Possible tornadoes damaged homes and cars in Florida as millions of the state’s residents remain under a tornado threat Thursday morning.
A likely tornado damaged at least two homes in Clearwater Beach after it roared ashore early Thursday morning. No one was injured, Clearwater police said, but photos from the scene show debris scattered through streets and a home’s gutter impaling a car’s windshield.
A 90-year-old woman was asleep in her home when the storm hit and collapsed a wall and the home’s roof in on her. She was uninjured, Clearwater police and fire officials said.
“She woke up to the sound of glass breaking,” Clearwater Fire and Rescue spokesperson Rob Shaw told CNN. “She pulled the covers up over her head and rode out the storm.”
Damage, including downed power lines, was also reported near the coast in Dunedin, north of Clearwater Beach, town officials said.
More damage was reported from a separate potential tornado around 65 miles north in Crystal River. Citrus County officials said several roads were closed there because of downed power lines, trees and debris.
“The west side of Citrus County has experienced significant damage,” the Citrus County school district said on social media. School was canceled in the county early Thursday morning because of the damage.
The storms kept tracking east across the state, reaching parts of northeast Florida Thursday morning. On Florida’s Atlantic coast, Palm Coast fire chief Kyle Berryhill said several homes suffered “major structural damage” in Palm Coast’s Indian Trails neighborhood, but there were no injuries.
Photos posted to social media by the Palm Coast government showed a car flipped on its side, roof damage and insulation strewn about a yard there.
“We have several families that have experienced a catastrophic property loss and our hearts go out to them this morning,” Palm Coast fire chief Kyle Berryhill said in a Thursday morning news conference.
Millions of Floridians were under a tornado watch through Thursday afternoon with strong thunderstorms ongoing. Wind gusts of 30 mph to 40 mph are possible through the morning and into the afternoon across northern parts of the state as a storm system moves across the area.
The storm system will begin to move off into the Atlantic waters during the early afternoon. This means heavy rainfall and strong thunderstorms will still be possible over the area through most of Thursday, with activity beginning to wind down into the evening.