A massive clean-up effort is underway after a Thursday afternoon tornado took out dozens of trees in a Yulee neighborhood.
Officials say nobody was hurt during the EF-1 tornado. Massive trees fell onto homes and some say it’s a miracle nobody was hurt during the tornado.
Nassau County Emergency Management estimates that 40 to 50 homes were damaged as a result of the tornado, with the most damage concentrated in the Meadowfield Bluff subdivision.
Colby Prince, 15, was home alone when the storm hit his street on Riverwood Drive.
“It started like a train coming through the house. That’s when I called my dad,” Colby said.
“That’s not a call you want to get when you’re three hours away,” said Colby’s dad Rusty.
Rusty was at work in Tallahassee as the tornado hit Yulee around 2 p.m. Thursday. Their trees are now uprooted, some landing on their car and home.
“We got some holes some inside, water damage,” Rusty said.
A massive crane had to come to remove the tree off the Prince family's roof after this Colby rode out the storm inside.
Meanwhile, Mark Crutchfield had to use his own body as a human shield to protect his wife during the storm.
"I saw the rain start swirling, go horizontal and turn green," Crutchfield said.
He said he saw the twister heading towards his house and jumped into action.
"As it was hitting, I laid her down and went back and saw it turn," Crutchfield said.
Crutchfield and his wife are safe.
"Completely covered her in case the roof collapsed, she would be safe," Crutchfield said.
The American Red Cross has assisted one family in the area with lodging and will be in the area Friday to hand out snacks, water and cleanup kits. The Nassau County Sheriff’s Office is telling people that don’t live in the area to stay away.
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