Hudson homes damaged by winds

HUDSON (FOX 13) - Firefighters say several homes in the Hudson were damaged by strong storms Friday afternoon.

They're along Larch Court in the Preserve at Fairway Oaks community.

Damage reports started coming into Pasco County Emergency Services at about 2:30 p.m., shortly after the heavy rain and wind began.

"The storm was very heavy for, I'd say, at least 20 minutes," said Gary VanDierendonk, who lives on Larch Court.

VanDierendonk's neighbor across the street suffered some of the worst damage, when a carport blew about 100 yards from another home, was lifted over a 10-foot wall, before it landed on that neighbor's home.

Another piece of that same carport landed alongside VanDierendonk's home.

"We were sitting in the living room watching TV and we heard a loud bang. I thought it was lightning until I looked out the side and I saw a shed was on the side of the house," he said. "It just tore my screen up a little bit on the side, broke a few pots back there. But I was lucky."

The storm affected seven homes, knocking down trees and causing some damage to a pool enclosure.

"Mother Nature is nothing to mess with," said Kevin Guthrie, Pasco County's Emergency Services Director. "In the emergency management world we always say, 'it only takes one.' And it doesn't take one hurricane or one tornado, it can be one straight-line wind event."

Jason Epp, who lives on Waggle Court, spent hours removing a 40-foot palm tree from his roof.

"I was at work, receive a phone call from my wife who was frantic that a tree had fallen on the house and I didn't know which tree and I had envisioned the worst," he said. "It fell in between trusses, busted plywood, but there's no water in the attic. So it was a fortunate hit."

No one was hurt in the storm.