, is at the top of the priority list. 

3:48 a.m.: Firefighters arrive at Devito’s home. A special team work to extract Devito and Cameron Cardy, while other firefighters go door to door, identifying six extensively damaged homes and ensuring residents' safety.

“It was the scariest noise I’ve ever heard ...
You could see the wind swirling. It was maybe two or three minutes, and it was over.”

 

– Terry Castleberry

Tamé Stockfis, Devito’s daughter, and her husband, Ian, soon arrive at the scene after a phone call from a friend about the tornado wakes them.

“I couldn’t get a hold of my mom and came right over here, and this is what I came up on,” Stockfis said later Sunday.

Baywinds Lane is littered with debris, and the empty lot adjacent to Devito’s house was covered with what was once her second floor.

5 a.m. (approximately): Devito and Cardy are freed. Fire Department personnel take Devito to the hospital with minor injuries. Cardy was released. 

Meanwhile, rain and wind continue for much of the night. In the morning, high winds continue to blow debris around the site, as residents salvage belongings and take pictures of the damage.

11:22 a.m.: FP&L re-energizes the power grid and restores power to many.

11:30 a.m.: A Sarasota County spokesman confirms that no major injuries had been reported from the storm, though as many as 17,000 are still without power.

1 p.m.: Devito's family tries to salvage what they can – important papers, clothes and anything that couldn’t be replaced from what remained of the second floor. They pass items from the wreckage, in containers made from broken furniture, to family members and volunteers below. The county posts a notice that the home was considered “demolished.”

4 p.m.: Power has been restored to all but a few residents in the Baywinds neighborhood.

Monday, Jan. 18

1 a.m.: Power is restored to the last house that could receive it.

Monday evening

Devito's family is still working to salvage her belongings. They've found some of Devito's clothes but couldn't get to the cabinet with her important documents in it. 

“We found some pictures," Stockfis said. "Everything else, all her art stuff was pretty much destroyed."

Stockfis reports that Devito is "really sore and very upset."

The Castleberrys are still cleaning up debris. They estimate the damage at $30,000 to $50,000.

Reinhardt considers spending the night in a hotel because of damage to her home’s heating and cooling system that hasn't been repaired as temperatures chill.

But of the damage, she says, “It’s nothing. It’s nothing.”

She says she hasn’t lost anything she cared about that couldn’t be replaced.