Tornado and storms kill 14 in Florida

[PersianPaladin]

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Severe thunderstorms and at least one tornado killed 14 people on Friday when they ripped through Florida in the dead of night, tearing homes to shreds, toppling heavy trucks and leaving a trail of rubble.

Up to 500 homes, buildings and churches were damaged or destroyed across a wide area of central Florida north of Florida's key tourism region around Orlando, but Walt Disney Co.'s Disney World resort was not affected.

Rescue teams fanned out in the morning to search for survivors and victims who might still be trapped under flattened homes.

The storm hit at 3:15 a.m. (0815 GMT) and a spokesman for the Lake County sheriff's office said at least one and perhaps two tornadoes touched down in a state that ranks only behind the infamous "Tornado Alley" in the Midwest for the number of tornado strikes. Most, such as a twister on Christmas Day last year, cause no fatalities.

Christopher Patton, spokesman for the Lake County emergency operations center, told Reuters 14 people were killed according to confirmed fatalities from the county medical examiner's office.

Patton said three people died in Lady Lake, about 40 miles

northwest of Orlando, and 11 were killed in nearby Paisley, on the edge of the Ocala National Forest.

"We have complete devastation of homes, of businesses, religious institutions," Patton said on CNN. "It was unlike even perhaps the hurricanes of 2004 when we had minor roof damage, screen damage, pool damage. This is way far more devastating."

About 1,000 tornadoes hit the United States annually, killing on average 80 people a year, and winter tornadoes appear to be more prevalent during El Nino years, when the waters of the eastern Pacific become unusually warm.

"This is something that we've seen here in the past in our state when we've had El Nino conditions in place," said state meteorologist Ben Nelson. In late February 1998, a swarm of tornadoes killed more than 40 people in central Florida and injured scores more.

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArtic...DO-DEAD-COL.XML

[PersianPaladin]

Meterological discussion of the event can be found here: -

http://www.easternuswx.com/bb/index.php?s=...&p=1709382

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[Rustynailer]

Meterological discussion of the event can be found here: -

http://www.easternuswx.com/bb/index.php?s=...&p=1709382

(starts on page 2)

I am surprised this thread hasn't been busier PP, terrible event.

Changing the subject slightly i had no idea that NW is larger than the Eastern US forum member-wise

Russ

[WhiteFox]

I am surprised this thread hasn't been busier PP, terrible event.

Changing the subject slightly i had no idea that NW is larger than the Eastern US forum member-wise

Russ

Pretty severe storms. I was watching them develop on the radar and there were tornado watches in effect for the whole region, plus several tornado warnings further West earlier in the day. I guess there are lessons for people living in those areas which are usually less prone than the traditional Tornado Alley areas.

As for the Eastern US forum, less members, but more active. Not unusual for more than 1000 members to be online at once. You think it's hard keeping up on here sometimes?

[Thunder]

yea, i was stuck out on the bike in the middle of it.

Really heavy torrential rain for a fair number of hours. I was stuck in deland which is about 20 miles from here and i got out just in time. I flew over it a few days after and it was just total devastation. The way some of the divisions look it's just surprising that not many more people were killed.

One thing they didnt report in a lot of the news reports online, was that there was a house in the middle of the main path, that wasnt "touched". All around it was devestation, but this house just had a few shingles off and a couple of broken windows.

Weather's weird, huh