Large tree crashes through home

Fort Lauderdale mostly spared after two tornadoes

As the sun broke through a thin layer of low-hanging clouds Wednesday morning, a teardrop fell from Iris Walker’s left eye as she strained and groaned while dumping a bucket of shattered sheet rock into a trash can outside her home in northwest Fort Lauderdale.

Her modest home at 422 NW Seventh Terrace looked completely different than it did just 18 hours earlier — before wicked weather that included two tornadoes raked across Fort Lauderdale, sending a toppling pine tree through the roof of her home.

“It’s painful. I get emotional when I start talking about it. Don’t mind my tears,” Walker, 60, said while standing in her yard, which was littered with fallen tree trunks, broken branches and other debris.

Two EF-O tornadoes touched down Tuesday afternoon, leaving little significant damage but fouling air travel and littering east central Broward with palm fronds and branches.

One of the systems hit the downtown Fort Lauderdale area at 3:34 p.m., the weather service said. At a maximum width of 60 yards and with an estimated peak wind of 65 mph, it traveled along nearly 3½ miles before dissipating after 24 minutes, the weather service said.

The second tornado, with an estimated peak wind speed of 85 mph, touched down on the northwestern side of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport

JOE CAVARETTA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER A tornado sent a toppling pine tree through the roof of Iris Walker’s home.