Mortgage Broker in Micco, FL

No injuries were reported, Brevard County Fire Rescue spokesperson Don Walker said.

Rick Neale

Florida Today

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When the airborne objects started striking his Micco manufactured home amid a fierce Sunday thunderstorm, 86-year-old cancer patient Ray Choquet initially thought it was hail.

"Then I heard this big 'whoom!' I felt the house shake. And I walked out here, and I saw my screen porch and furniture were gone," Choquet recalled Monday, standing amid puddles of water in his wrecked living room.

"I thought that was it — I didn't even know my roof had gone down the street," he said.

An EF0 tornado pummeled Choquet's home in River Grove Mobile Home Village, scalping the roof and strewing heaps of wind-twisted metal debris across his yard. No injuries were reported, Brevard County Fire Rescue spokesperson Don Walker said. It appears 25 to 30 homes sustained damages, he said.

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A three-person team from the National Weather Service station in Melbourne toured the Micco manufactured-housing park Monday morning, documenting building damages and interviewing residents to determine whether a twister touched down. Primary damages: carports, awnings, siding and skirting.

By midday, Will Ulrich, warning coordination meteorologist, confirmed that an EF0 tornado struck River Grove Mobile Home Village, an age-restricted manufactured housing community stretching between U.S. 1 and the Florida East Coast Railway tracks about ½-mile south of Micco Road.

The brief tornado touched down about 5:36 p.m. near Cherish Court and Love Drive in the neighboring River Grove Mobile Home Village II just west of the railroad tracks, Ulrich said. Metal roofing material atop a couple of those homes got peeled into shapes resembling deformed tin cans.

Packing peak winds of 65 mph to 75 mph, the twister crossed the tracks and followed River Groves Drive, leaving a ½-mile east-southeast path before crossing U.S. 1 and emerging onto the Indian River Lagoon as a short-lived waterspout near Sebastian River Marina and Boatyard, Ulrich said.

An eyewitness watched the tornado transition into a waterspout before dissipating, and several boats got bumped from a storage rack at the marina, NWS reported.

Choquet said he does not have home insurance, and he has a dialysis appointment Tuesday. Plastic sheeting now covers his wet furniture, which he plans to donate to charity. And Buddy, his beloved black-and-white indoor cat, remains missing since the storm struck.

"I'm lucky I didn't get hurt. I thought the house would twist over," Choquet said.

"I'm just happy you're OK. To hell with the furnishings," said Roberta Kwestel, his friend and neighbor.

Most of the River Grove Mobile Home Village storm damages were confined to carports, Ulrich said.

"We're seeing some damage to a couple properties in terms of their roofs. But overall, we think that's because we lost part of the roof because it was connected to the carport or the front porch. And so, it kind of got tossed up into the air with it," Ulrich said, standing on the River Grove Road asphalt during his storm survey.

Ulrich said the EF0 tornado also inflicted damages to the Summit Cove Condominiums, just to the south of River Grove Mobile Home Village. Maximum tornado width: 300 feet to 400 feet.

Walker said Brevard County Emergency Management and American Red Cross officials coordinated potential relief efforts Sunday night at the battered mobile home community.

By Monday morning, clean-up crews used front-end loaders to collect bent-up metal debris, chunks of white foam insulation, and broken lumber with protruding nails that were strewn across the park. Blue tarps appeared atop sections of various roofs to ward off light rainfall.

Don Sinclair and his girlfriend were watching angry-looking clouds swirling Sunday from his River Grove Drive mobile home when frightening lightning strikes chased her into the front porch.

"I walked out to the road and was watching, and the spinning was going all the way around. When I turned around this way, there it was — and a big chunk of metal was flying over the railroad tracks," Sinclair recalled, pointing to the west.

"I ran that way, and my girlfriend saw that carport fly off," he said, pointing around at neighboring homes. "And I hollered to her, 'Get in the tub!' " he said.

"It was really loud — and the metal shearing from the aluminum was just ... the two of them together," he said of the suspected twister.

"And then it was gone. It was complete silence afterward," he said.

About 5:30 p.m. Sunday, NWS forecasters issued a tornado warning for Micco, Roseland and Sebastian, effective through 6:15 p.m.

