Severe storms wallop Tallahassee
A powerful storm system that spawned deadly tornadoes across the Southeast tore through Tallahassee on Sunday, knocking over trees, damaging homes and leaving more than 30,000 customers without power.
The storms left the tree-lined Indianhead Acres a mess of downed trees and and tangled power lines. After riding out the storm in his Circle Drive home, Chuck Goodheart walked outside to find his Honda Element crushed by a large pine tree that fell from a neighbor’s yard.
“It’s kind of like being in a tornado,” said Goodheart, a retired urban forester for the city. “And all of a sudden you hear cracking and falling and big things hitting the ground. And you can feel it in the house. And it starts to get a little scary. And then it stopped.”
The storm knocked down several trees near Jill Canono's home on West Indian Head Drive, sending branches through her roof and into a bathroom and bedroom. Safe with her black lab Zoe, she was taking the damage in stride.
"Nobody was hurt," she said. "There's no significant damage. And I finally get to use my home insurance."
The storms were part of a major outbreak of severe weather that killed at least 18 people in Georgia and Mississippi. In Tallahassee, the storms caused periods of heavy rain and prolonged gusts as high as 55 mph but produced no tornadoes.
More than 33,000 city of Tallahassee and Talquin Electric customers were left without power in the immediate aftermath of the afternoon storms. And while several dozen roads closed at various points, all major roads were open by about 9:30 p.m.
Leon County Schools are scheduled to be open on their regular schedule. Absences will be excused for any students with storm related hardships and the schools will use common sense in addressing assignments, district officials said in a message to parents. Florida State University, Florida A&M and Tallahassee Community College are also open.
Mayor Andrew Gillum said the city hoped to have power restored by dawn for most of its customers. The city was working to secure 20 additional crews from outside utilities to help.
“The city is working through the night to ensure that we get debris removed, roads cleared and power restored so all of those impacted can start the day with little to no disruption,” Gillum said. “The good news for our city is we didn’t have any fatalities.”
The storms were part of an unusual atmospheric setup that prompted the Storm Prediction Center to assign its highest risk level for much of North Florida. It was only the third time that has happened since 2000, according to the National Weather Service in Tallahassee.
Mark Wool, warning coordination meteorologist, said the storms were fueled by deep low pressure to the west, an influx of warm Gulf moisture and wind shear throughout the atmosphere.
“It’s been an unusually warm winter and we’ve had a very active storm track across the country,” he said. “Everything kind of came together.”
It wasn’t immediately clear how many homes were damaged in the storms. Kevin Peters, director of Leon County Emergency Management, said reports of damaged homes were in the single digits, though he acknowledged that could change.
“We do know some people in the community experienced damage,” he said, “and we’ll continue those assessments in the coming days.”
The storm prompted some comparisons to Hurricane Hermine, which caused widespread damage and left 70,000-plus customers without power last fall in Tallahassee. But forecasters said damage in Tallahassee was not nearly as extensive as it was from the Category 1 hurricane.
Gillum said the city put in practice lessons learned from Hermine, including quick coordination with the state and better communication with citizens through automated text messages.
Gov. Rick Scott called Gillum after the storm passed to check on recovery efforts and offer assistance, Gillum said. Crews from the Florida Department of Transportation were working with the city and county to clear roads.
“The coordination kicked immediately, which I believe was an important lesson learned from our last storm,” Gillum said. “You had very fast and immediate coordination between the state resources and the local resources.”
6 p.m.:
Leon County has released a list of county and city road closures on its Emergency Information Portal:
County roads closed as of 5:55 p.m.
Faulk Drive across from Kimbrel Drive
Intersection of Miccosukee Road and Fleischmann Road
Intersection of North Meridan Road and Timberlane Road
Maylor Road near Mahan Drive
Miccosukee Road at Riggins Road
City roads closed as of 5:58 p.m.
Woodgate Way and Everett Lane
Brewester Road (private road)
Limerick Drive and Raymond Diehl Road
4:40 p.m.
The National Weather Service has downgraded its tornado watch for Leon County to a wind advisory active until 6 p.m., but nearly 33,600 are without power.
City of Tallahassee Utilities is reporting 26,136 customers without power in Leon County and Talquin electric is reporting 7,523 of their Leon customers in the dark. Talquin also is reporting 7,566 without power in Gasden, 3,617 in Wakulla and 2,015 in Liberty County.
