The storms struck with little warning early Friday, spawning a tornado that ripped roofs and walls off single family homes and threw mobile homes off their foundations.
Officials said the twister hit between 3 and 4 a.m., a time when few people were listening to radio or watching TV to hear tornado warnings issued just minutes before the twister struck. Few communities in the region have warning sirens.
Early Saturday, 13 people were confirmed dead in the Paisley area and six in Lady Lake, emergency officials said. The identities of the victims were not being released, but some were reported to be teenagers.
State emergency management chief Craig Fugate said determining the exact number of dead could take days, and the priority was finding survivors who may be trapped under rubble.
Rescue workers going house to house searching for survivors found people who awoke to the storm's roar and watched their homes disintegrate around them. Residents talked about rescuing neighbors from the rubble and the roar of the storm.
The winds picked up one semi-truck and slammed it down on top of another one. A church built to withstand a Category 4 hurricane was destroyed by the winds.
James Pietro, 42, was sleeping inside his RV when the rumble of wind and snapping trees awoke him just in time to take cover with his girlfriend beneath their bed.
The RV was lifted into the air and rolled several times, finally coming to a rest a few feet from a pond, upside down and nearly torn in half. The two came away with only scratches.
"I'm thinking, God help me. I was praying, praying hard," Pietro said. "I don't see how I lived."
Gov. Charlie Crist, dealing with his first natural disaster since taking office a month ago, toured the region, calling the devastation "really dramatic" and declared a state of emergency in four counties north of Orlando: Lake, Volusia, Sumter and Seminole.
Crist also asked President Bush to declare a major disaster for Florida as a result of the storms.
The Volusia County Property Appraisers Office put preliminary damage estimate at $80 million and said as many as 500 properties were damaged by the storms.
The 19 deaths made Friday's tornado the second-deadliest in Florida history, surpassing a 1962 tornado that killed 17 in the Panhandle but behind five twisters in February 1998 that killed 42 people in central Florida and damaged or destroyed about 2,600 homes and businesses.
Jason Pawelczyk, 32, said he was in his mobile home when the tornado ripped through the area. He took cover in a closet with his mother and emerged seconds later to find half his roof gone.
"We finally made it outside, and all you heard was people screaming for each other," he said. "It was pouring rain, flashlights everywhere. All you could see was silhouettes, people yelling for each other. It was crazy."
The latest report is 20 death's may the angels that were created on Friday watch over the loved ones left behind.
May they find Eternal Peace - and may their stars shine brightly.
Erotica wrote: 20 Floridian's Lives Lost to Fridays tornado's
The storms struck with little warning early Friday, spawning a tornado that ripped roofs and walls off single family homes and threw mobile homes off their foundations.
Officials said the twister hit between 3 and 4 a.m., a time when few people were listening to radio or watching TV to hear tornado warnings issued just minutes before the twister struck. Few communities in the region have warning sirens.
Early Saturday, 13 people were confirmed dead in the Paisley area and six in Lady Lake, emergency officials said. The identities of the victims were not being released, but some were reported to be teenagers.
State emergency management chief Craig Fugate said determining the exact number of dead could take days, and the priority was finding survivors who may be trapped under rubble.
Rescue workers going house to house searching for survivors found people who awoke to the storm's roar and watched their homes disintegrate around them. Residents talked about rescuing neighbors from the rubble and the roar of the storm.
The winds picked up one semi-truck and slammed it down on top of another one. A church built to withstand a Category 4 hurricane was destroyed by the winds.
James Pietro, 42, was sleeping inside his RV when the rumble of wind and snapping trees awoke him just in time to take cover with his girlfriend beneath their bed.
The RV was lifted into the air and rolled several times, finally coming to a rest a few feet from a pond, upside down and nearly torn in half. The two came away with only scratches.
"I'm thinking, God help me. I was praying, praying hard," Pietro said. "I don't see how I lived."
Gov. Charlie Crist, dealing with his first natural disaster since taking office a month ago, toured the region, calling the devastation "really dramatic" and declared a state of emergency in four counties north of Orlando: Lake, Volusia, Sumter and Seminole.
Crist also asked President Bush to declare a major disaster for Florida as a result of the storms.
The Volusia County Property Appraisers Office put preliminary damage estimate at $80 million and said as many as 500 properties were damaged by the storms.
The 19 deaths made Friday's tornado the second-deadliest in Florida history, surpassing a 1962 tornado that killed 17 in the Panhandle but behind five twisters in February 1998 that killed 42 people in central Florida and damaged or destroyed about 2,600 homes and businesses.
Jason Pawelczyk, 32, said he was in his mobile home when the tornado ripped through the area. He took cover in a closet with his mother and emerged seconds later to find half his roof gone.
"We finally made it outside, and all you heard was people screaming for each other," he said. "It was pouring rain, flashlights everywhere. All you could see was silhouettes, people yelling for each other. It was crazy."
The latest report is 20 death's may the angels that were created on Friday watch over the loved ones left behind.
Visiting Family Torn Apart By Fatal Collision Top Stories -->02-22-2007 10:40 AM
(Clay County, FL) -- A fatal four-car crash in Clay County on Monday took the lives of three children, tearing apart a visiting family. Michelle Donatello of Orange Park says her family had been planning a vacation in Florida for months. Her parents came down from New York and her sister came from Pennsylvania with her two kids. Another sister came up from West Palm Beach with her husband. All three vehicles in the family's convoy to Saint Augustine were totalled in the collision. State troopers say the children were belted in, but the crash ejected them. The family says they're going to deal with the tragedy together. The DOT says the section of State Road 16 where the accident occurred had no seen a fatal collision in years. It's not considered dangerous but a study of the roadway will be done.<
