Hurricane Milton: She fled Naples for Wellington to escape. Then a tornado flipped her car

WELLINGTON — Kathryn Tapper could have questioned her decision to escape her home in Naples and stay with friends in Wellington with Hurricane Milton thrashing toward land from the Gulf of Mexico.

But she still believes everything happens for a reason, including surviving a tornado and then walking outside the home in the Meadow Wood neighborhood and seeing her 2012 black Hyundai Elantra on its nose leaning up against a garage.

"I said, 'OK, I've never seen the underside of my car before,' " she said.

Tapper, originally from Jamaica and now a doctor, was unfazed.

"I'm a very calm person and I know I'm supposed to be where I'm supposed to be," she said. "I knew I was supposed to be here for some reason. I don't know why."

The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado had touched ground near Wellington about 4 p.m. Wednesday, one of possibly multiple tornadoes, spawned by Milton, that hit Palm Beach County and other nearby counties. Officials are still trying to determine the speed, strength and duration of each tornado.

As for Tapper, she huddled in a bathroom of the home on the corner of Fairdale Way and Meadow Wood Drive with homeowners Yolanda Nesbeth and Ricardo Johnson, their 6-month-old and Nesbeth's mother.

"I don't think we closed the door before the tornado hit," Nesbeth said.

Johnson was the first to step outside.

"We heard him say, 'Oh my God. Oh my God,' " Nesbeth said.

Aside from seeing Tapper's vehicle on its nose, the portion of the garage roof was gone and the air handler was poking out of the hole. Nesbeth estimates repairs will take at least four months.

When she saw the vehicle, Tapper recalled a feeling she had earlier in the day.

"I actually envisioned this car flipping over early in the day," she said. "It's very strange, right? But I thought my car was going to flip on top of the Mercedes.

"I said, 'OK, my car flipped over. That means I need a new car.' "

The Wellington tornado sent five people to area hospitals, three of them to a trauma center. A separate suspected tornado hit St. Lucie County on Wednesday, killing five.

"How I see this is from the blessing. Our lives are spared and we see the love of the community coming out to support. I always see things from the positive. These things are replaceable. Human life is not."

Thursday morning, Tapper checked in with her neighbors to see about her Naples home.

"Everything looks fine in our neighborhood," she said.

Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and golf reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Hurricane Milton: She fled Naples for Wellington to escape. Then a tornado flipped her car