O/T Looks like Florida got hit again.

[A.W]

Severe thunderstorms and a tornado ripped a path of destruction through central Florida early Friday, leaving at least 14 people dead, according to reports.

CTV.ca News Staff

Church members sort through the rubble of what was the Lady Lake Church of God in Lady Lake, Fla. on Friday. (Star-Banner / Alan Youngblood)

The powerful storm destroyed mobile homes, a church, lifted a tractor-trailer into the air, and spurred the Emergency Operations Centre into action, The Associated Press reports.

The deaths were confirmed by Lake County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Christie Mysinger, who spoke to WKMG-TV. She did not give details about how they were killed.

A dispatcher at the sheriff's office said there was "every kind of damage you can think of."

During a news conference, Florida Emergency Management Director Craig Fugate said the state is in full recovery mode. He acknowledged there have been fatalities, but wouldn't confirm the number of deaths.

"Our mission today is life safety. We want to get to those that are injured, get them medical care and deal with issues that people are facing now, particularly those that have had their homes destroyed," Fugate said.

"That is our focus today. That is what the teams were doing in the early hours this morning when the storm struck and we will continue to do that until we're at a point where we have the situation stabilized."

The storms moved across Sumter and Lake counties around 3:15 a.m. local time, then moved to Volusia County, where 69 homes and a county medical clinic were damaged, authorities said.

"We're in the process of getting our arms around the damage," said Dave Byron, Volusia County spokesperson.

Near Lady Lake, Fla., dozens of mobile homes were destroyed in the middle of the night when the storm struck.

Some of the homes were pulled from their foundations while others had their roofs ripped off.

The trailer park resembled a war zone, with chairs, beds and clothes strewn around yards and debris hanging from trees.

"The most dangerous tornado scenario is a threat for killer tornadoes at night, and that was the case," Dave Sharp, a National Weather Service meteorologist told AP.

Pews, Bibles and the altar at the Lady Lake Church of God were destroyed by the storm. The building was demolished despite its steel-reinforced structure built to withstand 240 kilometre per hour winds, said Rev. Larry Lynn.

Members gathered at the site on Friday morning, vowing to hold Sunday services on the empty lot.

"That's just the building. The people are the church. We'll be back bigger and stronger," Lynn said

At least five accidents occurred within half a kilometre of each other on Interstate 4 near the New Smyrna Beach exit.

As a result the highway was closed for three hours.

In one of the accidents, a semi-trailer was lifted into the air, and landed on another tractor trailer, leaving the driver pinned in his cab.

The driver did not suffer life-threatening injuries, said Kim Miller, a Florida Highway Patrol spokesperson.

The storms left about 20,000 customers without power across much of central Florida, AP reports.

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopSto ... yline=True

[Grizzly Adam]

Wow!

Hadn't heard ... don't watch TV and haven't had the radio on today. That was one bad storm, sounds like.

May God help all those impacted.

[Catsclaw]

I live west of Tampa, between St. Petersburg and Clearwater. I didn't even know it had rained until I watched the news. 19 people have lost thier lives, and several hundred more have lost everything they own.

[bait pile willie]

my brother and wife live in Sebring,and are on their way north to ont. hpoe they have no problems.florida has certainly had their disasters the last few years.

[saxman]

We have great weather most of the time but every now and the we get hit hard.
This happened only a few hours from me.
My church is mobilizing some relief as we speak.