MONDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: The National Weather Service on Monday confirmed that three EF-0 tornadoes happened during last week's severe weather that caused damage throughout the Bay area.

EF-0 storms include a wind gust, of at least three seconds, of 65-85 mph.

The locations were:

10:59 p.m. Wednesday Sarasota County, about 10 miles south of downtown Sarasota.

12:14 a.m. Thursday: 1 mile south of Oldsmar.

2:17 a.m. Thursday: West-southwest Odessa in Pasco County.

 

PREVIOUS STORY:

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Two long-track tornadoes blew across the Bay area overnight, bringing some damage to areas in Citrus, Pinellas and Pasco counties.

What You Need To Know

The early morning storms spawned fast-moving tornadoes that came on shore around 2 a.m. and left a trail in Citrus County, as well as a separate tornado that spawned near Clearwater Beach and then entered Pasco and went into eastern Hernando County.

Officials from the National Weather Service Tampa Bay confirmed Thursday afternoon it was an EF-2 tornado with winds of more than 110 mph that roared ashore on Clearwater Beach and continued to Dunedin.

HOMES DAMAGED IN NORTH CLEARWATER BEACH

Officials with the City of Clearwater confirmed two houses on Eldorado Avenue in North Clearwater Beach were significantly damaged by an EF-1 tornado that moved through the area early Thursday morning. No one was injured.

An elderly woman in one of the homes woke up to the sound of crashing glass and pulled bedding over herself for protection, officials said. Two doors down, another house saw its porch get blown over the roof and land on the other side of the house.

Carlouel Yacht and Beach Club also saw significant damage from the tornado. General Manager Marc Carter woke up to a call early Thursday morning from an employee.

“I got out here about 4:30, started looking around and said, ‘Yeah, it’s pretty bad,’” Carter said. “Coming off of a hurricane, this was much worse.”

Patio umbrellas and chairs are broken. Some furniture even got swept up by the wind and is gone. There are also a lot of downed branches on the property. The roof to the club’s cabanas is also damaged, after the building was flooded during Hurricane Idalia.

“It was pretty catastrophic,” Carter said. “I called our team and we had a great turnout from our employees – ‘Hey, whoever can come out here and help us clean up.’ We had probably 20 employees come out before the rain and we got a lot done.”

Carlouel has been a part of the north Clearwater Beach Community for almost 90 years. Despite the setbacks from Idalia – and now this tornado – Carter plans to keep the club a staple for decades to come.

STORM SURVEYS CONTINUE

Crystal River saw a preliminary EF-2 tornado. Storm survey teams were out in the community Thursday to determine if any other areas had a tornado touch down.

According to the National Weather Service, two damage surveys will include Citrus County and Clearwater/Dunedin area.

“There are other potential tornado impact areas that we will be assessing based on radar and damage reports, photos/videos submitted to us from emergency management and media, as well as a wealth of data mined from social media.”

A condo building in Dunedin, the Harbor Pointe condos by Frenchy’s Market, had a portion of its third floor wall blown off during the storms. A gaping hole was left in the building, located on Causeway Boulevard. A neighbor said no one was in that condo at the time the damage was sustained.

Meanwhile, in Crystal River, multiple buildings collapsed as a result of being struck by tornado winds, according to Citrus County Sheriff Mike Prendergast.

Emergency management reported a tornado at US 19 and W Island Ford Trail in Crystal River at 2:12 a.m. Roof damage and power lines were reported down in the vicinity.

Trucks were flipped over and windows of businesses were blown out in a parking lot at Causeway Boulevard and Bayshore Boulevard in Dunedin.