Posted on 02/02/2007 7:34:57 AM PST by HAL9000
Excerpt -
ORLANDO, Fla., Feb 2 (Reuters) - Fourteen people were killed and dozens of homes were damaged or destroyed when tornadoes ripped through central Florida on Friday, an official said.Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes struck a wide area north of Florida's key tourism region of Orlando, reducing homes to rubble and splintered wood. Search and rescue teams fanned out to search for survivors and victims.
"I have 14," Christopher Patton, spokesman for the Lake County emergency operations center, told Reuters, citing reports of fatalities from the county medical examiner's office. "I can confirm that number."
Patton said three people were killed in Lady Lake, about 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Orlando, and 11 died in nearby Paisley, on the edge of the Ocala National Forest.
~ snip ~
(Excerpt) Read more at alertnet.org ...
God Bless the victims and there families. It's about this time every year I hear of a tornado outbreak in Florida. Must be a mini season or something
How terrible. Prayers go out to all of those who are involved!
Sad news. I hope our FReepers in the Orlando area are okay!
We can see about volunteering to help some of them rebuild.
Doesn't tornado season start in Feb each year? I was thinking it did, but not living in tornado country, I'm not sure.
Oh, dear. The last I heard it was "only" 2 who had died. Sorry to hear this.
How awful. I have not heard of that many killed by Tornados in a long time. My prayers to their families and to the other families who lost their homes.
Al Gore demands a recount.
Clearly, this was Bush's fault....can't he develop a plan to pull out now before more are killed. Where's Osama or Hillary when you need them?
My mother's in Sun City. I think that's in the area that was hit. Anyone know? I can't get through to her.
Dang! We had 6 inches of rain here in North Marion county as a line of heavy thunder storms trained over us for hours last nite. They stayed over us for hours and then started moving south and intensified further and moved faster into these areas where the fatalities occurred.
25 years ago almost to the date, I was in a tornado here which luckly for me bounced over my singlewide and sheared all the tops of the trees and dropped them around my 8 by 30 ft trailer. I knew something wus up when I was hearing non stop thunder in February. When the tornado bounced over me there was a greenish light to the air and some of my windows were broken by flying limbs
My neighbors who lived on a hilltop wernt as lucky. The tornado got down on the ground at their place and killed two of them.
I gots a 12 wide trailer now and it is pertected by Fung Shoe so I aint that worried no more.
http://buckandmabelsbigadventure.blogspot.com/2006/12/fung-shoe-and-single-wide-trailer.html
A repeat of the Orlando tornado outbreak nine years ago.
reporting from woodland blvd, downtown deland (where i live and work):
Unbelievable. Went out this morning to get coffee and donuts, the Dunkin Donuts' building was stripped of all overhangs, signs, etc. Just a naked building. I couldn't get within a hundred yards of it on Woodland because Woodland was blocked by the police. Even worse, buildings around it were smashed and telephone poles snapped in half. The Dunkin Donuts is ~50 yards from the demolished police sub station that they are talking about on national news.
Tons and tons and tons of traffic; Woodland Blvd is 17-92, one of the main 'back ways' to get to Orlando or Daytona and I-95 and I-4 was closed from accidents/water on road.
Got into the office (downtown deland) and thought that was it for DeLand, that it was "just" a block or two destroyed. Heard from an employee about ~500 homes in Lady Lake being destroyed and that New Smyrna was hit real hard as well, though not many details out yet. So I thought we escaped most of it here in DeLand.
Turned on Pipeline net streams from CNN (yes, I know), and watched with disbelief at what happened 5 miles west of where I am sitting. Large areas over that way (right along and just west of St. Johns) are wiped out. Freaking unbelievable. Sirens constantly, they are telling everybody to get off the streets so they can get rescue vehicles through.
Report more in a bit.
**there was a greenish light to the air**
Once you've seen that, you don't ever forget it. Very weird.
I've never seen anything else like it, and have never heard any scientific explanation for it.
It varies and anytime a cold front moves through we have the danger of a tornado. This particular cold front was the ideal frontal system for causing bad weather. It was moving very quickly and moving through some very warm areas. Fast moving, strong, fronts that collide with warm moist air ahead of them are an invitation to disaster.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.