At least three tornadoes hit Florida on Thursday night, damaging properties and downing timber and energy traces, as extreme thunderstorms tore throughout components of the Southeast, the National Weather Service in Tallahassee stated.
The worst of the tornadoes struck simply earlier than 4 p.m. within the unincorporated neighborhood of Hosford, Fla., about 30 miles west of Tallahassee, stated Wright Dobbs, a meteorologist with the Weather Service.
No accidents have been reported, in accordance with native officers, who stated emergency staff have been nonetheless making an attempt to evaluate the harm. “We have power lines down and no power,” stated Lisa Shuler, the assistant emergency administration director of Liberty County. The county sheriff’s workplace urged residents to “stay off the roads.”
Images posted to social media appeared to point out downed timber and crumpled rooftops in Hosford. About 50 miles southwest, within the metropolis of Lynn Haven, residents reported golf ball-size hail that smashed into their properties and automobiles. Trees and roofs had additionally been broken, an operator with the Lynn Haven Police Department stated by telephone.
Sarah Kirkland Marler, a resident, stated that she had sheltered within the toilet throughout the worst of the storm, which dented each of her household’s automobiles and shattered the windshields.
“It had been really still, real kind of almost eerie, and then all of a sudden the wind picked up out of nowhere,” Ms. Kirkland Marler stated, including that the storm had downed energy poles and contours, in addition to fences and carports in her neighborhood.
On Thursday afternoon, a 33-year-old man was severely injured after being struck by lightning on a pier in Panama City Beach, the town’s Police Department stated in a press release.
As of about 7 p.m., greater than 11 million folks in components of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas remained underneath a extreme thunderstorm watch, in accordance with the National Weather Service.
In Florida, shut to twenty,000 prospects have been with out energy, in accordance with poweroutage.us.
Forecasters with the Weather Service stated that the extreme climate was anticipated to ease considerably in a single day, earlier than selecting up once more on Friday and lasting by means of the weekend to ship heavy rainfall throughout components of the South. Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes usually are not unusual at the moment of yr, they added.
Less widespread, nonetheless, was the massive hail reported throughout the area previously a number of days, stated Richard Bann, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service forecast desk in College Park, Md. “That’s unusual,” he stated.
Source: www.nytimes.com