After the storm: Indianhead neighbors gather for community cookout and share stories, help

As day turned to night in Tallahassee's Indianhead neighborhood, dozens of residents Friday gathered in Optimist Park for an impromptu cookout to grill food that otherwise would have spoiled in powerless freezers and fridges.

Most were relieved that being without electricity or having their driveway blocked by a tree was the worst of their problems. The early Friday storms otherwise scoured central Tallahassee, snapping trees and utility poles like pencils.

Others weren't as lucky.

"I have four trees on my house," said Angel Hirai, who's lived in the neighborhood since 2006. "The back wall is missing and there's water and trees inside. We've seen neighbors' houses damaged (in past storms) but nothing like this."

She said she already made a claim with her insurance company, the state-backed Citizens, and hopes to have the trees removed by next week but doesn't expect to be back in her home for another year. She and her family hope to find a rental in the neighborhood in the meantime.

As reported previously, the Friday storms may go down as the city’s worst tornado outbreak, with wind gusts as high as 100 mph and as many as three different tornadoes damaging or destroying homes and businesses. One woman was killed when a tree crashed into her home.

As the storms passed over Indianhead, Hirai said her family sat in an interior hallway "and listened to trees fall on the house. Every time one fell, the whole house shook."

Longtime Tallahassee resident Penfield Newell, carrying a plate of food, said she lost eight trees on her property in the storms, with two landing on the Indianhead house where she's lived for 11 years.

"The water was just pouring in," she said. The good news: Half of her house is still livable. Another tree hit her car.

Indianhead neighbors were helping other neighbors 'as soon as the thunder stopped'

Marie-Claire Leman, a board member of the Indianhead Lehigh Neighborhood Association, said neighbors were out helping neighbors "as soon as the thunder stopped," checking on the elderly, using chainsaws to cut gaps through fallen trees on roadways.

Friday's cookout was borne of the same sense of community, she added: Another board member, Eli Wilkins-Molloy, had the association's vibraphone-sized charcoal grill it uses for big events, such as the annual Nene Fest (many street names end in "Nene," the Muscogee Indian word for "trail").

"We didn't think we would need it after a tornado, but Eli texted me, 'Should I take the grill out?' " she said.

The tornado that likely passed through the area actually did one neighbor a favor. Daniel Mendez, who recently moved from Denver with his family, said he had arranged for a dead tree in his back yard to be removed, coincidentally on the morning of the storms.

"Now I don't know where the tree is," Mendez said, wondering whether it was splintered into nothingness. "It disappeared. I have been asking neighbors, 'Did you see my tree?' "

Even those who had it much worse were making the best of it. Hirai said she "lives in an amazing community and we have had so many offers of shelter and food, so we're very grateful."

But for now, "we're homeless so we may as well make it fun. We're musicians so we're thinking about going on a 'Tornado Tour,' " she added with a laugh.

News Director Jim Rosica can be reached at jrosica@tallahassee.com. Follow him on X: @JimRosicaFL.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Indianhead neighbors share storm stories of loss, relief at cookout