Cleanup efforts are underway in Miramar on Saturday after a fast-moving storm with powerful winds and hail ripped through the area overnight, leaving residents without power and with significant property damage.
“We just got power…” one resident, Lovern Parks, said as she surveyed the damage in her neighborhood.
While the National Weather Service has not confirmed a tornado touched down, residents captured dramatic cellphone video during the storm.
Parks said the storm ripped the roof off her back patio, which was later found in her front yard.
“We found out that the back porch — the whole thing — the roof came off. We lost electricity,” she said.
She had been out for a walk when the weather turned dangerous.
“I couldn’t get out of the rain — the wind was too strong. Some flying object hit me on the back of my leg,” Parks added. “I ran to someone’s house, got shelter in their carport — and called my husband. He could barely see to get to me because of the rain, the wind, and the hail storm.”
Across the street, Miramar resident Joana Klaiss rushed to get her family to safety as the winds picked up.
“It was scary because it was like is this an actual tornado?” she said, as security camera footage showed her ushering her children inside and trying to grab the family cat.
“It sucks because we have to replace a whole fence,” Klaiss added, pointing to the damage in her yard.
At North Perry Airport, high winds lifted a small plane and blew it onto a truck — a startling sign of the storm’s intensity.
In addition to the wind damage, hail battered the area and several large trees were toppled, blocking roads and damaging property.
City crews and utility workers were out early Saturday morning working to clear debris and restore power to affected homes.
