JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A field team from the National Weather Service was in Jacksonville on Tuesday, surveying the damage from the outer bands of Tropical Storm Colin.
Much of that damage came from a tornado that NWS officials confirmed touched down Monday afternoon. The tornado's path stretched from the Publix warehouse on the Westside to a subdivision near Crystal Springs and Blair roads.
The storm ripped through several neighborhoods in the Crystal Springs area, and damage could be seen everywhere. Fences were destroyed, basketball hoops knocked over and roofs damaged.
“It's pretty typical tornado damage for a tropical cyclone,” said Al Sandrik, a meteorologist at the NWS. “A lot of trees (were hit, and), unfortunately some of those trees will go down into houses.”
Sandrik said that's to be expected from this type of storm.
“Well, the models were very good in forecasting the storm coming out of the Gulf of Mexico,” he said.
Sandrik's crews went door to door Tuesday, surveying the damage. He said people were pretty prepared.
“We did have a tornado warning in effect as this event was occurring,” Sandrik said.
The National Weather Service uses an app to track the damage.
“It allows us to go to tornado damage, take a picture, get a GPS reference point,” Sandrik said.
The information that Sandrik collects is instantly uploaded to the NWS database, helping scientists better understand what happened so they can prepare for the next one.
“It gives us a boundary where the edge of the tornado was,” he said. “It gives us an idea of how we can educate and alert the public in the future.”
NWS is still looking into Monday's tornado to make a determination about its intensity. Officials said that as far as they know, the area was the only one hit by a tornado as Tropical Storm Colin came through.
City, neighbors respond to storm damage
City Councilman Doyle Carter, who represents the Crystal Springs area, talked with neighbors Tuesday, making sure they were OK.
“Anything that's needed, we'll help them with it,” Carter said. “It's kind of traumatic for people when half their house gets blown away.”
That's more or less what happened for Wayne McDowell's family. Their backyard was an oasis, and now it's a mess.
“Trees down, roof off, shingles everywhere,” McDowell said.
The roof was ripped off over the living room, and they were getting it fixed Tuesday.
McDowell said his family has insurance, and he's just glad no one was hurt.
“All this stuff can be built back, repaired,” he said. “We can buy new lawn furniture and stuff.”
City waives yard waste limit for debris
Public Works officials said the city will waive the 5 cubic yard limit for yard waste for two weeks as residents clean up from the storm.
One of those residents is Bob Davis. A tree in his front yard was knocked down by the storm. He and others in his Westside neighborhood moved the broken limbs out as fast as they could Tuesday as crews made their way through the city to pick up the debris.
“This all happened in a matter of seconds,” Davis said. “We heard a lot of noise hitting the roof and we came out of the truck, and the cars are damaged.”
Kevin Ware, a maintenance supervisor for the city of Jacksonville, was in charge of seven trucks picking up debris Tuesday. Their day began at 7 a.m..
Ware said they had double the amount of work because of the storm.
“We were at about 50 complaints,” he said.
Crews went neighborhood by neighborhood picking up broken trees, limbs and other debris.
Halfway through their day, they had already collected about 182,000 pounds of debris.
As the debris added up Tuesday, residents said they were just glad the storm is over.
“You've got to do what you've got to do,” Davis said. “You know you have to do it. Thank God I've got a good neighbor that helps me.”
Storm debris cleanup is separate from regular garbage pickup. Trash pickup days will remain the same.
For more on the city's solid waste collection, go to coj.net.