'Shaking' Home Wakes, Saves Man Before Room Sucked Away

EUSTIS, Fla. -- A homeowner in Eustis who was awakened by a "shaking" house got up and walked out of his living room seconds before it was blown away by tornado winds.

The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado touched down near Bay Street in Eustis late Thursday and damaged 50 homes in a six block area.

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Marie Wright said her husband was sleeping on his couch seconds before winds sucked the home's roof away and then the room.

"I stood up because the house was shaking," tornado victim Michael Wright said. "By the time I stood up and made it through the doorway, the roof blew off."

The Wright family said the roof was immediately blown away before the home was destroyed.

"You put a lot of your heart into your home and you put a lot of your blood, sweat and tears and everything," Marie Wright said. "We work hard for everything we get. I get attached emotionally to my stuff. I know that sounds cheesy, but my husband and I have been together for 18 or 19 years, we have accumulated a lot of it. It is pretty hard. We are lucky we just came out alive. My husband was sleeping on the couch and I'm just so glad it didn't take him with the roof."

Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. John Herrell said the Wrights' home and 19 others were uninhabitable and 30 others had broken windows, debris from fallen tree branches and roof damage.

Six Blocks Of Damage

The tornado touchdown near Bay Street was confirmed by the Lake County Sheriff's Office at 12:04 a.m. Friday. Officers said the serious damage was isolated to a six-block area bounded by the streets of Haselton (east boundary) and Bay (west boundary) and the avenues of Lakeview (south boundary) and Orange (north boundary).

Radar indicated a tornado spun off from a storm system that crossed through the state before spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Weather Service.

Twister Sounded Like Train

Several storm victims said the tornado sounded like a train and hissed as it approached their neighborhood.

"My son and I were standing (outside) and I said, 'Listen, listen,' and you could hear it coming first," victim Janet Martin said. "I saw something going round and round and then you could see the white funnel cloud and you could see it as plain as day. And I told my son to get in the house and go get your dad and your sister. It was pretty wild. You could hear that freight train coming."

Karen Seidule said the storm blew away the chimney and shattered nearly every window in the home she shares with her husband and son, Brett MacLaughlin. They were on their porch when the storm was passing through.

Storms Part Of Low Pressure System

Orange, Marion and Sumter counties were also under tornado warnings Thursday night.

The storms were part of a low pressure system centered off Florida's Gulf Coast that could strengthen and bring rain and tropical storm-force wind along parts of the coast as early as Friday, the National Hurricane Center said.

A hurricane hunter aircraft planned to fly into the system to determine if it was becoming tropical.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.