Martin Newman, a resident of the TrailMark neighborhood in St. Johns County, cleans up his lawn Friday, April 12, 2024, after a tornado touched down not far from his home. | Noah Hertz, Jacksonville Today.
Published on April 12, 2024 at 4:51 pm
A 100-mph tornado swept through St. Johns County on Thursday, and residents of the TrailMark and Samara Lakes neighborhoods near World Golf Village are picking up the pieces.
One person was injured and a number of roofs were damaged when the tornado touched down around noon Thursday. The storm traveled around 7 miles, starting near TrailMark and ending northeast of Samara Lakes.
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According to the National Weather Service, the tornado was a part of a supercell thunderstorm that itself was a part of a larger line of storms that battered Northeast Florida.
TrailMark residents Martin and Susan Newman were a few of the people out Friday as residents phoned their insurance companies and cleaned up debris.
Martin was home watching TV when the tornado ripped through his neighborhood. It knocked down trees and blew outdoor furniture around, including the couch on the Newmans’ porch.
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When Susan got home after the storm, she found the couch wrapped around a tree three doors down. The Newmans, who lived in Miami when Hurricane Andrew rampaged the state, were just grateful things weren’t worse.
There’s only so much you can do to protect against extreme weather, Martin said.
“I don’t worry about it, you know. I don’t duck and dive and stuff like that. If it happens, it happens,” he told Jacksonville Today. “Good thing is, the roof, even though I lost all of the shingles, the roof is intact.”
The Newmans praised St. Johns County’s response to the storm, and they wanted first responders to know how thankful they were for being on the scene so fast after the storm passed through.
County damage assessment teams were on the ground Friday, but St. Johns County had not yet reported the amount of damage done to the affected neighborhoods.
In the wake of the storm, St. Johns County urges residents to be vigilant against potential contracting scams.
