A South Florida tornado sparked by a cold front moving into the southeast left four people injured after it leveled entire mobile home lots in Fort Myers.
The tornado's winds reached 118 miles per hour and left a trail of destruction in an area 1.8 miles long and 125 yards wide.
It uprooted 30 mobile homes and damaged more than 100, according to local authorities.
A tornado wipes out several homes in Fort Myers, Florida;
on January 16, 2022. Telemundo 49
Affected mobile home communities include Point Breeze, Tropicana and Century 21, according to the National Weather Service.
Edward Murray, 81, told the local Naples Daily News that he was inside his mobile home Sunday morning near Fort Myers when a tornado picked it up and tossed it onto his neighbor's home.
A powerful winter storm impacts more than 80 million people in the United States
Jan. 17, 202201:51
"My house is the one that is turned upside down," he told the newspaper.
“The tornado blew me out, crashed me into the east wall and buried me under the sink, refrigerator, kitchen chairs and everything else,” he said.
Murray and his daughter, Cokie, escaped the tornado unharmed by crawling through the debris.
“I was so happy when I saw the sky,” Murray told the newspaper.
"I said 'fuck it, today is not going to be that day,'" he added.
A tornado topples trees and damages dozens of homes in Fort Myers, Florida, on January 16, 2022. NBC Los Angeles
It was
one of several incidents caused by bad weather
plaguing much of the southeast of the country.
In Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, the storm left thousands of homes without power and caused hundreds of accidents on highways, The Associated Press news agency reports.
More than 1,200 flights were canceled at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina due to heavy snow that brought more than an inch of precipitation.
They take stock after the passage of a strong tornado on the outskirts of Houston
Jan. 10, 202200:21
In Atlanta, where Delta Air Lines operates its main hub, more than 300 Sunday flights were canceled.
Conditions were expected to continue to deteriorate Sunday afternoon as
the Federal Aviation Administration forecast more flight cancellations in the Washington, DC area.
Parts of North Carolina remain under a winter storm warning through Monday morning.
Raleigh was experiencing a mix of rain and sleet.
Frank Pereira, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said a "significant ice storm was expected in parts of the central Carolinas," including the Charlotte metro area.
According to poweroutage.us, more than 260,000 customers were without power on Sunday afternoon.
In North Carolina alone, more than 90,000 homes were without power.
Other states affected were Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.
