Seminole County cleanup continues after EF-2 tornado damages homes

Cleanup crews were still working through Longwood neighborhoods days after an EF-2 tornado tore a four-mile path across Seminole County, leaving damaged roofs, snapped trees, debris piles and thousands of households without electricity.

Seminole County said the tornado struck on March 10, 2025, in the Longwood area and brought peak winds of 120 mph. The county said the storm destroyed one home, damaged other homes and knocked out power for 3,600 households. In the storm’s aftermath, the visible emergency phase gave way to a slower recovery filled with debris removal, roof repairs, tree work and damage assessments.

Along Blue Iris Place in Longwood, several homes were damaged. In the Whispering Winds subdivision, a significant number of oak trees were downed and snapped, adding to the cleanup burden for residents already dealing with roof damage and broken fences. One Longwood home collapsed, and two people escaped without reported injury. In Lake Mary, the storm overturned a semi-truck and also damaged the FOX 35 station, showing how far the tornado’s impact extended beyond one neighborhood.

The county said its response included timely alerts, activation of a Level 2 Emergency Operations Center, debris removal, damage assessments, unmet-needs support and public information. Seminole County also said tornado recovery is usually led locally, rather than through the kind of large state or FEMA-style disaster response that often follows hurricanes. That means county crews and local partners carry much of the burden in the days after the storm, while residents sort through insurance claims, temporary housing questions and the challenge of deciding what can be repaired and what has to be replaced.

Wider reporting showed debris still on the ground in the damaged Longwood area less than a week later, a reminder that the end of the tornado warning did not mean the end of the damage. For Seminole County, the long recovery phase began after the headlines about the storm faded, with families in Longwood and Lake Mary still waiting for roofs to be patched, streets to be cleared and power to fully return.