Deaths reported in powerful Florida storms

CNN ^ | February 2, 2007

[Strategerist]

LADY LAKE, Florida (CNN) -- Deadly storms swept across central Florida on Friday morning, damaging homes, toppling trees and sending trucks careening off Interstate 4, police said.

The Lake County Sheriff's Office said there were "several" fatalities in Lady Lake, where at least two mobile home parks were hit. Authorities could not say how many deaths there were.

[Jrabbit]

ugh....Greta and that new Gov. of Florida on. He's really, really pathetic. Poor Florida...

[Jrabbit]

Stop being such a jerk.

[Txsleuth]

I remember that Crist guy from some other time...maybe the Terry Schiavo case, I don't remember.

I had heard that he was sort of a lightweight...but, then again, I would think that a lot of Floridians hated seeing Jeb Bush leave.

Compared to Rick Perry, Jeb Bush is a GIANT!! Maybe we could get him to move to Texas and run for Governor here, what do you think??

[Jrabbit]

At this point, I'm wishing we had Kinky! At least he seemed harmless!

Maybe W will run for Gov. again after he's done in Washington...nah....lol

[NonValueAdded]

WESH-TV (channel 2 out of Orlando) is doing an extended report in place of their 11 PM news. Many people are crediting their meterologist (Tony M) for getting the word out. Others are crediting their weather radios for the alert. A weather radio with an alarm tone is as important as a smoke alarm, maybe more so.

NWS out of Tampa has examined the initial touchdown and confirmed it was an F-3 tornado. Additional NWS crews will be surveying the rest of the path.

[Txsleuth]

My daughter is petrified of storms...not just tornados...any kind of storm.

She has a NOAA radio...and about 3-4 different weather threads on her computer.

I usually laugh at her...but, during tornado season, I know she will be prepared, which is a good thing.

[poobear]

We all knew 3 days in advance a cold front was eminent and due to pass through overnight. Any Floridian or someone who has lived here for a few years knows that serious storms can brew when cold air hits warm moist air generating from the southwest.

This weather scenario was perfect for this disaster. I woke up at 2:00 AM and turned on the local weather station to see how things were developing. It was NOT looking good.

I then cat napped throughout the night. Around 3:30 I was very nervous when the super cell was over Lake County heading my way. You don't need stupid sirens to tell you that severe weather is on the way unless you ARE stupid.

Florida is a subtropical. Weather happens. I dodged a bullet. Prayers for those who did not.

Txsleuth, this is not directed at you BTW. I've just been up for hours and the stupidity of the news and anchors have gotten on my last nerve.

[proudofthesouth]

I briefly spoke to "Normal4Me" last nite. He lives east of the area. He told me that he had a few limbs down in his yard but that it was a looong nite.

[lysie]

I can imagine how long.

A few years ago we had a terrible wind and ice storm. Trees were snapping like toothpicks. Several trees were dangling over our house and horse barn. We lost over 200 trees that night. No sleep that night.

The next morning hubby fired up the chain saw. No tree is in range of our house or barn...now.

[proudofthesouth]

Living in northern Alabama I've been through ice storms and tornadoes.

I've been through several tornadoes and fortunately haven't had anything worse than a couple of broken windows.

However last Spring we had a bad night where I was huddling in my stairwell holding onto my dog (my cat had gotten away from me) and shaking like a leaf cause a funnel cloud was headed my way. The entire time that the sirens were going off and hail was coming down (which is a prelude to tornadoes) I kept telling myself "I don't hear the freight train" which is the sound that a tornado makes (and I've heard it more than once over the years).

[Matchett-PI]

Thanks for checking on Bill. I'm glad to know he's okay.... I had forgotten that he lived in the Deland area.

[Bob Ireland]

***this post turned into a poem***

:-) We used to say, 'You didn't know you were a poet, but your feet did: they're Longfellows!' hee hee

[Bob Ireland]

***I remember that Crist guy from some other time***

He was an aide to Connie Mack, a great Fla Senator back when GOP stood for Grand Ol' Party rather than Generally Obtusive and Pathetic...

Crist distinguished himself - and almost certainly assured his election as governor - as Atty Gen'l during all the hurricanes a few years ago... he went after profiteers and price gougers. [I don't necessarily disagree with profiteering, but you know the public mind set these days... ;-) ]

[Txsleuth]

Okay...thanks, I KNEW I remembered him..just couldn't remember the circumstances.

[Bob Ireland]

Yes... thanks for checking on Bill... Deland has been clobbered by bad weather ever since the hurricanes a few years ago.

[Ellesu]

"How many people on here have a Weather radio?"

We have two, one upstairs, one downstairs, and the alarm is loud enough to wake the dead. We also have a storm shelter, live in OK. City I live in has sirens, but cannot hear them in rural area I live. We don't always wait for the alarm, when that cold and warm air meet, sky gets that look, hail starts, I get the children in it.

I also do not know if weather radios would have helped those still in trailers with tornado that size. If weather was predicted as bad throughout that day and into the night, people need to get out of that trailer and go stay with someone who lives in sturdy home asap.

I also want to say how very impressed I am with Floridians, and am praying for them. They are already cleaning debris, none are in shelters and are coping the best they can and not whining...unlike Katrina victims.

[gonzo]

Thank goodness everyone's OK. The wicked stuff went North of us over on the left coast. ............. FRegards

[sheikdetailfeather]

I am about 30 miles north of where the tornado hit in Lady Lake. I was up until 2am and then went to bed only to wake up at 5:15 am to a driving rain on my window and thunder and lightning. I turned the television on and they said people were missing and dead in Lake county (the next county over from me to the north) and a tornado had hit. I feel very blessed to be here. Per WFTV in Orlando, Midland weather radios will be made available for sale cheaper than the usual price very soon across stores in Florida.

[oldglory]

Very good!--- You don't need much of a "roof" over a vacant cerebrum---right??

Couldn't resist!!

[Zhangliqun]

Florida actually gets more total tornadoes a year than any other state. They just don't get as many F3-to-F5's as KS/OK/TX etc.

There really isn't much that can survive high-F4 and above. If you don't have an underground shelter and you take a direct hit from one that violent, all the prep in the world won't matter. Take a look at the F4 and F5 damage example photos.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/faq/tornado/f-scale.html

They won't find a piece of you big enough to fill a shotglass.

I know they just switched to the Enhanced Fujita Scale, but the portable Doppler at the May 99 OK City tornado shows tornadoes can clear 300 mph easily.