Tornadoes Hit Florida

John · 02-02-2007, 11:32 AM

Suspected tornadoes killed at least 14 people early Friday in central Florida, leaving catastrophic destruction in their wake, a Lake County official said."We have complete devastation of homes, businesses, religious institutions," said Christopher Patton of the Lake County Emergency Operations Center. "It was unlike perhaps even the hurricanes of 2004."
Awaking residents hours before dawn, the storms also walloped Volusia and Sumter counties, toppling trees and power lines and sending tractor-trailers careering off Interstate 4

The disaster prompted Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to declare a state of emergency in those counties and Lake and Seminole counties.
"Our priority today is search and rescue," Crist said at a news conference. "We want to make sure that anybody who's in the affected area, that we make sure we get them out, we get them out safely."

the full story is at Suspected tornadoes kill at least 14 in Florida - CNN.com

FlRic · 02-02-2007, 07:55 PM

told this story on cruisingtalk. We drove up to a winery in the center of the state with another couple today. After buying 72 bottles we decided to continue on North to see a place called the Villages. Now mind you we did not have the car radio on nor had we heard any news. Approximately 17 miles North of the winery we were suddenly in stop and go bumper to bumper traffic with ambulances racing along the shoulder. We fiigured it must be a bad accident. While stopped in Lady Lake, Fl. my wife suddenly said "OMG" and we raced out of the car to help 6 people coming out of the woods who were badly cut, bruised, and otherwise hurt. We discovered they had survived the tornado but they had no idea how they had gotten into the woods since they were all in pajamas or other sleepwear. The damage was unbelieveble and of course the worst of it was in a trailer park-total destruction, not only of homes but of trees. In some places it looked like even the grass had been ripped from the ground.