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Storm disguised as tornado batters Tampa neighborhood

Seminole Heights residents report frightful winds, downed trees and damaged roofs. The culprit? A nasty thunderstorm, meteorologists say.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published March 15, 2005

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TAMPA - Vince Greco felt it coming when the sky turned a strange gray and the temperature suddenly dropped.

Marco Lewis, a carpenter working with Greco on a bungalow in Seminole Heights, knew this was no regular thunderstorm when a wall of wind knocked him down and blew him from one end of the porch to the other.

Denise Hudgens sensed the danger as she drove along Interstate 275 toward her Seminole Heights home, her toddler Nathan in the backseat.

"The rain was swirling sideways, and all of a sudden I couldn't see anything," she said. "I couldn't even see the shoulder to pull over. I thought, "Somebody is going to hit me.'

"It was like an attack of nature."

Residents in this central Tampa neighborhood called Monday's lunchtime jolt of heavy rain and stiff winds a tornado, but meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Ruskin said it didn't quite meet that definition.

Monday's winds gusted to an estimated 60 mph - similar in force to a tropical storm - but they didn't swirl like a funnel, so it wasn't a tornado or even a tropical system, said meteorologist Rick Davis.

"It was a strong thunderstorm, certainly," Davis said. "But usually a tornado would be like a narrow area in a line. This affected several blocks in either direction."

The storm was what Davis called a "downburst wind." When a thunderstorm reaches maturity and collapses, there's a strong downward wind from the bottom that creates gusts.

Winds gusted up to 40 mph when the storm went through eastern Hillsborough, Davis said. At Tampa International Airport, gusts of 21 mph were recorded.

Weather service meteorologists said the strongest gusts - of up to 60 mph - hit the area north of Hillsborough Avenue between Florida Avenue and the Hillsborough River.

Decades-old fallen oaks and downed power lines blocked streets. Traffic lights blew out for several blocks at Hillsborough and Florida avenues.

The Legacy Apartments along the Hillsborough River sustained roof damage. The storm also damaged the roof of the Dutch Motel near Florida and Hillsborough avenues.

Monday's gloomy weather was the result of an upper-level energy system that moved over the northern gulf into the Tampa Bay area, Davis said. Combined with the afternoon heat, it set off the thunderstorms.

Tampa Fire Rescue dispatchers got their first call at 12:48 p.m., from the 300 block of W Rio Vista Court.

"Things snowballed from there," said fire rescue spokesman Capt. Bill Wade.

About 2,000 TECO customers lost power, said spokesman Ross Bannister, who lives in Seminole Heights. He expected some of those customers to be without power into Monday evening.

"The damage was pretty extensive," Bannister said. "We've got broken power poles that just snapped, wire down all over the place, transformers down. We're dealing with what we saw with the hurricanes, but in a small localized area."

By mid afternoon, TECO trucks were cutting trees away from power lines and moving lines that sagged down into the streets.

"What they've got to do first is make it safe," Bannister said. "Then they can start to fix it."

Students walking home from Hillsborough High School off Central Avenue slowed when they got to St. Paul Lutheran Church, where a huge oak tree toppled onto three vehicles.

A few blocks away, Greco shook his head as he looked at the smashed front of his white Ford Aerostar. A live oak branch cracked under the pressure of the wind and fell on the van's hood.

"That tree killed my car," he said.

[Last modified March 15, 2005, 01:06:08]