Tornado Rips Roof Off Cape Cod Hotel
YARMOUTH (CBS) — It started with wind and rain. Then suddenly, the storm picked up, and so did the roof of a Yarmouth hotel.
Seconds later, hotel guest Charlie Lindemann shot video of the damage--the roof completely gone over eight guest rooms of the Cape Sands Inn in Yarmouth on Tuesday.
"It looks like the tornado hit the front of the building, we sort of heard the tree crack," Lindemann said. "And as we turned around the roof came right off the building."
The Couse family was in their room at the time, suddenly getting rained on.
"And all of a sudden, the room was flooding, but it was the scariest thing we ever witnessed," said hotel guest Jason Couse.
Mya Couse was looking out the window at the time of the incident.
"It was terrifying," Couse said. "I just saw the roof come up and then the light broke, and so we ran into the bathroom."
Another family from Montreal decided to cut their vacation short. Enough was enough, when the hotel roof ended up in pieces on the grass.
"Yeah I want to come back next year, no problem," said guest Ahmed Hadi. "Thank you for today, it's enough."
Owner Bobby Khan bought the Cape Sands Inn a little over a year ago, and had just replaced the roof, never expecting to lose it completely.
"He called me and he says our roof blew away! And I couldn't believe what's that mean, I mean I saw the gloomy weather but just the roof blowing away what's that mean?" Khan said.
The National Weather Service says the tornado touched down in Yarmouth and then touched down again in Harwich. The maximum wind speed for the tornado was 110 mph, which equates to a strong EF1 tornado.
"It was crazy, there was a lot of damage up and down Route 28, trees down, power lines, some structural damage," said Lieutenant Andy O'Malley of Yarmouth Police.
As residents look to assess the damage and start the next steps for their homes, Khan is at a loss for the future of his hotel.
"I have to hide my emotions because I cannot cry at this moment," Khan said. "But yeah, this is my livelihood because whatever I saved I sold my other businesses and I invested all the money here."
Roads across the Cape were flooded in minutes in places like Bourne and North Falmouth, as the storm tracked its way east.
Home owner Mike Jones says with the damage along the streets in Yarmouth, it's like residents are at "ground zero."
