PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – The National Weather Service said Wednesday that three tornadoes touched down in South Florida early Tuesday morning, knocking down tree limbs and branches, damaging property and causing gridlock on the roadways.
Officials with the National Weather Service announced Tuesday that two EF-1 tornadoes touched down in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. They later determined that a third tornado touched down in Davie.
The first tornado touched down at 7:15 a.m. in Pompano Beach and the second struck northeast Miami-Dade, between Sun Life Stadium and Aventura, at 8 a.m.
An assessment of the damage from Sky 10 showed a basketball hoop at the bottom of a swimming pool in Pembroke Pines. A white picket fence surrounding the property had also been damaged.
Just across the street, another home's pool screen was destroyed and a tree in the front yard had been uprooted.
A few miles to the north, horse trailers and stables were damaged at the Sand & Spurs Equestrian Park in Pompano Beach.
At a nearby Muvico parking lot, a tree fell and landed on a pickup truck, its branches protruding through the driver's side window. Another massive tree was also uprooted, lifting a section of the sidewalk with it.
In Hollywood, Tom Mezias told Local 10 News that he helped pull his neighbors out of their damaged mobile home on Arthur Street.
Mezias said he heard someone screaming for help, so he went outside and saw a large tree on top of the couple's mobile home. He ripped the siding off the trailer and told them to kick the wall until they punctured it, creating a hole for them to get out.
"She was hysterical, screaming," Mezias said. "I mean, she thought it was the end of days. I mean, you know, trust me, it looked like it."
Mezias said the weather conditions made it difficult to see.
"The wind was blowing so hard you couldn't see," he said.
William Manning said the whole ordeal happened in an instant.
"She was underneath the rubble that was underneath the tree," Manning told Local 10.
Manning said his wife was taken to a hospital. She didn't have any broken bones, but she was being monitored to make sure she didn't have a concussion.
Elsewhere in Hollywood, a trampoline was entangled in some power lines.
In another Hollywood neighborhood, a tree crashed through the roof of a home.
"We walked right into the bathroom, stacked up all the pillows off the couch around us and prayed to God we were going to make it," resident John Skwierc said.
In northeast Miami-Dade County, residents of the Skylake neighborhood said they saw what they believe was a tornado. Transformers were ripped off power poles and air-conditioning units were dislodged. A trampoline was found two blocks from the owner's backyard.
"When it first started, I thought it was just hail," a woman who lives in the neighborhood told Local 10.
Then she saw the damage and knew it was something more.
According to Florida Power & Light, about 50,000 customers were without electricity in Broward and Miami-Dade counties at the peak of the storm.
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