Florida tornado victim records intense video inside car as twister tosses vehicle into the air
Someone in a car on the other side of the intersection was also recording at the time and caught video of the dramatic moment from a different angle.
Tornado survivor captures moment when a tornado flipped over his car from inside
Tornado survivors Zack Means and Jeffrey O'Neill join FOX Weather to recount their experience being hit by a tornado while in their respective cars with Zack's car flipping multiple times.
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – A heart-stopping video recorded inside a car in Florida captured the moment a strong EF-2 tornado ripped across a road in Palm Beach Gardens and tossed a vehicle into the air, spun it several times and slammed it back onto the ground.
Someone in a car on the other side of the intersection was also recording and caught video of the dramatic moment from a different angle.
DRAMATIC VIDEO SHOWS CAR TOSSED INTO THE AIR LIKE TOY DURING TORNADO IN FLORIDA
Watch: Car thrown into the air during Florida tornado
A video recorded in Palm Beach, Florida, shows a tornado tossing a car into the air on Saturday, April 29, 2023.
"It was all very unexpected. It happened really quickly," tornado survivor Zachary Means told FOX Weather meteorologist Amy Freeze. "It just seemed like a normal thunderstorm. It wasn’t really too intense."
Then, Means said, the Tornado Warning came across his phone.
"Out of nowhere, we got hit," he said. "But it was all very unexpected, and I mean, it just happened in an instant."
Watch: Florida man records heart-stopping video inside car as it's tossed into the air by violent tornado
A Florida man was recording video inside his car the moment a violent EF-2 tornado spun across a road in Palm Beach Gardens and tossed the vehicle into the air like a toy.
While Means was trapped inside the vehicle as the tornado approached, unbeknownst to him, his friend, Jeffrey O’Neill, was in a different car on the other side of the road.
"Just like Zack said, it all happened so fast, and the same thing," O'Neill said. "I’d heard the (tornado) warning come on my phone. It was actually my birthday, and I was going to a birthday dinner."
THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD DO IF YOU ARE DRIVING AND THERE IS A TORNADO ON THE GROUND
O’Neill said that after he heard the Tornado Warning, and turned around to try and seek shelter.
"I was only a half-mile from my house, and it just came so fast out of nowhere, and it was pretty scary," he said. "I mean, a lot of flying debris, and as you can see, I’m actually the car on the left, and all these trees were on the right."
O’Neill said he thought for sure the tornado was going to blow the trees onto his car.
"With all the flying debris, I just thought something was going to come through the window or windshield," he said.
O’Neill said that a white truck had pulled up alongside him, and he believes that helped to block a lot of the tornado’s impacts.
DRONE VIDEO SHOWS TORNADO DAMAGE IN FLORIDA TOWN
EF-2 tornado leaves path of destruction across Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Rounds of storms triggered severe weather warnings and produced an EF-2 tornado packing 130-mph winds in northern Palm Beach County on Saturday.
"Then to see Zach get out of the car, you know, a good buddy of mine flipped three or four times across the highway," O'Neill said. "It was just a surreal moment."
Means said he had no idea the tornado was approaching until it was too late.
"When I was driving back towards my house after I got the warning, you know, I was just trying to get off the road," he said. "As I stopped my car right before I started shooting the video, I could see transformers blowing up in the distance."
Copious amounts of debris then started filling the air.
![Apartment complex damage by suspected tornado.]()
Image 1 of 9Apartment complex damage by suspected tornado. (Chase Cervantes)
![Apartment complex damage by suspected tornado.]()
Image 2 of 9Apartment complex damage by suspected tornado. (Chase Cervantes)
![Apartment complex damage by suspected tornado.]()
Image 3 of 9Apartment complex damage by suspected tornado. (Chase Cervantes)
![Apartment complex damage by suspected tornado.]()
Image 4 of 9Apartment complex damage by suspected tornado. (Chase Cervantes)
![Apartment complex damage by suspected tornado]()
Image 5 of 9Apartment complex damage by suspected tornado. (Chase Cervantes)
![Palm Beach Gardens storm damage]()
Image 6 of 9Trees were knocked over and several homes were damaged in northern Palm Beach County. (Sharon Jeannette)
![Palm Beach Gardens storm damage]()
Image 7 of 9Trees were knocked over and several homes were damaged in northern Palm Beach County. (Sharon Jeannette)
![Palm Beach Gardens storm damage]()
Image 8 of 9Trees were knocked over and several homes were damaged in northern Palm Beach County. (Sharon Jeannette)
![A pile of cars is seen in a parking lot after a tornado-warned storm moved through Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, on April 29, 2023.]()
Image 9 of 9A pile of cars is seen in a parking lot after a tornado-warned storm moved through Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, on April 29, 2023. (Andrew Laybourne/Twitter)
"The last few moments before it hit me, I was like, ‘Uh oh,’ but I didn’t realize at first that we were in that kind of immediate danger," Means said.
The friends said that they’d been asked several times recently how they couldn’t see the monster tornado approaching them.
"To Zack’s point earlier, in Florida, these tornadoes are rain-wrapped, and they’re just so hard to spot," O’Neill said. "A lot of people said, ‘How come you couldn’t see it coming?’ And you really couldn’t. I mean, honestly, it (the Tornado Warning) had come on the radio, and 20 seconds later, it was on top of us."