At least two 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.
Authorities were still surveying damage in two other hard-hit areas - near Leesburg in central Florida and in Pasco County, along the Gulf Coast north of Tampa - which may have been struck by tornadoes as well.
In Pasco County, officials reported about 80 homes damaged or destroyed, largely around the Tampa Bay Golf and Country Club.
Elaine Mandela was among those forced from their home, spending Monday night with friends. She was unsure what she would do after.
"I have no idea," she said. "I'm not sure it has hit me yet."
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