CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Tornado nearly flips Florida home with woman still inside
LARGO, Fla. (WFLA) – Residents of Florida's Pinellas County are cleaning up after severe thunderstorms rocked the area on Wednesday night, along with a tornado that touched down in Largo.
Leaders with the National Weather Service said radar and video confirmed the tornado on Thursday morning, but folks in the area didn't need much confirmation after already having a home nearly flipped over by the intense weather.
“There was a lady in there, and I guess when the house went up, it stayed up for a second and came back down," said Martha Hicks, a resident of Ranchero Village who captured the frightening moment on her Ring camera.
Hicks said she later spoke with the woman living inside the home.
"She says she rolled around a few times and had debris on top of her, but when the house finally landed she managed to get herself out,” Hicks said.
On Thursday, mangled pieces of mobile homes could be seen scattered throughout Bay Ranch, one of the Largo communities that took the brunt of the storms. The National Weather Service said someone would be in the area to survey the damage on Thursday.
"It was just like a bomb going off. This thing just blew up," Rick Gilkes told Nexstar's WFLA, referring to the storms.
Gilkes said he was inside when the severe weather arrived.
"I saw everything starting to twirl. I went out in my Florida room to the side, I looked up and I saw the twister," he explained.
Neighborhood resident Steve Carlsen was outside when the storm moved through the area.
"There was no dirt in this funnel cloud, it was just a wall of spiral," he said. "Within just a couple of minutes, it was right at my house."
In other parts of Pinellas County, families experienced high winds, heavy rain and hail.
"It felt like a hurricane had just started right on top of us, and we knew there was a bad weather coming, but we thought nothing like this, just a regular thunderstorm," one resident said.
But owners at Bay Ranch said the damage is worse than any hurricane.
"Everything is gone, I have nothing left," Gilkes said.
Leaders with the Red Cross are assisting individuals affected by the storms. Leaders with Largo Fire Rescue say several homes have severe damage.
As of Thursday, the Largo Police Department said there were thankfully no reported injuries as a result of Wednesday night's storms.