A central Florida retirement community called The Villages was the scene of horrific destruction this weekend after a tornado ripped through the area and damaged or destroyed 1,200 homes. Fortunately, none of its residents was among the 20-plus killed in the storm. The Villages also is a major advertiser for GeezerJock magazine. It’s the title sponsor of the GeezerJock in Training program. So I’m hoping that the potential loss of revenue from The Villages can be offset by ads in other areas.

That’s a concern for the future, however. For now, we’re hoping that all the masters athletes in The Villages — especially the six masters triathletes featured in the magazine — have found safe haven and hope as they plot their recovery. You’re in our hearts at this trying time.
Lake County, the scene of several elderly deaths, also is home to the National Training Center in Clermont, site of the 2009 USATF National Masters Outdoor Championships.
One of many shocking stories:
Central Florida tornado kills 20, state of emergency declared
Crist declares emergency in storms’ wake
By Jeff Kunerth
Orlando Sentinel
February 3, 2007
The storm that killed at least 20 people in Central Florida on Friday started in the Gulf of Mexico, crossing the state’s coast at 2:30 a.m.
While racing across Citrus County, it was relatively small. But that would change in a span of less than 10 minutes. Paul Close, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Tampa, was watching radar when the storm exploded.
“It went from a little hint of something to `Oh, no!'” Close said.
He issued a tornado warning at 3:02 a.m. Just 13 minutes later, a twister struck trees near Wildwood and knocked roofing off a gas station.
From there, the tornado thrashed across rural landscape until it hit The Villages, a retirement mega-community that sprawls across Sumter and Lake counties. There, in about 10 minutes, it killed at least six people in Lady Lake and 13 others in the rural Paisley/Lake Mack communities just to the northeast.
Gov. Charlie Crist declared a state of emergency for Lake, Volusia, Sumter and Seminole counties, and requested federal assistance.
It was the second-deadliest tornado outbreak in Florida history, behind the five twisters in February 1998 that killed 42 people in Central Florida and destroyed about 2,600 homes and businesses.
“Hell opened up and half the demons came out,” said Russell Timmons, of Lady Lake.
The weather service’s preliminary estimates indicate the tornado was an F-3 with winds of between 150 mph and 160 mph, said meteorologist Dave Sharp of the service’s office in Melbourne.
“Everything just exploded,” said Ralph Shifflett, a 62-year-old resident of The Villages who was awakened by a loud roar just minutes before the storm hit his house.
Shifflett said he dove for the floor as windows shattered, his back patio splintered and pictures from his neighbor’s house zinged through his window like large bullets. Shifflett said he tried to get to a closet but there was no time.
The band of storms flattened houses and mobile homes, downed trees and overturned cars from Lady Lake to Ponce Inlet, from Umatilla to New Smyrna, while sweeping the rest of the region with heavy rains and gusty winds.
In an hour, the storms killed 19 people and injured 50, damaged or destroyed about 2,000 homes and caused more than $80 million in damage.
Between Lady Lake and DeLand, 532 lightning bolts were recorded by the weather service. As the storm pushed toward the coast, its intensity lessened. Between DeLand and Ponce Inlet, where the storm passed into the Atlantic Ocean at 4:27 a.m., meteorologists counted 75 lighting bolts.