Cape Coral Tornado Damages Homes Across 12-Mile Area

A weekend Florida tornado around Cape Coral caused damage to residences and businesses over a 12- square-mile area but no serious injuries.

The Cape Coral police website said more than 200 homes were damaged.

The EF2 tornado on Saturday carried winds of up to 135 miles per hour and damaged numerous homes in the area, confirmed Bay News 9. Lee County Electric Cooperative told the News-Press that about 2,000 residents initially lost power from the tornado.

EF2 tornadoes on the Enhanced Fujita Scale describe tornadoes with winds from 111 to 135 mph and are characterized by damage including roofs torn off houses; the shifting of homes on their foundations; the destruction of mobile homes; uprooted or snapped trees and cars lifted off the ground, according to the Weather Channel.

Cape Coral police spokesman Dana Coston told the News-Press that three people suffered minor injuries from broken glass. Coston said officials were still doing a damage assessment to see how many people were affected by the twister.

Rick Koch told the Naples Daily News that he was in his home on in Cape Coral with his fiancée, Susan Rivera and local artist Isack Kousnsky when the tornado struck his home.

"The windows started to break and I told them to get out of the living room," said Koch. "I thought we were going to die. … And the pressure inside the house changed. There was this terrible pressure. You knew something was totally wrong."

Rivera said the tornado "was all over in minutes, but it felt like hours."

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