Story at a glance
- A tornado formed over Aguada, Puerto Rico, Sunday afternoon and lasted about four minutes.
- Tornadoes are rare in Puerto Rico.
- The majority of tornadoes to hit the island don’t cause any damage.
AGUADA, Puerto Rico (WFLA) – A “short-lived tornado” formed over Aguada, Puerto Rico, Sunday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.
Residents captured footage of the tornado, which lasted about four minutes.
Janely Ivette was inside her car when she captured footage (above) of the wind howling and whipping around during the storm. Large branches can be seen piling up on the roadways.
From afar, Amarilys Ruiz took a video of the funnel appearing to stay behind a hilltop.
Tornadoes are rare in Puerto Rico, the Associated Press reports. Only 24 – including Sunday’s – have touched down in the U.S. territory since 1950.
“The majority of them don’t even cause any damage,” Emanuel Rodríguez González, a National Weather Service meteorologist, told the AP. “They’re quite weak.”
Multiple homes were damaged and a landslide was triggered by the storm, but no injuries were reported.
Sunday’s twister appeared to be one of the stronger tornadoes to hit the island in recent decades, but the National Weather Service said it was still assessing the damage Monday. The agency’s personnel take a close look at the destruction left behind by the tornado to determine its strength and classification.
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