Confirmed tornado rips through Hobe Sound, uprooting trees and damaging buildings
By Ari Hait
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HOBE SOUND, Florida (WPBF) — The National Weather Service confirmed Wednesday afternoon that a tornado touched down in Hobe Sound around 10:30 Wednesday morning.
Video showed the high winds and heavy rain battering the area as the storm went through, leaving behind toppled trees and multiple damaged buildings.
The hardest hit area appeared to be Bridge Road, heading east toward Jupiter Island.
Many of the large Ficus trees that line the road and create a canopy for drivers to travel through were uprooted.
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office said they believed the strongest hurricanes had only ever knocked over four of those trees at one time.
The tornado uprooted 22 of them.
That damage is a key reason the National Weather Service determined an EF1 tornado with wind speeds of around 90 miles per hour is to blame.
“We look at the health of the trees, what exactly was damaged on the trees, whether they were toppled over or whether they were snapped or uprooted,” said Will Ulrich, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
Just north of Bridge Road, Hobe Sound Elementary School suffered some minor damage in the storm.
Across the street from the school, the Hobe Sound Early Learning Center suffered even more damage.
Several windows were shattered, computers were tossed around a classroom, and playground equipment was damaged.
Administrators said they were given about five minutes notice that the tornado was heading their way.
“We were kind of in fight or flight, just kind of, ‘What do we need to do?’” said Kiersten Alberto, center manager.
Alberto said some children sheltered in a closet while others were taken to a hallway.
“The pressure dropped. Our ears were popping,” Alberto said. “Some of the kids were a little scared, and some of them were like, ‘Yeah, this is so cool!’”
There were no reports of any injuries connected to the storm.
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