Both COT Utilities and Talquin are reporting that crews are being dispatched to restore power but outages will likely take hours to fix.
Some red lights also are out. Intersections with non-working red lights should be treated as a four-way stop.
3:20 p.m.
Power outages impacting in thousands of customers have been reported by the City of Tallahassee Utilities and Talquin Electric in Leon and its surrounding counties.
As of about 2 p.m., Talquin reported a total of 2,211 outages in the Big Bend area with 597 in Leon, 1,191 in Gadsden, 260 in Liberty and 163 in Wakulla.
Outages effecting 2,229 customers were reported by COT around 2:30 p.m. on Bellevue Way, W Pensacola St., Jackson Bluff Road, Mabry St., Roberts Ave. and Eisenhower Road.
The City also reported a downed tree blocking Limerick Road near Raymond Diehl road, a pine blocking three lanes of Capital Circle NE near Care Drive, and a tree blocking Mahan Drive near Blair Stone Road.
3:05 p.m.
A tornado warning is in effect until 3:15 p.m. for northwestern Wakulla and southeastern Liberty counties.
The National Weather Service in Tallahassee said a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located about 21 miles north of Carrabelle and moving northeast at 55 mph. The rotation was radar-indicated.
A tornado watch has been extended until 8 p.m. for roughly 30 counties in north and central Florida, including Leon, Calhoun, Gadsden, Franklin, Jefferson, Liberty and Wakulla counties.
1:40 p.m.
A dangerous outbreak of tornadoes is possible this afternoon for parts of North Florida, including Tallahassee, and South Georgia.
The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, is planning to issue a rare Particularly Dangerous Situation tornado watch for the area. Forecasters say there is an enhanced risk for strong, fast-moving and long-track tornadoes.
"This is a day you definitely have to pay attention to the weather," said Mark Wool, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tallahassee. "If you get a tornado warning, go to your safe place."
People should go to an interior room on the lowest level of their home or business in the event of a tornado warning.
At least 15 people have been killed and more than 20 injured from a severe storm system that spawned tornadoes over the weekend in south central Georgia and Mississippi. The storms this morning produced numerous warnings but no confirmed tornadoes in the immediate Tallahassee area.
There were a couple of reports of downed trees around Killearn Lakes and Deerlake, Wool said.
The city of Tallahassee responded to an outage around 2:15 p.m. affecting nearly 1,100 customers around Miccosukee Road (from Meridian to Magnolia), Medical Drive and Brevard, Georgia, Talaflo and Lucy streets.
Check back with Tallahassee.com for more on this story.
11:20 a.m.
Much of North Florida and South Georgia remain under a tornado watch through the early afternoon.
A tornado watch previously set to expire for 11 a.m. has been extended to 1 p.m. for Leon, Gadsden, Jefferson and Madison counties. A tornado watch in in effect until 3 p.m. for counties to the west, including Franklin and Liberty.
Severe thunderstorms capable of producing damaging winds, heavy rain and hail prompted numerous watches and warnings overnight and into Sunday morning.
The storms have been blamed for 11 deaths in south and central Georgia.
Check back with Tallahassee.com for more on this story.
10:45 a.m.
A tornado warning is in effect until 11:15 a.m. for parts of northeastern Gadsden County and northwestern Leon County.
Strong thunderstorms capable of producing tornadoes were moving quickly through the Quincy area around 10:38 a.m., according to the National Weather Service in Tallahassee. The storms were moving northeast at 65 mph.
The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said there is a severe risk of strong thunderstorms today for much of North Florida, including Leon County. Forecasters said there is an increasing risk for super cell development and tornadoes in the western Florida Panhandle.
10:40 a.m. update
Much of North Florida and South Georgia remain under a tornado watch as part of an outbreak of severe weather racing across the region.
The watch is in effect until 11 a.m. for Leon, Gadsden, Jefferson and Madison counties in the Big Bend. Franklin and Calhoun counties along with parts of the Florida Panhandle and South Georgia are under a tornado watch until 3 p.m.
The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said the risk for tornadoes was increasing in an area stretching from just east of Pensacola to the Jacksonville area. The center said it was monitoring the area for increasing risk of super cell storms developing onshore from the Gulf of Mexico and spreading east-northeast.
The storms are capable of producing torrential rain, strong winds and hail.
Check back with Tallahassee.com for more on this story.