Cape Coral neighbors recovering after landspout tornado swept over neighborhood

CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WINK)—A tornado touched down in Cape Coral with no warning, surprising neighbors and leaving damage in its wake.

Trees, lanais and furniture all swept up in a landspout tornado. 

A Cape Coral lanai was completely crumpled from the tornado blowing through. A neighbor said the homeowners are gone for the summer but have been notified of the damage.

Across a canal, a tree was not just ripped apart but visibly twisted by the tornado's force. Neighbors said they were shocked to see the tornado appear almost out of nowhere.

"Swirling and turning, and then the wind was getting tougher and hotter; it was hard to actually stand within it," neighbor Lynnette Scarcello said.

"All of a sudden, I saw this wind starting to kick up and swirl up," Bob Sutter said. "I'm kinda like, 'You know, I might need to go inside.'"

Kerri Heacox and her son were home when the tornado struck. "I could see screens kinda swirling over the house behind us right here, and I was like, to my husband, 'I think it's a tornado. Do we need to, like, get out of here?" Heacox said.

The Heacox family watched through a window as the tornado swept up chairs and their neighbor's batting cage right into their fence. They grabbed their kids and dog and took shelter in their laundry room.

"My husband popped his head out and could see the fence was up in the air, so he kinda ran back, and we could hear it," Heacox said. "It's loud, but, like... And then it was over."

The family immediately called their neighbors, the Rapozas, who were at a softball tournament. The Rapozas returned home to find their grill in their pool.

"We were sitting there kinda waiting out the rain to go to our car, and we got a text that was like, 'There's a tornado in our yard.' And I was like, 'Nuh-uh,'" Christine Rapoza said.

Neighbors brought grappling hooks over to help fish plastic chairs from the canal.

Down the street, a group of friends were in their pool and caught the tornado traveling overhead. Jonathan Contreras and Emiliano Fernandez said it happened in the blink of an eye.

"Just a matter of, like, 20 minutes, all that crazy wind and all that, like, rain just came out of nowhere," Fernandez said. "And then back to normal."

Contreras started recording and caught the moment the wind swept his grill into the pool. He was shocked to see the destruction left behind.

"It was almost like a hurricane," Contreras said. "There was debris everywhere, fences down. I mean, it was definitely unusual."

Cars were chipped and scratched, and a brand-new, month-old canopy was ripped apart. Neighbors said they had flashbacks from Hurricane Ian, the last time they had to fix a fence, lanai or other damages to this extent.

"We can pick up mangoes. We can pick up trees. We can't pick up people as easily," Scarcello said. "So right now, everyone's safe, and that's all that matters."

"Whatever got broken, whatever got damaged, it can all be replaced," Sutter said. "A life cannot be replaced."

The tornado left behind broken lanais, shredded trees and grills scattered in pools. Debris swirling in the air was the first thing people said they saw during those moments of panic.