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Highlands Today

Storm Causes "Sporadic" Wind Damage

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Highlands Today Staff

Published: July 1, 2008

Updated: 07/02/2008 07:58 am

Storm Damage Photo Gallery

SEBRING – Two houses lost their carports after a tornado apparently touched down south of Sebring on Tuesday afternoon, causing sporadic wind damage in the area.

About 439 Progress Energy customers in the area of U.S. 98 and U.S.27 lost power, according to the company's Web site.

Glades Electric also reported power outages during the storm, but it could not provide the location of the outage or the number of customers affected by press time.

The National Weather Service Doppler had indicated a tornado 13 miles west of Lake Placid. It also reported that an eye-witness reported a funnel cloud in the Sebring area, but neither they nor the Highlands County Sheriff's Office confirmed that a tornado actually formed.

Jim and Irene Summers saw the tornado and ran inside the middle of their house, Jim said. They live on the north side of U.S. 98.

When Jim came out, he found sidings from his carport thrown about 400 yards west of his house, toward Red Beach Lake. Most of the carport wrapped around one palm tree near the driveway, while the frame of the carport landed on two of his cars, including a 1949 Ford truck he had for more than 25 years.

"Never put a dent on it," he said.

Sam Penn, who lives a few houses down the road, saw his neighbor's carport tossed to the fence separating their yards. He was retiling a floor in his house when he heard what he thought was just a bad storm.

Then he stepped outside and saw lightning hit a tree across the street.

"It lit this place up like a fire cracker," Penn said.

His neighbor was in Wisconsin at the time. Penn said he was going to call him to tell him what happened.

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