Ridgeway community rocked by storm
Driving rain, howling winds, and structural damage awakened many Ridgeway neighbors on Saturday, Oct. 29. Carports and trim pieces seemed to present the most common targets as a destructive twister moved through the area.
The Patriot Avenue (Cambridge) home of Marjorie Sullivan had its carport and Florida room roof rolled up, stripped off, and carried away. Much of the roof of the house itself was damaged, and the home is now covered in an all-too-familiar blue plastic tarp. The rolled-up roof came to rest in a neighbor’s front yard. Oddly enough the contents of the room seemed undisturbed, as everything remained on the shelves and peg board left behind.
At the Seabird and Delegate intersection, Wanda Hebel, after being warned of the impending tornado by her mother-in-law, Betty Hebel, was headed to the Ridgeway clubhouse for shelter, when she saw the storm heading her way. She pulled into her driveway close to her home. The force of the storm shook and moved her car, but chose not to destroy anything but Wanda’s composure and nerves.
Across the street, the storm slammed a PODS storage unit that had been in Russ and Maggie Dentinne’s driveway into the parked motor home that serves as their temporary home while a new manufactured home is being installed. Damage to the R.V. could not be determined until the storage unit was moved, but a mirror on the nearby parked car was destroyed.
The storm continued on its path of havoc, traveling through Ridgeway where it ripped the entire carport from a house on Bluebird Circle scattering it into the open area between Bluebird and Swan streets.
Once onto Swan Avenue, the storm trashed a few more carports, ripped off some trim, peeled up a few roof sections and then moved through to Eagle where it scattered more sections of houses torn loose as it moved on its way.
The storm had the potential to do much more damage—both property and human—yet there were no reports of personal injury and very little major property damage was reported.
The Martin County Fire Rescue Department responded quickly and efficiently. They reported damage to 46 homes and six cars. Neighbors helped to clear the debris, checked on friends and adjacent property and comforted each other in the knowledge that this could have been so much worse.
WPTV was on the scene reporting from Ridgewood Mobile Home Park, where ever that is.
–by George Kleine
