A tornado hit Florida late Wednesday morning near its capital, forcing a brief closure of Tallahassee International Airport and minor damage in other areas.
The National Meteorological Service said there was damage to the airport, but its radar was not damaged. However, there were communication problems, the agency said.
At 3:15 pm local time, 3,800 customers were without power, with the help of employees. The city posted pictures of a small plane turned upside down and a damaged hangar at the airport on Twitter.
“The damage assessment is underway at @TLHAirport, which remains closed,” said the tweet.
The airport reopened just before 2 pm and the runways were back up shortly after, the airport tweeted. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported.
“It looks like we may have avoided a bullet with this particular storm,” said Kevin Peters, director of Leon County Emergency Management, reported the Tallahassee Democrat.
Some people had a more fun view of the storm. One person tweeted the photo of a small tree branch as evidence of “tornado damage”.
The NWS in Tallahassee warned of a tornado on the ground at 11:43 pm. The agency ordered everyone to “CHARGE NOW!” and go to a safe area to avoid flying debris.
Damage has been reported in the Southwood community, which is home to several state offices, as well as scattered neighborhoods, WPLG-TV reported.
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The storm eventually moved from east to east. The weather agency said a preliminary investigation confirmed that the storm was an EF-0 tornado that spread to parts of Leon County, where the state capital is located.
Other information such as path, wind speed, width and length of the storm would be released later.