Weather radios come just in time for DeLand's tornado anniversary

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Jan 31, 2009 - 7:30:12pm

It was two years ago in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 2, 2007, that a vicious tornado struck the south end of DeLand.

Hawthorne Hills mobile-home park, just off Garfield and East New Hampshire avenues, was devastated. The twister scattered pieces of mobile-home siding, air-conditioner condensers, insulation, furniture and personal belongings all over the park, and to who knows where.

The memory is still traumatic. The miracle is, no one was killed — no one at Hawthorne Hills, full of 65-year-old-plus retirees. No one at Applewood Apartments in DeLand, where roofs were torn off. No one in Volusia County. And the tornado cut a swath across the county, from the border of Lake County to New Smyrna Beach.

Two years later, 33 residents of Hawthorne Hills are getting weather radios, courtesy of the DeLand Fire Department and Volusia County Emergency Management, through a FEMA hazard-mitigation grant.

A total of 120 weather radios were provided, and the remainder were distributed through the mobile-home communities of The Oaks, Sha De Land, Town and Country, and the City of DeLand park.

Distribution of the radios targets people in mobile homes built in 1994 or earlier and more vulnerable to storm damage, and people who cannot afford the radios on their own.

"The Christmas Day tornado in 2006 and the Groundhog tornado in 2007 were the events which prompted the grant," Deputy Fire Chief Mark Harper said.

Some strobe attachments were provided for the radios. Those will awaken the hard-of-hearing to watches and warnings that may come during the night.

Mike Guerin, owner of Hawthorne Hills, was delighted with the radios, delivered Jan. 29, and to be distributed over the weekend.

So were the firefighters who delivered them.

The memory of the 2007 tornado is still painful to everyone involved.

"We're thankful nobody was killed," Guerin said.

The tornado destroyed 77 out of 187 homes in the park. Some have been replaced.

"One was lifted totally up off its foundation," Guerin said.

There are still empty, ragged depressions where homes once stood.

Tornadoes seem to have become a part of Central Florida weather, but some people will be able to sleep more easily, now.

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

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