Villages 2007 Groundhog Day Tornado
 

A talk about the "Villages 2007 Groundhog Day Tornado" will be presented this Friday (Groundhog Day, Feb 2) at 4 PM at the First Responders Recreation Center. Find out why February is the worst month for Florida tornadoes and why we are in a Doppler Radar dead zone.

Is it ground hog day again ? I'll bet TV has a tornado in the early morning hours.

Will be in Disney safe and sound:clap2:

Pulling together
 

Florida pulled together for this one. Recreation centers opened up with insurance help, the Red Cross and Sheriffs. Governor Crist was quick on the move.

Be careful. Florida's worst tornado event was in the Disney area on Feb 22/23, 1998 -- with 42 deaths. This is included in the Feb 2 Tornado talk ... among others.

Key words Disney Area.. Not Disney.....which is Cat 4-5 rated. So yep very safe. Its why Disney closes parks but does not evacuate guests or staff. Staff families and Florida residents have been known to purposely go Disney

We toured the damage. House on one side of street gone down to foundation and on other looked untouched.

My Dad had seen far worse as a Catastrophe Manager for a major insurance company. He handled Hurricane Andrew, Hurricane Inniki, fires in the Oakland Hills, etc. Oakland firestorm of 1991 - Wikipedia

Earlier in his career he took me along to view the effects of the bombing at Harvey's Wagon Wheel. Harvey's Resort Hotel bombing - Wikipedia

Personal experience after tornado. Gary Morse was walking around surveying damage at around 4:00 A.M. (tornado at 3:10) and I talked to him. His first request was whether there were any casualties that I knew of. This was on a Friday. That same day, by some means, contractors workers (house builders) were given off to help people clean out their homes and place debris at the curbs. Then on Saturday trucks appeared with other equipment with cherry pickers picking up all the trash and hauling it away. No one would accept anything from anyone except thanks.
The next week those homeowners with severe damages were given the option of rebuilding their homes or they could turn them over for a full refund of purchase price.
There were many people who helped in many capacities.
That's what cemented my view that this was the place to live.

Nice to hear about that.

A niece or something like that of a man I know died when a tree hit her trailer in Lady Lake that day.

Thanks for the extra information, which confirms what I heard. This talk will also highlight the book "Ten Seconds Inside A Tornado" -- as it describes personal experiences of residents from that 2007 tornado -- which only took 10 seconds to pas overhead due to its speed ... Amazon.com

My aunts and cousins lived here during the tornado. Not only was debris picked up every house damaged by daybreak was being tarp windows boarded and homes secured.
New home building stopped, and every worker was brought to help secure homes, and begin repairs.

Yes Morse was very hands on making sure TV was made right for all residents

One of the Villages' CERT team members on the scene, told me that when Red Cross finally arrived, they said they never saw a community response like that anywhere else before -- and since there was nothing for them to do -- they packed up and left. Here are some photos ... https://www.**************.com/2019/...and-lady-lake/

If disaster struck today, good chance the support and kindness wouldn’t happen today. Mr Morse’s family is not cut from the same stock as Mr Morse, Just my opinion.

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Does anyone think that caring gesture would happen today? The Morse family today are not anything like Gary Morse.