FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Kathryn Tapper was worried about the havoc Hurricane Milton could bring to her home in Naples, so she drove to a friend’s house in Wellington to try to find safe shelter.

Instead, she ended up hiding in the bathroom from a tornado that hit close to 5 p.m. Wednesday. The twister heavily damaged her friend’s house in the Meadow Wood of the Landings neighborhood and caused her black Hyundai Elantra to flip over. The rear of the vehicle leaned up against the roof her home before rescue crews pulled it down.

But Tapper said she didn’t panic.

“I’m a very calm person. My friend’s husband went outside and saw the damage and told me, ‘Your car is on the side of the roof, so I was expecting it,” Tapper told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “These things are inescapable. I’m happy that we’re all alive. I’m not worried about the car.”

Palm Beach County residents are describing in vivid detail how they took cover during tornadoes that devastated their communities. The twisters led to injury and massive rescue efforts to free people trapped inside rubble. One of the tornadoes had winds that likely reached 140 mph, a powerful twister at an EF-3, Robert Molleda of the National Weather Service said during a news conference Thursday afternoon.

Palm Beach County Fire Rescue says at least 40 units of firefighters went to help people while one of the tornadoes still was circulating in the Deer Path Lane area of Wellington, and near Northlake and Coconut Boulevards in the Acreage and Loxahatchee areas. Fire rescue said 911 calls started coming in just before 5 p.m. and continued for more than 50 minutes. Firefighters said they pulled many people to safety from damaged buildings and vehicles in those areas.

"Some were trapped under rubble or stuck in overturned vehicles tossed by the strong winds," according to a news release from Palm Beach County Fire Rescue. "Our Special Operations Team conducted a technical rescue to free one person from an overturned RV."

The two Palm Beach County tornadoes that hit several miles apart from each other were among seven across southern Florida whose paths were shown in a graphic released Thursday by the National Weather Service in Miami. Videos and photos were used to confirm five of the seven tornadoes, according to the weather service, which indicated the tornadoes' tracks were based on preliminary information. Throughout the day, the weather service was in the Wellington area assessing the damage, Molleda said.

During a news conference, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said the damage appears much more extensive when it's viewed from high above. He said he rode in a helicopter over Wellington and other hard-hit areas to assess the damage. “It looks like a war zone,” he said. “It was like an atomic bomb blowing up.” The devastation led Palm Beach County schools to keep their campuses closed Friday.

Palm Beach County Fire Rescue took seven people, including three trauma patients, to a hospital. They also treated many more people who walked up to them for minor injuries. "Our crews on the scene reported several damaged homes, vehicles picked up and moved, and debris all over the area," fire rescue said.

Tapper was staying with her close friend Yolanda Nesmit, who lives at the corner Fairdale Way and Meadow Wood Drive near Wellington Landings Middle. Tapper's home in Naples wasn't damaged, she said. But the damage to Nesmit's home was extensive, with drywall down, the front door and some windows blown out, the roof over the garage caved in and some furniture destroyed.

She said she was at home with Tapper and several family members when she got a notification on her phone at 4:49 p.m. Wednesday that there was a tornado in her area. Her husband, Ricardo Johnson, saw on the news that the tornado was directly southwest of their house.

"So he moved to grab us and then we heard a boom, and then we heard this whooshing and we ran to where we knew was going to be our safe room," she said. "We all got into the bathroom. Before we could even sit down, you could hear a crash and a boom. This all happened in less than a minute."

After the tornado passed, "My husband ventured out just and he was like, 'Oh my God. Oh my God,'" Nesmit said.

She said she doesn't have an assessment of the damage yet.

"We're really just grateful for life. We have a lot of friends and family and neighbors that have been absolutely gracious and helpful," she said. "We stayed the night at our next-door neighbor's house because we were concerned the hurricane would come and further just devastate the place."

A half-mile to the north on Meadow Wood Drive, Megan Shirley was surveying damage Thursday afternoon and making plans to find a rental property. The room in the center of the house collapsed, and the home wasn't habitable.

"There's walls missing. It will rain inside," Shirley told the Sun Sentinel.

Shirley said she predicted her house would get hit. It sustained minor damage as a result of tornadoes spawned by Hurricane Irma in 2017.

"Everyone was saying not to worry because we're outside the cone, but I said where we are, with the wind shears, we're going to get tornadoes," Shirley said. "And if it's going to hit someone, it's going to be my house. I'm a little bit of a black cloud. This is the second time in seven years. There's something about this house, the wild preserve or something."

Shirley said her husband was out of town, and she was with her best friend and four children Wednesday when the tornado hit. She said she and her 12-year-old son were putting up shutters.

Shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday, she said she heard a tornado.

"I'm from Mississippi, so I know what it sounds like, and I've been through one too many times," she said. "I yelled to everyone to get in the bathroom in the center of the house.

"It sounds like a train. It's this low rumble, and the sky changes color, and there's a pressure change," she said. "As soon as we closed the bathroom door, it hit and everything started shaking. Your ears are popping because of the pressure change."

At first, she thought it wasn't too bad, but "as soon as we opened the door to the bathroom, we realized that we could see the sky."

She stayed with a neighbor Wednesday night and now plans to stay with a friend until she can find a rental.

The experience has proven traumatic for the family, she said.

"Now that I have young children, they're saying when do we get to go back home. Are they fixing the house?" Shirley said. "My oldest, who is 12, had his first panic attack yesterday. I think he's old enough to realize the implications that if we didn't get into that bathroom, we wouldn't be here."

The tornado also struck the home of Calvin Cearley Sr., who lives in the Preserve at Binks Forest in Wellington.

"I was watching television and the news said there was a tornado reported in the Wellington area," Cearley said. "About that time, my boy called and said, 'Hey, there’s a tornado coming towards you.' Just as he said that, my back yard exploded. It sounded like a bomb going off."

He said the tornado ran through his backyard, causing damage. "It tore my screen off my pool, tore up a bunch of trees, tore up tile off my roof, tore a toolshed up, and tore trees down out in front of the house."

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