WELLINGTON, Fla. — Local diving boat captain Tony Brazzale, a resident of Wellington for the past decade, initially felt secure as Hurricane Milton was projected to make landfall on the opposite side of Florida. However, as the storm intensified on Wednesday afternoon, he witnessed a tornado form ominously in the sky, prompting him to quickly capture the moment on video. As pressure dropped and his wife experienced ear popping, they took shelter indoors.
The tornado caused significant destruction: it shattered windows, ripped shingles from the roof, uprooted trees, and scattered debris across his yard. In the aftermath, Brazzale donned safety goggles and began the laborious cleanup process with a chainsaw.
“For us, the hurricane was a nonevent,” he remarked. “If it weren’t for this F-3 tornado, we would have had no issues at all.”
Milton triggered a series of tornadoes across South Florida, far from its landfall near Sarasota. Tragically, one tornado led to the deaths of at least six individuals in Spanish Lakes Country Club Village, located about an hour north of Wellington.
Meteorologists estimate that Hurricane Milton may have spawned at least 38 tornadoes. The National Weather Service issued a staggering 126 tornado warnings on the day of the storm, with ongoing assessments that could take weeks to finalize.
Once evaluations are complete, Hurricane Milton could rank among the top ten hurricanes in history for tornado generation. Currently, the record is held by Hurricane Ivan, which produced 118 tornadoes in 2004, while Hurricane Beryl, which struck in July, is being reviewed and has already confirmed at least 65 tornadoes.
Typically, Florida experiences approximately 50 tornadoes annually, according to local meteorology experts.
In Wellington, about 210 miles southeast of Tampa, local sheriff’s deputies assisted residents in clearing debris and removing fallen trees from roadways throughout Friday.
As Brazzale worked to repair his home, neighbors in Pine Trace at Binks Forest were also engaged in similar cleanup efforts, utilizing tarps on damaged roofs and cutting up downed trees.
Brazzale expressed relief that no lives were lost in their community.
“You definitely feel the pressure drop when a tornado goes over,” he recalled. “It sounds like a freight train.”
