Florida begins cleanup after 4 Christmas tornadoes damage hundreds of homes

Tuesday, December 26th 2006, 6:24 am

By: News On 6

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) Four Christmas Day tornadoes damaged hundreds of Florida homes, with one flipping airplanes at a flight school and tearing the roofs off three apartment buildings, officials confirmed Tuesday.

``It's all gone,'' said Estelle Hunter, 25, who left her home five minutes before the wind uprooted a tree and slammed it through the roof.

``All of my baby's Christmas presents are under water,'' she said as she tried to salvage what she could.

The tornado that hit Daytona Beach on Monday was an F-2, with wind speeds between 113 mph and 157 mph. Its wind tore the roofs off three apartment buildings, extensively damaging many of the 240 units. At Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, it hurled an airplane into a wall, sparking a fire, and snapped off wings or flipped about 50 others.

``It's near miraculous that no one was killed,'' said Bart Hagemeyer, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Melbourne.

More than 200 homes in a number of mobile home parks were damaged west of Daytona Beach around DeLand, where another F-2 tornado was confirmed, the Volusia County Property Appraiser's Office said.

An F-2 tornado also damaged about 80 homes in Pasco County north of Tampa, largely at the Tampa Bay Golf and Country Club. An F-0, bringing winds of 70 miles per hour, was confirmed in Lake County, near Leesburg.

Elaine Mandela was among those forced from their home in Pasco County. She spent Monday night with friends, but said she was unsure what she would do now.

``I have no idea,'' she said. ``I'm not sure it has hit me yet.''