A Sunrise woman who is recuperating after a battle with breast cancer didn't think she'd be battling for her life again when a tornado swept through her home Tuesday night.
Gail Assidon, 58, was watching "Dancing With the Stars" with her husband and sister in her home in the 13000 block of Northwest 10th Street when the tornado suddenly ripped the roof off and destroyed her house.
"Thank God we're alive," said husband, Yom-Tov Assidon. "Not many injuries, thank God, but I have scratches but that's nothing, maybe somebody else got worse."
It could have been a lot worse for his wife, who was laying in bed as she recuperates from reconstructive surgery she'd undergone on Sept. 30 when the storm hit.
Yom-Tov Assidon said his wife had been diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago, and underwent a double mastectomy in 2009.
He said he went to get ice cream when the tornado burst through their house.
"If I was sitting there another second, I'd probably be dead because the window blew in on the chair," he said.
Gail Assidon managed to get into a corner with her sister, who was visiting from Boston and helping to take care of her. Yom-Tov Assidon said he had to take her to the hospital after some of her surgery stitches came out.
Yom-Tov Assidon said it could have been a lot worse.
"Everything is demolished, there's nothing left so I guess we have to rebuild everything from scratch," he said.
Meanwhile, neighbor Pete Conde, who had window and roof damage, said everything happened in seconds.
"You could hear all the windows just exploding. Pop, pop, pop, and in about seconds everything stopped," he said. "Mother Nature, when it deals you a hand you just got to play the hand. You don't mess with Mother Nature."
