Tornado in South Florida flips cars, causes widespread damage
The storm also shattered windows of homes and cars, damaged a large construction vehicle and blew away a park bench.
NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla. : Florida on Sunday was slammed by a second consecutive day of severe weather, one day after a destructive tornado spun through residential areas of South Florida, flipping cars, snapping trees and knocking out power for thousands of residents.
The tornado on Saturday evening in the city of Palm Beach Gardens, about 75 miles north of Miami, caused widespread damage, blowing the roof off one apartment building and blasting away at least one apartment door.
The Palm Beach Gardens city government said in a tweet that there was “roof, structural and vehicle damage throughout the City,” but no injuries were reported.
Branches flew dangerously in the wind, and trees collapsed on vehicles in the neighborhood of Sanctuary Cove in nearby North Palm Beach. The storm also shattered windows of homes and cars, damaged a large construction vehicle and blew away a park bench. First responders arrived quickly, residents said.
The destruction was followed on Sunday morning by fresh tornado warnings in multiple communities, including Palm Beach County. The warnings expired, and no additional tornadoes were reported.
The tornado was classified as an EF-2 on the Fujita scale, classifying it in the “strong” category, the National Weather Service said on Sunday, with estimated winds of 130 miles per hour. It traveled about 2.6 miles on the ground in about 11 minutes, the Weather Service said.
A tornado watch has been issued for parts of Florida until 2 PM EDT pic.twitter.com/w8g0QumUmk
— NWS Miami (@NWSMiami) April 30, 2023
Images posted on social media showed a car being flipped by strong winds in the pouring rain and a wind funnel sweeping across North Palm Beach on Saturday.
Across the state, thousands of customers were without power on Saturday night, according to PowerOutage.us. Hundreds still were without power on Sunday morning.
The United States logs more than 1,000 tornadoes annually, more than any other country in the world.
The most deadly tornado in recent years occurred in 2011, when a storm that tore through Joplin, Mo., killed more than 150 people. Last month, a tornado in rural Mississippi devastated mobile homes and killed at least two dozen people.
