Rescue teams scour Tornado wreckage

Disaster crews with dogs went from one pile of debris to another in a search of bodies after powerful storms swept through Florida.

At least 19 people were killed and hundreds of homes were destroyed.

It was the second-deadliest combination of thunderstorms and tornados in Florida history, cutting a 40-mile wave of destruction across four counties just before daybreak yesterday.

The storms terrorised residents of one of the nation’s biggest retirement communities, and leaving trees and fields littered with clothes, furniture and splintered lumber.

Lake County spokesman Christopher Patton said there were 19 confirmed deaths, all in Lake County, about 50 miles northwest of Orlando. Numerous injuries were reported, but officials could not immediately estimate how many.

Residents helped pull the dead from the ruins.

“It was scary, really scary,” said Patrick Smith, who lives in the Paisley area, where at least 13 deaths were reported.

He said he saw a weather alert on television, grabbed his wife and “went straight to the floor.”

After the storm passed, he pulled the bodies of a man and his 9- or 10-year-old son from a neighbouring house.

Florida’s emergency management chief, Craig Fugate, said it could take several days to determine the exact number of dead, and the main priority was finding survivors who may be trapped.

Gov. Charlie Crist asked President George Bush to declare a major disaster for Florida as a result of the storms.

Crist already declared a state of emergency in four counties, but the worst damage was reported where the twister touched down in northern Lake County and eastern Volusia County.

“Our priority today is search and rescue,” said Crist, who toured the damaged area in his first natural disaster since taking office last month. “Everything’s being done to get them the aid and assistance that they need.”

Officials in Lake and Volusia counties ordered dusk-to-dawn curfews in heavily damaged areas to prevent looting and injuries to residents trying to sift through wreckage in the dark.

Authorities said hundreds of houses, mobile homes and other buildings were damaged or destroyed.

Volusia County reported a preliminary estimate of 80 million dollars (£40 million) in damage involving 500 properties.

Tornado watches had been posted hours before the twister struck, and warnings were issued between eight and 15 minutes before they hit, said meteorologist Dave Sharp of the National Weather Service in Melbourne.

But few people were listening to the radio or watching television at that hour, and few communities in the region have warning sirens.

In Lady Lake, the Church of God was demolished, its pews, altar and torn Bibles left in a jumbled mess.

The 31-year-old, steel-reinforced structure was built to withstand 150-mph winds, the Rev. Larry Lynn said.

About 10,000 customers were without power. Several counties opened shelters for those who lost their homes.

The state’s deadliest tornado on record happened in February 1998, when five twisters hit near Orlando over two days, killing 42 people and damaging or destroying about 2,600 homes and businesses.

Meanwhile, officials at the US government’s Storm Prediction Centre in Norman, Oklahoma, said yesterday’s tornado would be the first categorised under a scale that went into effect on Thursday. The timing is “just coincidental,” said Keli Tarp, a spokeswoman at the centre.

The National Weather Service had already announced it was changing the Fujita Scale, a 35-year-old system of ranking a tornado’s strength, to align wind speeds more closely with actual damage.