CAPE CORAL, Fla. -- A Cape Coral man is grieving over a unique loss after a powerful tornado touched down in the community, causing major damage. As recovery efforts continue, Four in Your Corner is speaking with one homeowner who lost part of his home and and his pets...sort of.
Karl Ossowicz has lived in Cape Coral for 34 years. "When we moved here there wasn't even a mailman coming out here," said the Brooklyn native. Now his home will need repairs after Friday night's tornado.
His pool and roof are destroyed and his petting zoo of plastic animals is scattered across the lawn. "There's my animals...they're dead," he jested. "Look. they're all dead. You see, 'don't feed the animals.'" he says, gesturing towards a sign.
His beloved animal collection was a casualty from Friday night's chaos that clobbered his home. "This here I got from Ace Hardware Store on Fowler Street. They wanted 20 bucks for him, and I says 'alright.' And then I named him 'Ace' after Ace Hardware Store. And so that's Ace and that's Lucky Justice."
Along with the deer, ducks and swans, his dolphin statue by the pool vanished in the winds.
Ossowicz says Friday night he was watching his favorite television show, NYPD Blue, when he heard a sound he didn't recognize. "I didn't know what it was. I never thought it was a tornado," he said. "But then I went out the front door... that's when I saw all the destruction everybody had experienced."
"Things will be alright," Ossowicz sighed. "That's one thing about Cape Coral, people are always coming down here. And you know why they stay here? Because there are no tornadoes, only hurricanes! Boy are they surprised now huh?"
