Deaths reported in powerful Florida storms

CNN ^ | February 2, 2007

[mccann]

Thank you. This is so sad. Prayers for everyone affected..

[Guenevere]

They're showing Palm Bay now....I believe the storm is exiting there...

We use to live there....but moved north of there 5 years ago...

Palm Bay was hit hard by the hurricanes 3 years ago...

We check our computer before we go to bed....and 'weather underground' will give us warning, but I didn't see any warning last night??????

We don't have sirens for this area.

[cgk]

One of the local first responders was saying there was a mobile home park that was no longer there - not just damage, but all that was left was the sandy foundations. Another local spokesperson said at least one tornado was an F2 but that was not confirmed yet.

[ErnBatavia]

We've got people in both Cape Coral and Lakeland..assume that Cape Coral is safely south?

[Guenevere]

Oh my goodness......I don't know....Kehoe is on the west coast and oldngray is way south of me....Oh dear!

Pray for them.

[Strategerist]

I see this was removed from "breaking" of course.

As best I can tell, weather stories are only left in breaking if it's occuring in California.

If I'd changed the headline to "Deaths Reported in MUSLIM Florida Storms" perhaps it would have been left in breaking as well.

[Guenevere]

OH MERCY.....THIS THING JUST MISSED US!!!!

[Guenevere]

Aren't you in the line of storms?!!!!

Check in please!

[Miss Marple]

Guennie, I am sure glad to hear you are ok! They are showing pictures from Orlando area now on Fox.

[mccann]

We have a friend who we've not been in contact with in years who, last I knew, lived somewhere in Lady Lake.

[Guenevere]

when they show the map and the storm is moving between Palm Bay and Orlando.....that's us.

It just missed us.....

[poobear]

I'm in Oviedo (Seminole County), we dodged a bullet. Just to the NE one touched down and continued through Deland, previously hit during Christmas. Hail, rain pretty bad. I got up to make sure everyone hit the interior bathroom just in case. It missed us.

Prayers for those who weren't so lucky.

The helicopters are showing major damage in Lake, Seminole and Volusia. The storm is now moving past my parents in Polk.

[Lead Moderator]

It's already been moved back to breaking news. Thanks.

[cgk]

Officials: Unknown number of fatalities in central Florida storms

The Associated Press

 

TAVARES, Fla. - An unknown number of people were killed early Friday as severe thunderstorms and possibly tornados struck central Florida, damaging homes and causing power outages, officials said.

A dispatcher at the Lake County Sheriff's Office confirmed that there had been fatalities. The woman, who would not give her name, said that damage had included "every kind of damage you can think of."

Mike Turner, a technician with the National Weather Service in Melbourne said it appeared the fatality occurred in the Lady Lake area. No other details were available.

"Everybody is so busy that we can't get a hold of anybody." Turner said. "We'll know more as the sun comes up and the weather is starting to calm down a bit."

The storm moved across portions of Sumter and Volusia counties about 3:15 a.m. and then moved to Volusia County, said Peggy Glitto, a weather service meteorologist.

"Radar indicated that there were tornadoes, but we're going to send someone out to assess the damage and should know more this afternoon," Glitto said.

About 20,000 customers were without power across a wide swath of central Florida, Progress Energy spokeswoman Cherie Jacobs said.

Florida Power & Light reported about 200 customers were without power in the DeLand area.

"We're activating the state EOC and mobilizing damage assessment teams to move into that area," said Mike Stone, spokesman at the state's Department of Emergency Management.

[MichiganConservative]

What we need to ask is why does George Bush hate white people and old people at The Villages. Why did Karl Rove use the weather machine to try to wipe out a retirement community? This must mean that their solution to the so-called "social security crisis" is to wipe out old people. They're willing to kill old people for some delusion about the "insolvency" of the best government program ever.

[spectre]

MSNBC has aerial views..

[Guenevere]

Strange......both my husband and I were awakened at 3:15 by a muffled repetitive booming.....almost sounded like a pile driver...

After a bit it stopped, and we went back to sleep....

Wonder what it was?

[spectre]

OOPS..sorry Mod..I didn't mean to alert you. It's back to imus anyway..

[PPHSFL]

I was woken up at around 4 AM by thunder and lightning here at Stetson University. I turned on the TV and saw that the tornado was coming through Deland. After trying to wake everyone up in my section of the dorm, a bunch of us went downstairs to the first floor of the new dorm, where we waited out the storm.

Fortunately for me and the other students at Stetson, the tornado went about a mile south of campus. I feel sorry for the middle school and trailer park that were torn apart, but ~1500 students live here on campus. At the time, most were either sleeping. A mile further north and God knows how many dead there would have been.

[Strategerist]

The main tornado/tornadoes were from 3:05AM to about 4:15AM.

Florida really has a shockingly large number of tornadoes and a lot go through in the middle of the night...

I imagine a lot of people will buy the automatic weather radios that go off when they get a tornado warning to wake them up now. Or get them for their retired parents.