ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – Just before noon on Thursday, a tornado left behind a trail of damage in St. Johns County neighborhoods, including downed trees, snapped street signs and mangled fences.
The National Weather Service confirmed an EF1 tornado with 90 to 100 mph winds hit the TrailMark and Samara Lakes neighborhoods.
RELATED: Tornado leaves ‘path of destruction’ in St. Johns County subdivisions; 1 minor injury reported | VIDEO: Tornado seen tearing through subdivision south of World Golf Village
But officials acknowledged that things could have been much worse. There were no serious injuries reported and no major damage to homes.
That didn’t make the moment the tornado came through one TrailMark resident’s home any less scary.
Ro Asakura shared a video from her doorbell camera that showed the storm quickly moving in.
The video shows grey clouds overhead and a big push of rain washing over the pond in front of Ro Asakura’s house.
Then, things on the front porch start flying around and debris blows through the street. The wind was so strong it easily blew over a street sign.
Asakura said for a short time, it was extremely hectic.
“We had the news on. I was getting alerts all morning. And luckily, I turned on the news right away and the cone that was shown on the screen literally was our neighborhood,” she said. “Luckily I had the windows closed because it was so dark and there was no point in opening windows. But I did hear the rumbling. It just sounded like a really low rumbling.”
The powerful storm cracked her window and sent shattered glass across her house.
There was furniture on her lawn that wasn’t theirs and the furniture on their front porch was all over the place.
AFTERMATH GALLERY: Photos show tornado damage to several homes in St. Johns County
Most people in the TrailMark subdivision agreed clean-up can be a hassle but they are glad no one was seriously injured in the neighborhood.
The Samara Lakes neighborhood also had damage. Resident Wonda Oden said when she heard the tornado was coming straight for her house, he family went to the innermost room in their house, shut the door, and “just held on for dear life.”
“The noise and just the sounds of the things that were going on outside that you couldn’t what was going on was very scary,” Oden said. “It was just a strong wind whirling. You hear everything being tossed around in the tornado and hitting your house. As you can see the destruction in our backyard is severe and my neighbors have severe roof damage. Meg and I were in the closet just praying that we would make it.”
Oden said they hid for about 10 minutes.
“You just never know how bad, how serious it is, until you’re in the middle of it,” she said.
Anthony Henderson said he was asleep when the tornado started.
“I didn’t think anything of it because, you know, it’s Florida, but all of a sudden I heard a loud bang on the side of the house. I instantly got up and was just surprised. I heard my sister scream my name and I went out to check if everything was OK,” he said.
What he saw was leaks everywhere so he grabbed pots and pans to stop the water from getting everywhere.
“We are trying to patch up the roof here with the tarp to stop the leaking if any more rain does come,” Henderson said. “We got nails to hold the tarp in place just trying to stop all the leaking possible...I’m glad everything’s OK. It was frightening at first but it wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t too crazy.”
After the storm cleared, people were working together.
“Immediately after it happened, neighbors came to my doors,” Oden said. “All over there’s people riding up and our the street here to see if anyone needs help. If you needed them, they were there.”
John Jones Tree Trimming Service was going around and cutting and releasing trees for free.
St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick was also encouraged by seeing neighbors helping neighbors clean up.
“That’s what we do here in St. Johns County is we help one another out and you see our true colors when things like this happen,” Hardwick said.