SARASOTA

Observer

What ever happened to

paid parking? PAGE 4A

YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.

VOLUME 12, NO. 8

FREE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2016

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 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. Heres how the five-minute storm and the emergency response that followed unraveled.
BY JACK SHORT | STAFF WRITER

SEE PAGE 3A

Jack Short

Niki Best and Rufino Tegio search the remains of Nancy Devitos house, which was demolished in the storm. Best is Devitos granddaughter.

YOUR TOWN

Sarasota Keys: Play em again

Some
familiar
tunes may
be playing
near you
as public
pianos
return
to four
downtown
locations.

Amanda Morales

Nancy Hack poses with the

Naked Cowboy Jan. 20, on St.
Armands Circle.

The naked truth

Shoppers on St. Armands

Circle experienced a little bit
of Times Square on Wednesday.
SEE PAGE 14A

Jack Short

Arts Alliance Executive Director Jim Shirley and Communications Manager Rachel
Denton apply finishing touches to pianos before they hit the streets.

PAGE
10A

A+E
Swing into
the sound of
gypsy jazz.
INSIDE

BLACK

TIE

Luncheon celebrates
women in medicine.
INSIDE

SARASOTA OBSERVER

YourObserver.com

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2016

3A

Tornado tears through Siesta, Sarasota

FROM 1A

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 Beach to Bay condominiums on the Gulf.
3:18 a.m.: Nelly Vazquez, a
30-year resident of an Excelsior
bayside unit, wakes up to a noise
unlike any shes heard before as
the tornado crosses Midnight
Pass Road.
They say it sounds like a train,
but I heard a big boom, she said
of the tornado, which reached 107
mph. 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.
The roof of Building 5, the
Majorca, is ripped off.
Dr. Marc Blum watches his furniture move from the south side
to the north side of his 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 arent as lucky. Their
ceilings cave in, and the roof is
lifted from the walls. Fortunately
they werent home.
3:19 a.m.: The tornado reaches
the eastern shore of Siesta Key,
with winds up to 120 mph.

SS

.
RD

3:20 a.m.: The storm makes

landfall on mainland Sarasota at
Baywinds Lane, where 87-yearold Nancy Devito lives, with 132
mph winds.
Devitos home collapses, trapping her in an 18-inch gap in
the debris. As the water pipes
pour over her, she thinks she will
drown.

TORNADOS PATH
DAMAGE POINTS
EF2
EF1
EF0

BAY

WI

LN
N DS

Excelsior
S

CK
TI

Y
NE

PO

41

IN

.
RD

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 dont
take down the ceiling, but it did.
Later, though, she says she feels
lucky: The storm didnt damage
the room where she was sleeping
when the tornado struck.
3:21 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
whats happening.
It was the scariest noise Ive
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.

A notice posted by the county declaring Nancy Devitos home demolished.

It was the scariest noise Ive ever heard ...

You could see the wind swirling. It was maybe
two or three minutes, and it was over.

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 without power.

Terry Castleberry

Cardy is 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.

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.)
It faces a backlog of 33 calls. 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 Devitos home. A team works
to extract Devito and Cameron
Cardy, while other firefighters
go door to door, identifying six
extensively damaged homes and
ensuring residents safety.
Tam Stockfis, Devitos daughter, and her husband, Ian, soon
arrive at the scene after a phone
call from a friend about the tornado wakes them.
I couldnt 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 Devitos house was covered
N
with what was her second floor.

11:22 a.m.: Florida Power &

Light re-energizes the power grid
and restores power to many.
11:30 a.m.: A Sarasota County
spokesman confirms that no
major injuries were been reported
from the storm, though as many
as 17,000 are still without power.

Photos by Jack Short

Pauline Vileno looks at the remains

of part of her ceiling. She was
thankful there was no damage to
her bedroom, where she slept as
the storm hit.

5 a.m. (approximately): Devito

and Cardy are freed. Fire Department personnel take Devito to
the hospital with minor injuries.

1 p.m.: Devitos family tries to salvage what they can important

papers, clothes and anything that
couldnt 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: Devitos family is still working to salvage her
belongings. Theyve found some
of Devitos clothes but couldnt
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 continue to
clean 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 homes heating and
cooling system that hasnt been
repaired as temperatures chill.
But of the damage, she says,
Its nothing. Its nothing.
She says she hasnt lost anything she cared about that
couldnt be replaced.
Additional reporting by Executive
Editor Kat Hughes.