A powerful tornado touched down in the western Wellington area, traveling northeast through parts of the Acreage/Loxahatchee area, at approximately 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 9, leaving behind a devastating trail of destruction.
According to the National Weather Service, the rare EF-3 tornado had winds up to 140 mph and a maximum width of 300 yards. It first touched down in western Wellington and traveled 21 miles to Jupiter Farms.
The tornado activity was associated with the outer bands of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County a few hours later.
In Pictures: Tornado Damage In Western Wellington
While there were a handful of injuries associated with the tornado, no fatalities were reported in Palm Beach County, although there was a significant amount of damage done to hundreds of homes.
“It is beyond a miracle that there were no fatalities, not just here in Wellington, but across the county,” Wellington Village Manager Jim Barnes said. “We are very fortunate that we were able to escape that. The extent of the damage and devastation is unfathomable to see.”
Wellington Mayor Michael Napoleone lives in the Estates at Binks Forest, where there was some damage, but not nearly as much as in the Preserve at Binks Preserve, just across Binks Forest Drive.
“I was on my patio,” he recalled. “I saw it coming from Meadow Wood toward the back of my house before it turned. I went out Wednesday right after the storm about 6 p.m. and saw the damage near my neighborhood.”
Early Thursday morning, he took a more extensive tour.
“We went out and visited those hardest-hit communities, such as Rustic Ranches, Lakefield West, Meadow Wood, Binks Preserve and Binks Estates,” Napoleone said. “I talked to the neighbors to see what help we could give them. We spent a good chunk of the day going out and talking to residents.”
He credited the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue for immediately swinging into action to rescue residents and provide welfare checks throughout the area, along with officials from the Village of Wellington.
“I think the community response at every level has been outstanding,” he said Friday, Oct. 11. “People have been appreciative of efforts to make roads passable. Even on Wednesday night, people were out helping neighbors clear trees out of their driveways. It was a great neighbor-to-neighbor community outreach to make sure that everyone was accounted for.”
The community action included a series of village-organized volunteer opportunities starting Friday, Oct. 11. Working in partnership with the Wellington Rotary Club, Christ Fellowship Church and the Crowned Pearls of Wellington, a team of volunteers met at the Wellington Community Center before heading out to help residents impacted by the tornado with their cleanup efforts.
“We reached out to our community and about 200 people showed up to volunteer,” Napoleone said. “They were transported to different places using vans and buses. We tried to have a coordinated effort, so people were not just showing up in neighborhoods. It was a great rapid response effort from the community.”
In the Preserve at Binks Forest, Amy Robbert and her family were at home when they got the alert about tornado activity.
“We always heed the alerts and go into our safe space, which is the master bedroom closet,” Robbert recalled. “We always do this, and nothing ever happens, but maybe 10 seconds later, we heard the tornado coming. We just braced ourselves. It was very quick.”
You could feel the pressure change in your ears, and it sounded like a freight train was going over them. Then, after a minute of extreme noise, there was an eerie quiet.
“Not knowing what the state of the house would be when we opened the closet door was scary,” Robbert said. We came out of the closet, and we looked around at the inside of our house. It wasn’t too bad, but outside was just a war zone.”
Robbert credits her family’s safety to a newer roof and impact windows.
“I think it saved us, having the new roof and impact windows,” she said. “They did their job, which was great.”
Despite their significant property damage, Robbert was thankful it was not worse.
“I know people whose houses were destroyed on the inside,” she said. “I really feel for those people who had the whole inside of the house destroyed. We were not that bad off compared to some people.”
Another hard-hit community was the western Wellington rural equestrian enclave of Rustic Ranches, where the tornado is believed to have first touched down.
State Rep. Kathleen Waldron and State Sen. Lori Berman toured that area on Friday, Oct. 11, starting at Mandy Erhardt’s home on Rustic Road.
