Help family recover from Florida tornado

Hello on behalf of my family and I, I’m humbly fundraising for a recent F2 tornado that hit our home and destroyed everything. According to locals, our building was where the tornado touched down and moved forward. The building, belongings and vehicles all destroyed. We have no family out here. The tornado was sudden and hit within 2 minutes of the alarm going off. Winds were recorded at 136 MPH.

How it happened: 4/29 5:15pm There was loud cracking thunder on top of us. Lightning flashing in the windows. Which is nothing new of a severe thunderstorm. I went to close the blinds because my 7 year old daughter was frightened. The second I come back from the window the alarms went off. I grabbed my daughter, her iPad and we closed ourselves in the laundry room. It was the most central room with no windows. The power was flickering. It went off and on maybe 2/3 times then just went out completely. There was a quiet moment. I ran out for the flashlights and came back. It started hailing & pouring. Handed a flashlight to my daughter and was using both hands to pull the door closed. That’s when my hair was blowing like a fan was on, the pressure in my ears were popping as if I were in an air plane. The building was shaking, I mean heavily vibrating. The door I was holding was shaking, I was pulling it closed. It got dark during broad daylight, it was only 5pm. It was so loud. Rumbling. The wind was around you. You knew you were in tornado behind a closed door. I had my daughter on her iPad with the volume up to help distract her. She was scared but right next to me. Reminding her we’re okay. Praying over and over. It went quiet and got bright all of a sudden. Tornado passed. I asked my daughter to stay in the laundry room until I looked outside. It was still windy and rainy. The windows were broken. I went to get our shoes as to not step on glass. Called neighbors, and heard voices outside. The view I had for the first time ever opening my front door was something out of a movie. Every SINGLE tree was destroyed. Uprooted or thrown. We have A LOT of trees, the lake is full of branches. Any fencing was all bent and broken. Patio furniture littered with all the broken debris. Broken glass and tile everywhere. Every window on the building is broken. The roof was torn off. Units were exposed.

Our neighbor starts yelling for me to come over because our cars were thrown around. Trees fell on the cars, were thrown Into other cars. Windshields and lights all broken. Police and fire are yelling for anybody needing to be rescued. Everything you see in a movie. It’s real, only this time, we lived through it and I’m so grateful. Grateful to God, hearing my prayers in that room & got us ALL out unharmed. We’re still in disbelief and in shock. It’s hard to sleep or even eat. My daughter is worried about hearing an alarm again. Time will heal these mental and emotional wounds.

However, now is the rebuilding and the clean up phase of our life. Our building has been condemned by the police. It is no longer inhabitable. They are not allowing anybody to go inside. Not even to get our belongings. We have 1 duffle bag, we stuffed in the dark as best we could. We are currently living in hotels until further notice. It’s been 3 nights and already it’s cost $500. Our vehicle is destroyed. We are filing with insurance and have been in touch with the Red Cross. We’re asking for help to cover food, hotels and now the burden of high deductibles on the claims we need to file. There are multiple. Plus any rehoming expenses. We have been informed that it will be another year for our building to be rebuilt. All funds will go towards costly hotels until our daughter finishes the first grade school year, food, gas, the cost of moving, repairs of vehicles, new deposits & rent. I will update this page with our journey and where we end up. Anything helps us, we are grateful and appreciative of everything. If you have my number personally and don’t want to give on this platform. Reach out to me. Thank you again. There are not enough words or ways to express my gratitude to everybody. This was a life experience our family will never forget. I love you all ❤️ stay safe! Take alarms seriously.