"It was all about a cold front that was moving in from the west. And the fact that we had a lot of energy in the atmosphere, combined with the sea breeze, (that) led to a localized environment that was favorable for strong-to-severe storms developing in the area," Ulrich said.

"So that's kind of what triggered all of the weather that we saw between 4 and 7 p.m. yesterday evening," he said.

Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1

MICCO, Fla. - Some residents in Brevard County are concerned the upcoming construction project on the Micco Bridge will cut off an essential lifeline for nearly a year.

Ed Bautista takes the bridge daily.

"At least three to four times a day," he said.

To the grocery store, the gas station, his doctor's office, and the gym.

He expects daily errands will take much longer when the county's bridge construction project starts.

"There in 10 to 15 minutes," said Bautista, "Imagine it'll be 40 - 45 minutes."

FOX 35 News has heard about this project from concerned neighbors for the last two days. The county says the over 80-year-old bridge has "reached its life expectancy" and needs to be rebuilt. During the expected eight months of construction, the roughly 150 families at the Lakes at St. Sebastian would have to take a detour to Babcock Street to Interstate 95.

"Eight months is not a minor inconvenience," said Jeff Meaney, a neighbor. "It's kind of major. I go to Home Depot. A 10-minute ride now would be 40 minutes."

Beyond the annoyance of the inconvenience, some said they are concerned this detour is now their only way out of the community and limits access to resources.

"I am a bit outraged. It would close us off from the mainland," said Bautista.

"Fire Rescue, how fast can they get to these homes to put out a fire?" asked neighbor Sharon Meaney.

The county said the original construction project included a temporary bridge for residents to use. However, it couldn't afford it when costs jumped from about $2.5 million to $3.5 million.

"Costs have risen quite a bit," said John Tobia, District 3 Commissioner.

Commissioner Tobia said the county has worked with local agencies to alter services.

For example, Tobia said it plans to stage fire and rescue equipment near the community. A footbridge will be installed to give emergency crews access to the area during construction.

"Could add one to two minutes to response time," said Tobia, "We looked at a slew of issues. Everything from the postal service – they're going to rearrange how mail is delivered, to Fire Rescue – who will station a vehicle out there, to the sheriff's office – who said they will patrol differently, so they don't lose a minute of response time. There's still more work to be done. We're looking to make sure citizens remain safe as humanly possible."

Brevard Public Schools said the construction will impact two bus routes. The district said it plans to use detour routes to get students to and from school on time. Still, some residents say the plan isn't good enough for them.

"I don't think they went about it the right way," said George Bonderenko. "It is a lifeline to folks."

The county says the project will start on Jan. 30.

Rick Neale

Brightline's first passenger train in Brevard County will now likely cross the St. Sebastian River and enter southernmost Micco sometime after 10 a.m. Tuesday, company officials announced this morning.

The privately held higher-speed rail company will start sending "qualifying trains" on daily roundtrips along the Florida East Coast Railway corridor between West Palm Beach and Frontenac, north of Cocoa.

These trains will not carry passengers. Instead, Brightline locomotive engineers and train conductors will learn the territory and practice through year's end, traveling at freight-train speeds of 60 mph and slower.

Brightline's updated schedule, which is listed as "subject to change:"

• Tuesday's train is scheduled to depart West Palm Beach at 7 a.m., then arrive in Micco sometime after 10 a.m. The train will head north of the Holly Street crossing in the Little Hollywood neighborhood before stopping and heading back to South Florida.

• Wednesday's train will depart West Palm Beach at 7 a.m., then arrive in Cocoa sometime after 11 a.m.

Trains will stop in Frontenac, a small unincorporated community between Sharpes and Port St. John, then return to West Palm Beach. These daily qualifying trains will continue through year's end.

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"Operating a train requires engineers and conductors to be intimately familiar with the rail corridor, including road crossings, signals, curves and speed restrictions," a Brightline press release said.

"During qualifying runs, Brightline train crews will work with a manager already qualified on the territory, who will provide oversight and instruction," the press release said.

Construction crews have finished building more than 70% of Brightline’s $2.7 billion higher-speed rail extension from West Palm Beach to Orlando International Airport.

Brightline launched passenger service in 2018 along a 67-mile route linking Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Company officials want to debut passenger service to Orlando early next year.

Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1

If you live in Micco or Little Hollywood, you probably noticed all the orange flags pinned in the ground along the west side of U.S. Highway 1 in preparation for Brevard County sewer.

“The County has two sewer projects located in the Micco area. The first project, Micco Sewer Line Extension, is preparing to break ground and will extend sewer from Micco Road to the 8800 block of U.S. Highway 1,” Anthony Gubler, Brevard County’s Natural Resources Management, told Sebastian Daily.

It also means businesses such as Chubby Mullet and Outriggers Bar & Grill will finally switch from septic to sewer during the two-phase project.

The county doesn’t allow businesses to use dishwashing systems when on septic. So, many of the restaurants in Micco serve their food on paperware with plastic utensils because they are on septic.

Don Pinder of Chubby Mullet is looking forward to the switch from septic to sewer and the options to serve customers on dishware other than plastic.

The construction is contracted and will break ground as soon as the materials are acquired, and FPL easements are finalized. An additional phase is added to this project and will extend a sewer line west along Micco Road to the railroad tracks.

“The second project, Micco Zone B Septic-to-Sewer, will extend a gravity sewer system into the residential area of Little Hollywood. This project is in the engineering phase, which is expected to continue through August of 2023,” Gubler said.

Micco Zone B will connect 520 septic parcels to sewer and permanently stops 8,416 pounds of nitrogen from entering the lagoon through groundwater. It will also improve the health of the St. Sebastian River.

Sebastian Daily first reported the Micco Sewer Project in 2019, planned since 2017 to help the Indian River Lagoon in South Brevard. But then the project grew quiet a year later during the COVID pandemic.

But last week, residents began to see pipes stacked up near the entrance to Barefoot Bay to feed the project south along U.S. Highway 1. About a block south of Barefoot Bay appears to be a staging area for most of the piping that will be installed during the first phase.

The project was made possible by a $644,793 grant to make conversions from septic to sewer, which will help pay for the sewer line extension in Micco.

SEBASTIAN – People are getting Micco confused with Sebastian, even though it’s in a different county.

I overheard someone at a restaurant say, “I live in Sebastian, in a place called Barefoot Bay.”

It wasn’t long after that when someone contacted us at Sebastian Daily asking why we always leave the Chubby Mullet out of our top food ratings. Sometimes people want to know why we don’t include Outriggers or Rosie’s Bottoms Up in our Best Happy Hours list and events.

When I visit these places, that’s usually the topic of discussion. “Outriggers has great burgers, you left them out of your Best Burger list,” or, “We have Happy Hour too.”

Well, Barefoot Bay, Chubby Mullet, Outriggers, and Rosie’s Bottoms Up are in Micco. These places are located inside Brevard County, not Indian River County.

It doesn’t help that there’s a Sebastian Inlet Marina (where Chubby Mullet is) located in Micco and Brevard County.

I went a step further and asked the postman, who delivers mail in Barefoot Bay, what city it’s in.

“Just put Sebastian, it’ll make it here,” he said. But when I mention Micco, the postman says, “You can use Micco too” as if it’s secondary to Sebastian.

I spoke with a Barefoot Bay resident who says, “I put Barefoot Bay as the city because that’s where I live.” Well, Barefoot Bay isn’t a city, it’s a name of a community.

What’s wrong with Micco? I think the name is cool. “I live in Micco.” That doesn’t sound so bad. Instead, people say “I live in Sebastian” or “Have you had the clam chowder at Chubby Mullet in Sebastian?”

Here’s another one: “I’ll meet you at Outriggers, it’s just over the little bridge in Sebastian.”

Perhaps the name of the river is confusing people with what town they live in.

Some people blame the Post Office for this problem. Roseland, the little town between Sebastian and Micco, has their own Post Office with 1,500 population. Micco has a population of about 10,000 and no Post Office.

Addresses on driver’s licenses are sometimes issued as Barefoot Bay, Florida. Why? And some people say they can’t order things online unless they select Sebastian because Micco doesn’t come up.

People don’t want to say “Micco,” as if it’s profanity or something. Why can’t we get this part of South Brevard right?

Don’s Aluminum doesn’t mind saying he’s in Micco. I called and asked for directions. “We’re in Micco, it’s north of Sebastian.”