Mike Damron of Carpinteria was listening to the rain fall on his mobile home when a tornado tore through the Sandpiper Mobile Home Park on Tuesday and ripped off the top of the carport, hitting him in the face with a piece of the roof.
“It’s kind of a tradition when you live here that if you’re going to hear a heavy rain, people like to go out and hear it hit their carport,” Damron said. “We don’t get heavy rains very often.”
Damron had ringing in his ears but after a visit to urgent care was cleared of any injuries.
On Friday morning, Damron and his wife spoke to insurance appraisers who were assessing the damage from the tornado. Damron was in good spirits. Luckily, no one was displaced by the storm, and Damron said the community effort was unbelievable.
More than 20 volunteers from Habitat for Humanity were at the Sandpiper Mobile Home Park, at 3950 Via Real, to clean up after the tornado. A lot of the debris included plastic from a nearby greenhouse that had been blown into the mobile home park during the tornado.
“What I want to do is have T-shirts printed up that said, I Survived the 2023 Tornado,'” Damron said.
About two dozen homes were damaged during the tornado, which included 75 mph winds.
The type of tornado was a landspout, which forms near the ground while thunderstorm clouds are still growing, Rose Schoensled with the National Weather Service told Noozhawk.
Trees from the cemetery behind the mobile home park had plastic in them and some had to be cut down.
Tonya Martines, Sandpiper Village general manager, said she was in her office when the tornado started. She looked out her window to see an awning flying by. After the storm passed, Martines went to assess the damage and is still in the “do mode” of the park’s cleanup.
“First you assess, you make sure that people are safe. You make sure that no one you know is gonna be displaced,” Martines said. “After you assess, you figure out what’s going on, then you come up with your plan of attack for how to clean. So, that’s right now. We’re in the cleanup phase.”
Habitat for Humanity already had worked with the mobile home park for several years, helping low-income homeowners with critical home repairs, said Susan Renehan, director of philanthropy and external affairs for the organization. That allowed the organization to immediately get involved with the mobile park’s management to provide assistance.
Tatiana Cruz, who works for the county, said she was glad she was able to volunteer since she sees people impacted by disaster but is not always able to help out.
“It’s pretty cool to be able to help out because in my position I don’t get to help a lot,” Cruz said.
“It beats working,” volunteer Bill Ferguson said.
Habitat for Humanity’s home repair program is open year-round for low-income homeowners, Renehan said, not just in times of disaster.
Residents can report storm damage to Santa Barbara County by clicking here.
“The info compiled will assist the county in understanding the extent of local impacts and advocate on behalf of the community for state and federal assistance. This form is not an application for financial assistance, nor does it indicate that assistance is currently available,” the county said.
Information about storm-related disaster assistance and recovery is available at readysbc.org.