Longwood homeowners assess damage after EF2 tornado
HOMES, LEVELING ONE IN LONGWOOD. WESH 2’S HAYLEY CROMBLEHOLME BEGINS OUR LIVE STORM COVERAGE TONIGHT. OUTSIDE OF THAT HOUSE. HAYLEY. YEAH. SO THIS HOME OFF OF MARKHAM WOODS ROAD, IT SEEMS TO HAVE SUSTAINED THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE. YOU TAKE A LOOK BEHIND ME, YOU CAN SEE IT’S JUST MOSTLY FLAT. JUST ONE PART OF THE HOME. THAT FRONT PORCH STILL STANDING. IF YOU GO THROUGH THIS NEIGHBORHOOD, IT IS JUST COVERED IN TREES, IN TARPS, AND FILLED WITH PEOPLE WHO WERE TERRIFIED. THIS MORNING. BUT MIRACULOUSLY, NO ONE INJURED. IN THIS SECURITY CAMERA CAPTURED THE MOMENT AN EF2 TORNADO TORE THROUGH THIS LONGWOOD NEIGHBORHOOD. UNLIKE ANYTHING LIKE A FREIGHT TRAIN, AND THE WHOLE HOUSE SHOOK. IT’S JUST SHATTERING GLASS IN THIS MAN’S HOME. LEAVES AND DEBRIS COVERED THE FLOOR AFTER MULTIPLE WINDOWS BLEW OUT HIS BACK PORCH, COVERED IN GLASS. AND WHAT REMAINS OF HIS SMASHED PATIO DOORS, TREE LIMBS AND PIECES OF OTHER HOMES ARE SCATTERED AROUND. TWO I CANNOT EXAGGERATE. I MEAN, LIKE, EVERYTHING HAPPENS SO FAST. HE SAYS BY THE TIME HE AND HIS WIFE REALIZED WHAT WAS HAPPENING, IT WAS TOO LATE TO GET VERY FAR. THERE WAS NO TIME, SO WE JUST, YOU KNOW, DUCK RIGHT ON THE LIVING ROOM AREA ON THE CORRIDOR, THE FRONT DOOR BLEW IN, BRINGING IN DEBRIS AND ITEMS FROM THEIR FRONT YARD. THE FLOWER POT, THEY JUST CAME FROM THE DOOR AND HIT MY BACK. I MEAN, LIKE LITERALLY I FELT EVERYTHING I WAS JUST SAYING, LIKE, TRY TO PROTECT MY WIFE. THAT’S THAT’S ALL I DO. HE SAYS ALL BUT ONE ROOM IN HIS HOUSE WAS DAMAGED, BUT IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE. DOWN THE BLOCK, A HOME ALMOST COMPLETELY LEVELED BY THE SHEER FORCE OF THE TORNADO. NO TREES FELL ON TOP OF IT. PEOPLE HERE SPENT MONDAY CLEARING OUT WHAT THEY COULD. THERE’S NO TELLING HOW LONG REPAIRING OR REBUILDING SOME OF THESE HOMES COULD TAKE. SO I DON’T KNOW IF THEY’RE GOING TO TEAR DOWN THE HOUSE OR IF THEY ARE GOING TO TRY TO FIX IT. SO I DON’T KNOW HOW LONG IT’S GOING TO TAKE TO PUT IT BACK TO NORMAL. NOW, SOME FOLKS IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD WERE WITHOUT POWER FOR MUCH OF THE DAY. THEY WERE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT IF THEY WERE GOING TO STICK AROUND AND FIND SOME OTHER PLACE TO STAY. NOW WE HAVE SEEN LAW ENFORCEMENT DOING LOOPS THROUGH THIS NEIGHBORHOOD. AND OF COURSE, THE RED CROSS WAS OUT HERE AT ONE POINT TONIGHT HELPING PEOPLE FIGURE OUT AS THEY’RE NAVIGATING WHAT TO DO NOW, COVERING SEMINOLE COUNT
Longwood homeowners assess damage after EF2 tornado
Updated: 11:12 PM EDT Mar 10, 2025
Homeowners in Seminole County spent Monday clearing debris and assessing damage after an EF2 tornado tore through the area. In Longwood, one home was nearly completely leveled. Security camera footage from a home nearby captured the moment the tornado passed through. “It was like a freight train,” said one neighbor.”The whole house shook,” said another. In Cengiz Ugurluoglu’s home, leaves and debris covered the floor after multiple windows blew out. His back porch was covered in glass and what remains of his smashed patio doors. Tree limbs and pieces of other homes were scattered around too. “I cannot exaggerate. I mean, like everything happened so fast,” he said.He said by the time he and his wife realized what was happening, it was too late to get very far. “There was no time,” Ugurluoglu said. “So we just duck right on the living room area on the corridor,”The front door blew in. Bringing in debris and items from their front yard. “The flowerpot just came through the door and hit my back,” he said. “Literally, I felt everything. I was just saying, like, try to protect my wife. That’s all I did.” He says all but one room in his house was damaged. But it could have been worse. Down the block, a home was almost totally leveled by the sheer force of the tornado. No trees fell on top of it. People in the neighborhood spent Monday clearing out what they could. There’s no telling how long repairing or rebuilding some of these homes could take. “I don’t know if they are going to tear down the house or they are going to try to fix it,” Ugurluoglu said. “I don’t know how long it is going to take to put it back to normal.”Reconstruction companies and the American Red Cross were in the neighborhood Monday as homeowners navigated their next steps.
LONGWOOD, Fla. —Homeowners in Seminole County spent Monday clearing debris and assessing damage after an EF2 tornado tore through the area.
In Longwood, one home was nearly completely leveled. Security camera footage from a home nearby captured the moment the tornado passed through.
“It was like a freight train,” said one neighbor.
“The whole house shook,” said another.
In Cengiz Ugurluoglu’s home, leaves and debris covered the floor after multiple windows blew out. His back porch was covered in glass and what remains of his smashed patio doors. Tree limbs and pieces of other homes were scattered around too.
“I cannot exaggerate. I mean, like everything happened so fast,” he said.
He said by the time he and his wife realized what was happening, it was too late to get very far.
“There was no time,” Ugurluoglu said. “So we just duck right on the living room area on the corridor,”
The front door blew in. Bringing in debris and items from their front yard.
“The flowerpot just came through the door and hit my back,” he said. “Literally, I felt everything. I was just saying, like, try to protect my wife. That’s all I did.”
He says all but one room in his house was damaged. But it could have been worse. Down the block, a home was almost totally leveled by the sheer force of the tornado. No trees fell on top of it.
People in the neighborhood spent Monday clearing out what they could. There’s no telling how long repairing or rebuilding some of these homes could take.
“I don’t know if they are going to tear down the house or they are going to try to fix it,” Ugurluoglu said. “I don’t know how long it is going to take to put it back to normal.”
Reconstruction companies and the American Red Cross were in the neighborhood Monday as homeowners navigated their next steps.
