Tornado confirmed in Umatilla during Irma,

Widespread damage Sunday night in Umatilla as Hurricane Irma headed toward Central Florida was caused by a tornado — as residents suspected — that brought winds from 95 to 100 mph, the National Weather Service confirmed Friday.

The EF-1 twister about 6:30 p.m. caused significant damage to the Umatilla Inn and Restaurant on State Road 19, flipped over boats, tore off roofs and knocked down trees. A tree crashed through Teddy Spann’s home, where some of the five people holed up to ride out Irma fled to a closet before the impact. No one was injured. Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell described the Umatilla damage from the hurricane and tornado as “total devastation.”

The National Weather Service said the tornado formed near East Eighth Avenue, where trees in a field were uprooted or snapped. The twister moved toward a residential neighborhood between East Eighth Avenue and East Collins Street “and peeled back the roofs from several homes and uprooted numerous trees,” according to the weather service’s assessment.

The storm continued into the 96-acre North Lake Community Park on Roger Giles Road that opened in 2009 to provide recreational amenities for a growing population including baseball fields, picnic pavilions and basketball courts. The tornado toppled a scoreboard and snapped three power lines.

From there, the tornado crossed Lake Pearl into the Olde Mill Stream RV resort east of S.R. 19, where it destroyed about 10 recreational vehicles and damaged at least 25 others, the weather service determined. The tornado continued west into downtown, damaging the Umatilla Inn, an elementary school and a home on Babb Road. jfallstrom@ orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5916