Merritt Island community hit hard by likely Hurricane Irma-spawned tornado

Standing amid piles of mangled debris on Wednesday, Merritt Island resident Curtis Horton smiled and said his community would survive the ravages of Hurricane Irma.

"Our homes are gone," Horton said at the Island Lakes community of manufactured homes off North Courtenay Parkway. "But we will rebuild. We're strong Floridians and we'll manage to get through this."

Horton's community, situated just a few miles south of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, likely bore the brunt of a tornado on Sunday night as Irma's bands lashed Brevard County and brought with it dangerous circulations – and warning after warning from weather forecasters at the National Weather Service in Melbourne.

"The number of tornadic circulations and storm rotations that were seen – I haven't seen anything like this in my 23 years," said Tony Cristaldi, a meteorologist with the weather service, of what he saw on radar during the hurricane. "This topped them all."

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A touchdown on Merritt Island, however, has not been confirmed as teams from the weather service are expected to spend the next few weeks or even months surveying potential damages and areas affected by tornadoes, after which they will compile an official report.

But the signature of damages at Island Lakes – a concentrated zone of destruction surrounded by homes that were comparatively untouched – initially points to the touchdown of a tornado.

“That seems to be the signature of tornadoes," Cristaldi said. "These damaged paths that show damage that’s enhanced above and beyond the surrounding areas.”

As the hurricane's northeast quadrant moved over the Space Coast, Cristaldi said, it became an engine for generating circulations in already wind-whipped areas, driving the typical 70 to 80 mph gusts up to at least 100 mph when the tornado touched down.

On the opposite side of Courtenay Parkway, Pastor Monty Trammel of the Orsino Baptist Church said he could see the likely path of the tornado that also damaged his church's patio and toppled the uppermost portion of the steeple.

"We feel very fortunate that nobody got hurt over there," Trammel said. "We have some church members at Island Lakes and they're all doing pretty good."

The community, fortunately, was already under an evacuation order.

"We evacuated into Merritt Island in a better house," Sandy Jordan, a one-year resident who saw some minor damages, said. "Some you can see their kitchen cabinets and everything."

But the recent retirees from Illinois who operated a siding, window and roofing company aren't ready to give up after also evacuating for Hurricane Matthew in October 2016.

"I like it here," her husband, Tony, said in the couple's sun-soaked driveway.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook at @EmreKelly.