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Woman killed as severe storms hit Tallahassee and other parts of North Florida – NBC 6 South Florida

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Fierce storms with winds near hurricane force killed at least one woman in Florida on Friday, while a week of deadly weather continued in the South, with uprooted trees slamming into homes and knocking out power to thousands of people in several states.

Wind gusts of 71 miles per hour were recorded in Tallahassee, just shy of hurricane strength, according to the National Weather Service. Images posted on social media showed shredded metal and other debris from damaged buildings littering parts of Florida’s capital.

The sheriff’s office for Leon County, which includes Tallahassee, said in a Facebook post Friday that a woman was killed when a tree fell on her family’s home.

The storm that hit Tallahassee early Friday also knocked down two chimneys from homes in a complex where fallen trees covered a number of cars. The fence remained hanging at Florida State University’s baseball stadium, where classes were canceled Friday.

The woman killed in Florida was at least the fourth death caused by severe weather in the Southeast this week. Two people were killed by storms in Tennessee on Wednesday, while another storm-related death was reported in North Carolina.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on the social media platform Friday

A statement from the city of Tallahassee blamed “possible tornadic activity” for the widespread damage in the city of 200,000. There were no immediate reports of injuries. According to the city, more than 66,000 customers were without power and 11 substations were damaged.

“The restoration may last until the weekend,” the announcement said.

Strong thunderstorms were also expected in Alabama near the Florida Panhandle, where gusty winds could knock down tree branches, the weather service said.

Nearly 280,000 homes and businesses from Mississippi to North Carolina were affected by power as of late Friday morning, according to the tracking website poweroutage.us. Most of those outages occurred in Florida, where more than 180,000 customers lost lights and air conditioning.

The National Weather Service issued several tornado watches and warnings Friday morning, but they were lifted by midday as the threat shifted to damaging strong winds.

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