EF-1 tornado leaves thousands of residents without power for hours

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A massive tree fell on power lines in the Grove Park neighborhood taking out power for hours. But the tornado not only uprooted a tree, but it also picked up an entire truck less than two miles away.

Wild video shows the moments the wind picked up a truck and flipped it onto Beach Boulevard on the Southside.

“I was definitely scared,” Drive Line employee Ellen Mitchell said.

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Ellen Mitchell and Victor Majauskas work at Drive Line and saw it all unfold around 2:15 p.m.

“We were sitting here, and we heard a pop, and the transformer just like ‘poof,’” Majauskas said.

The workers saw a funnel form in the Mainline Auto parking lot across the street.

“I noticed the rain started to move up from the ground instead of downwards and I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, something is about to go down,’” Mitchell said. “And then I saw the funnel form and I’m like, ‘What is about to happen?’ Then I start to see the funnel completely form, pick up a Tacoma from across the street, and flip it four times.”

They said they checked and saw no one was in the car.

The First Alert Weather Team was first on the air warning about the storm as it moved through our area.

The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down on the Southside and around Arlington. This means winds of up to 100 miles per hour swept through.

You can see the damage it left behind on Grove Park Boulevard.

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“I was scared and shaking,” Crystal Rivera said.

Rivera and Michael Vargas live at the home on right next to where this massive tree fell on powerlines.

“It’s crazy because it didn’t like break in half or anything, it took the whole tree out,” Vargas said.

But they weren’t the only ones affected.

“Was not expecting to come home to this,” neighbor Darlene Griffith said. “It took down my favorite tree – I was crying when I saw my little tree in the front because I love this little tree.”

Griffith came home to find her trees down in her front yard, and the back of her home destroyed.

“Very emotional when I look at this, Griffith said. “They took my porch, and they knocked a hole in my wall, blew out windows – my bathroom windows were blown out, yea it’s pretty bad – a lot of damage for sure.”

JEA’s power outage map shows more than 4,000 customers lost power today.

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Crews were working to remove debris and restore power lines for hours. Power was expected to be restored by 10 pm, but crews were still working late into the night.

“As a Floridian, we know to watch out for hurricanes, but we aren’t as aware of tornados so I think this is a good reminder that it’s not just hurricanes, we have crazy weather here in Florida,” Mitchell said.

The Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department says there were no reported injuries from the tornado.

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