While Erhardt was working in Broward County, her husband and young daughter were at home. She started getting texts about the tornado, and when she returned home later, she arrived to a scene of total devastation, with huge trees uprooted and structures reduced to rubble.
Around the block from there is Rider Ranch on Hollow Tree Lane, where Sam and Anna Rider were hiding in a closet with their family as the tornado crashed over the property, leaving behind destruction. Their roof was gone, and what was left had collapsed into the kitchen, leaving them looking at the sky when they came out of the closet.
“The devastation caused by the tornadoes that hit Palm Beach County last Wednesday was horrific,” Waldron said after the tour. “Houses were destroyed, trees leveled, people’s businesses and livelihoods were eviscerated. Thankfully, the residents of Wellington and the surrounding communities came together to help their neighbors clean up. Our group, led by community leader Rolando Barrero and some amazing volunteers, was able to organize on short notice to come help clean up five acres worth of debris for one family in the Rustic Ranches area of Wellington that had their house, barn and vehicles destroyed.”
Also touring the area with Wellington officials was U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel.
“The path of destruction from this tornado is shocking, with numerous houses in Wellington left severely damaged, while others right next door remained untouched,” Frankel said after surveying the damage. “I’m deeply grateful to Palm Beach County’s first responders and local officials who’ve been working around the clock to keep residents safe and begin the cleanup and restoration process. I’m working closely with local leaders to ensure we get the federal help needed to support recovery and rebuilding efforts.”
For Barnes, looking back a week after the devastation, it was sobering, but with a silver lining.
“I was out there Wednesday evening, and everything was still so fresh and so raw,” he said. “Watching residents trying to secure their properties and first responders trying to render support — all while everyone was still preparing for Hurricane Milton as it was about to make landfall. This was a disaster that was contained within another disaster.”
Luckily, the hurricane itself did not pose much issue for Palm Beach County.
“The best thing that happened in all of this is something that any Wellingtonian would expect — the community has come together,” Barnes said. “From within minutes when the tornado went through the village, day to day we’ve seen stories of neighbors helping neighbors. Along with the rest of the community coming together from areas that were not impacted by the tornado helping resident in need, offering them time, talent and their treasure.”
This has included tens of thousands of dollars donated to individual GoFundMe campaigns for residents, as well as donations to an array of community nonprofits out there providing support.
Barnes wants the community to know that Wellington is working as fast as possible to get things back to normal, but that will take weeks, if not months.
“We understand that no matter how fast we are able to recover and clean up from this disaster, it is not going to be fast enough,” he said. “But we certainly are still trying.”
He estimated that there is at least 100,000 cubic yards of debris to remove and process. By the end of Wednesday, the village will have collected about 6,000 yards.
“Every day we get more efficient and have more resources deployed on the ground,” Barnes said. “Our goal is to have a lot of the debris off the ground by Halloween, but our debris process will continue beyond that.”
The vegetative waste is being brought to the village’s staging area at Greenbriar Park, while construction debris is going to the Solid Waste Authority.
“All the debris collection is being handled by the village’s national debris removal contractors, Ceres and Phillips & Jordan,” Barnes said. “However, most of the work has been subcontracted out to H&J Contracting and Rio-Bak, which are both Wellington-based companies.”
While Wellington is winding down its organized community volunteer efforts, those who still want to help out are welcome to e-mail communityservices@wellingtonfl.gov, and the village will try to pair up volunteers with people still in need of support.
“The biggest in-demand talent is for someone with a chainsaw who knows how to use it,” Barnes said.
Wellington hosted a one-day multi-agency resource center event on Tuesday, Oct. 15 to help those impacted by the disaster, and Barnes hopes that a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) center will be opening locally soon. In the meantime, FEMA disaster survivor assistance teams have been going door-to-door in Wellington to help residents directly impacted by the tornado.
Residents can apply for FEMA assistance directly by visiting www.disasterassistance.gov, calling (800) 621-3362 or through the FEMA app.
