“The only warning we had,” Florence said, “is one of my members coming and screaming ‘tornado, tornado — there’s a freaking tornado out there!’ ”
He shared the surveillance cameras that captured some of the damage from the 105 mph twister as it was happening. In the video, recorded by Fitworks Fitness Center’s cameras on Indian Ripple Road, the wind suddenly picks up and rips the branches off several tress as debris flies.
Then a window air conditioner comes into view and bounces off the top of a car in the business’ parking lot before coming to a rest on the concrete. The air conditioner smashed the top of the vehicle.
Florence said he did not think his cameras would get any of this, but the wind moved the camera just in time to catch the wind blow the air conditioner off the roof and onto cars in the parking lot below.
In another video, there’s calm inside the fitness center when someone rushes in and appears to inform the staff about the tornado. Everyone rushes out of the video, presumably to take cover. Several people are then seen milling about in another part of the building.