CRYSTAL RIVER, FL (352today.com) – Leslie Garrison was just starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.
Her husband had just finished replacing drywall in their Pinwheel Drive home after 14.5 inches of floodwater from Hurricane Idalia on Aug. 30 forced them to remodel.
“Since it was empty, we went ahead and scraped off the old popcorn ceiling and retextured everything. He just got done on Wednesday,” said Garrison. “It’s ruined. There’s a hole in the roof. Water is rolling down the inside of the drywall because the roof is missing.”
Just six weeks after Idalia, a tornado tore a hole in her roof the next day, Thursday, Oct. 12, ruining the work that had just been done.
“It was something else,” Garrison said. “The refrigerator is standing over there on the side of the house. Isn’t it funny that it took the refrigerator but left the little things on the walls.”
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Garrison is one of dozens of home and business owners in the path of the tornado’s twisting winds. The National Weather Service survey crew rated the tornado an EF-2 which means it packed wind speeds of 111 to 135 mph.
The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) says the tornado touched down around 2:30 a.m. in Crystal River near the Plantation Resort and continued chewing up whatever was in its path for roughly three miles before dissipating east of Turkey Oak.
On Friday, Garrison and her neighbors continued picking up the pieces of their lives – thankful they made it through the storm alive.
“It was in God’s hands but I don’t know what I’ve done to make him mad,” said Garrison.
WATCH GARRISON’S STORY AND HEAR FROM OTHERS IN CRYSTAL RIVER.