North Palm Beach: Tornado flings boat from cove onto lawn
A destructive tornado tore through the cove on Monet Road in North Palm Beach, Fla. last Saturday, leaving behind a trail of damage. The day after the storm, work crews surveyed its aftermath, examining the yachts that had been ravaged by the sudden tempest. Captaining one of the damaged boats, Nick Linder spoke of his devastation: “It is tragic when you have no warning and everything just gets taken this fast.” The tornado had yanked one of the boats out of the cove and flipped it upside down in somebody’s yard.
One of the boats that had been severely damaged had its roof torn off by the storm, while several others had experienced significant wind damage. Porch fences on homes surrounding the cove were bent out of shape and required repair. Weighing the extent of the damage, Linder remained doubtful that either boat would ever sail again. Unfortunately, his own home had also sustained damage from the storm: “Something came and hit my glass and exploded the windows of my house,” he said.
Linder lived just a half mile away from the cove, right on the path of the tornado’s destruction. Despite the injury to these inanimate objects, Linder expressed his gratitude that no human lives had been lost: “There’s no casualties that I know of. That’s the most important part.”
As crews worked to assess the damage and begin to repair the affected structures, photos of the damage began to circulate on news sites and social media. A drone image captured from the air showed the overturned boat lying on its side in a residential yard next to a dock off Ellison Wilson Road. The pictures were shared widely, as people around the nation expressed their sympathies and support for those affected by the disaster.
In spite of the losses, it was apparent that Linder’s sense of gratitude was found shared by others in the community who had also been affected by the storm. It was a somber reminder of the power of nature and the importance of being prepared for unexpected events. None could deny the overwhelming sense of loss that the community had experienced, and yet there was a collective hope that they would pull through this tragedy, learn from it, and be stronger for it.
