KATHLEEN, Fla. — Thousands are still without power in Polk County, and many will be spending the next weeks trying to rebuild.
The force of 120-mph winds snapped powerlines and left neighbors on Timberlake Road in the dark as an EF-2 tornado went through the neighborhood.
“It sounded just like a jet engine outside of my house. I heard a lot of crashing and then glass started breaking,” resident Christi Boyer said.
This once quaint neighborhood now looks like a scene out of a movie
“Just driving down the road my jaw dropped. I was shell shocked. I had never seen anything like it. It’s a war zone,” Kathy Stephens said.
Stephens’ sister has lived there for years. Aluminum is strewn in trees, windows are blown out, and debris is everywhere.
“If that thing had lasted another minute, I would’ve been gone with the house,” Resident Carl Smith said.
It was the same street where Hurricane Irma hit two years ago, but many have never experienced a tornado as strong as the one Friday night.
“You work for your home for 20 years and then boom, it’s gone in one minute,” Smith said.
While they clean up yards and put up tarps, many face the harsh reality they’ll have to abandon the place they call home. It’s hard, but people on Timberlake Road still have hope.
“We saw a rainbow! You know life will move on and this will get cleaned up eventually,” Boyer said.
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