Just as he stepped out onto his front porch, Derrick Davis froze in panic. On his way out to get dinner for his 12-year-old daughter’s birthday sleepover, Davis looked up and saw a funnel cloud on the ground, approaching his house all too quickly.
Knowing his wife, two daughters and two friends were in the house, unsuspecting, the Polk County football coach raced back inside.
“I had barely gotten to the door when I looked up and saw it coming,” Davis said. “It was like something out of the movie ‘Twister.’ When I looked up and saw stuff hitting the house and debris flying up, it was a scary feeling. All I could think was to yell for everybody to get downstairs in the basement as fast as possible.”
When a series of tornadoes blew through the area earlier this month, an EF2 storm hit Davis’ home as well as the farm surrounding his father’s and sister’s houses. His house sustained serious roof damage and the foundation was cracked. Eight trees were blown down in his yard and several others went down in the field behind the house, the lining in his swimming pool was ripped and his kids’ trampoline was found several hundred yards away, twisted around a tree.
“In about 10 seconds it was over,” Davis said. “But it’s amazing how much damage a storm can do in just a matter of seconds. And it’s depressing to look around and see your home damaged and things you own blown away, especially the girls’ stuff.