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March 28, 2003
MIAMI -- A tornado slammed a northwestern Miami neighborhood Thursday, damaging buildings, toppling trees and injuring several people, Fire-Rescue officials said.
None of the injuries was considered life threatening, said Cynthia Martinez, spokeswoman with Miami-Dade County Fire-Rescue.
There were reports of damaged roofs, snapped power poles, overturned cars and flooded streets from the winds and accompanying thunderstorms, which hit during the evening commute.
The twister was one of several spawned by a line of thunderstorms that passed through Florida Thursday afternoon, prompting tornado warnings for much of Central and South Florida.
In Pasco County, thunderstorms cracked tree limbs, briefly knocked out power to hundreds and brought unconfirmed reports of a funnel cloud about 20 miles south of Dade City.
A storm cut power to about 1,375 homes in Wesley Chapel about 1:30 p.m. A second wave of nasty weather about 4:40 left 1,800 homes temporarily in the dark in the Land O'Lakes area. Another outage, at 5 p.m., darkened 60 units at the Lake Padgett Mobile Home Park on U.S. 41.
In Citrus County, the Crystal River area was hit by a midafternoon storm that toppled trees, pelted cars with hail and left several thousand people without power. Progress Energy spokesman Mac Harris said 3,300 customers were without power for an hour or more.
A tornado touched down briefly near the Naples airport in southwest Florida and caused minor damage to roofs and trees, but there were no reports of injuries, officials said.
At least two tornadoes briefly touched down in southwest Miami-Dade County near the Everglades, but there were no reports of damage or injuries from either.
A funnel cloud was sighted in Palm Beach County near Wellington, but it did not touch down, said Jim Lushine of the National Weather Service in Miami.
About 39,000 homes in South Florida were without power for varying periods, a Florida Power & Light dispatcher said.
"It's typical springtime weather in South Florida," Lushine said.
-- Times staff writers Jim Thorner, Alex Leary and Suzannah Gonzales contributed to this report.