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Thunderstorms damage homes, knock out power in Pinellas

Tribune photo by JAY NOLAN

High winds tore parts of the roof off of the Lucky 9 Food Mart at 9th Ave. N. and Martin Luther King Street North.

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 24, 2009

Updated: 06/24/2009 09:40 am

TAMPA - A line of potent thunderstorms surged through Pinellas County late Tuesday, kicking off a spectacular lightning show, knocking out power to thousands of residents and ravaging a mobile home park.

The storms rolled through at about 11 p.m. Over a 90-minute period, wind gusts topped 50 miles per hour across Pinellas.

By dawn, about 5,000 Progress Energy customers in Pinellas County remained without electricity, though most were expected to have power restored by noon.

One of the hardest hit areas was a mobile home park in Lealman at which the fire department said 15 homes were damaged. Four mobile homes in the Southernaire Mobile Home Park, at 2560 62nd Ave. N., received major damage, the fire department said.

Wind knocked a tree onto cars in Seminole.

The storm took most of the roof from Econo Paint and Auto Body near central St. Petersburg and probably will force the business to close temporarily, said supervisor Dave Wagner.

"It means we're going to have to shut down for a little while until we get it repaired. Hopefully, won't be too long," he said. "Could have been a lot worse."

Nearby resident Carl Gross said the storm sounded as if a bomb went off.

"I was just getting ready to go to bed, and I heard this big sound, and I didn't know what the heck, and I look outside and it was just so loud that it was just shaking my house," he said.

The storms were part of a weather system that worked its way down the state Tuesday. The trough combined with intense heating during the day and an atmosphere laden with moisture to produce some strong thunderstorms.

Winds flowing from the north pushed the thunderstorms to the south or southeast at a fairly brisk pace, adding to their strength, said Charlie Paxton, National Weather Service meteorologist.

The weather service put out a special weather statement at 11:10 p.m. warning of the potential for strong storms moving through Pinellas.

A meteorologist from the Ruskin weather service office will inspect the damage later today to determine if it came from a tornado, but it appears that downbursts from the thunderstorms were the culprit, Paxton said.

Radar at the time gave no indication of potential tornadoes, he said.

Earlier Tuesday, between 4 and 6 p.m., another batch of storms pounded Citrus County, dumping hail in Inverness, then Brooksville in Hernando County.

The storms knocked trees through two houses in Citrus County and damaged mobile homes south of Inverness.

The weather today should be a bit more benign, forecasters say. The front that helped stir things up on Tuesday is south of Fort Myers. The weather service expects thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Some could be severe, but forecasters do not see a repeat of Tuesday, Paxton said.

News Channel 8 reporter Chip Osowski contributed to this report. Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731.

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