By Rachel Galvin

Tuesday morning, Feb. 16, an EF 1 tornado ripped through Pompano Beach with winds between 86 to 110 m.p.h. causing extensive damage there and in nearby Lighthouse Point, including power outages. The Muvico was just one place that had downed trees, including ones that pulled up the sidewalk.

Near the theater, Pete Smith and his wife, Lisa, slowly picked up tree branches in front of their home in the aftermath of the storm.

“It sounded like the world was coming to an end,” said Smith, who heard the storm at about 7:30 a.m., and says this is the first storm like this he has experienced personally, despite being there for 30 years. He was out of town during Wilma.

“We had fence damage, siding flew off the house,” he continued. “We don’t have money. I have a $5000 deductible on my insurance. I barely make it on social security. I have a bad back and can’t pick up [debris]. I asked the city to cut down the big tree out front, but they did not do it. When it falls, it’s going to kill someone.”

The Goodyear Blimp base  also had tree damage and lost some letters from its sign.

The most significant damage was to the nearby Sand & Spurs with horse trailers overturned and trees careening down near stables.

The Hooper family, from Lighthouse Point, who had damage on their street and no power at home, came to Sand & Spurs to check on their horse, Daisy, which, luckily, was okay despite the gigantic tree overturning nearby .

Krystal Cliver has had her horse here since 2009, but nothing like this has ever happened.

“There was one horse with stitches on its nose and one with stitches on his rib cage,” she said. “The horses are okay. People are okay. Now, it’s just clean up.”

A portable stage was picked up and thrown and is a loss, according to Pompano Beach PIO Sandra King, who added they asked FP&L to turn off the power due to downed wires in the area, but saying there were also pockets of power outages. In addition, she said, there was damage to the golf course.

There was also a tornado in the Miami area as well, which resulted in similar damage and a tractor trailer overturned on I-95.

Daisy, the horse, was not injured, despite this large tree crashing down near her stable at Sand & Spurs.

The Goodyear Blimp base had damage to its trees and sign.

Pete and Lisa Smith struggle to remove branches strewn in their yard from an unwanted tree on their property that they have asked the city to remove. They also had fence and siding damage from the storm.

The sidewalk near Muvico (on the south side of shopping center) was uplifted.

A tree near PDQ was uprooted.