“I was taking the flag down and then it got real bad and I thought, well, I better get in the house. As soon as I shut the door, it just started getting crazy.”
Leavitt heard what many tornado survivors describe as the sound of a train. As he started to make his way into a hallway to get into a bathroom, he looked back over his shoulder.
“The roof behind me was lifted up and you could see the circles (of insulation), you could see the tornado,” Leavitt said. “It was just ripping the roof off right behind me.the whole roof just disappeared. It pulled a cement block wall down.”
LAKELAND Scott Leavitt, 60, had just gotten home from his railing manufacturing job in Tampa when he saw winds whipping the American flag flying from his home at 5738 Gibson Shores Drive in North Lakeland.
“I was taking the flag down and then it got real bad and I thought, well, I better get in the house. As soon as I shut the door, it just started getting crazy.”
Leavitt heard what many tornado survivors describe as the sound of a train. As he started to make his way into a hallway to get into a bathroom, he looked back over his shoulder.
START TIME: 03:49 PM EST
START LOCATION: 2 NE SEMINOLE / PINELLAS COUNTY / FL
START LAT/LON: 27.8637 / -82.7524
END DATE: 12/16/2020
END TIME: 04:11 PM EST
END LOCATION: 3 SSW TAMPA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT / / FL
END LAT/LON: 27.9345 / -82.5532
The survey from the NWS found that a thunderstorm over the Gulf of Mexico was rotating and weakened as it moved onshore. The storm spun up again quickly and dropped a violent tornado in parts of the Bayou Club, then crossed Belcher Road and hit an industrial park where the greatest damage was observed.
Buildings had uplift and removal of roof decking and outer walls collapsed. Two buildings were destroyed and five had major damage. Several buildings in a boat storage facility had major damage and large 2-ton boats were thrown about.