Man survives tornado Iona lifts his house off the ground, destroying neighbor’s house

IONA

As people come together to help those devastated by Sunday’s tornadoes, we will see images of the devastation for a long time. When the storm hit, few people had time to prepare, including one man who received the warning, grabbed his blind dog and ran into the tub.

Some community members along Windcrest Drive in Iona had only seconds to react. Victor Paturzo says that one minute, he’s watching the news — the next, he’s running down his hallway. He said Sunday’s tornado caused his house to be completely lifted off the ground.

“Suddenly, I got an alert on my phone,” Paturzo said. “I decided to open the blinds on the west side of the house. I saw debris and rotation coming towards me and then it got closer and closer and I decided it was time. I grabbed the dog, I ran down the hallway and jumped in the tub with the dog and crouched down and he rushed over like everyone said. It sounds like a freight train.”

All the debris that previously lay in the road has been pushed aside, now community members have come together to clean up. Another man has a tree on top of his house. Paturzo is grateful that everyone survived, even another neighbor who was pinned under his own home.

“I came out of the house, I looked and I saw my neighbor’s house with a corrugated iron roof,” Paturzo said. “I ran across the street and saw his daughter and she was in tears, and I asked her, ‘Where’s your dad?’ And she said, “He’s in the house.” “It was just a fluke that they made it.”

Patruzo said it was a good thing that he was able to tie the storm to his house. The whole situation was dire, but he was grateful he hadn’t lost any of his neighbours. He said he had never seen anything like this before.

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