An EF2 tornado in Palm Coast caused nearly $1 million in damage to homes
The National Weather Service did not issue a hurricane warning before the hurricane struck Palm Coast around 4:50 a.m. Thursday.
An EF2 tornado damaged homes and vehicles in Palm Coast but no one was injured
Some homes and vehicles were damaged but no one was injured when an EF2 tornado tore through parts of Palm Coast’s B section.
An EF2 tornado that struck Palm Coast on Thursday caused less than $1 million in damage to homes in Section B, according to the county.
One home sustained significant damage. Seven homes sustained minor damage. Jonathan Lord, Flagler County’s director of emergency management, said nine homes were “impacted,” meaning they suffered cosmetic damage.
He said the total damage was estimated at about $954,000.
No hurricane warning has been issued for Palm Coast
The National Weather Service did not issue a warning for the tornado, which touched down around 4:50 a.m., Lord said.
He said the county is re-sending warnings from the National Weather Service to people who registered through the county. Warnings are issued based on whether people are in the path of the storm. The National Weather Service defines this geographic path.
The county resubmitted a tornado watch for Flagler County from the National Weather Service at 12:53 a.m. Thursday, which was scheduled to last until about 9 a.m., Lord said. Flagler County was among a number of counties included in that monitoring.
Lord said the county system is at 4:20 a.m. He retransmitted a severe thunderstorm warning believed to be the cell responsible for the tornado. Such warnings always indicate the possibility of a tornado; The probability of a tornado is a criterion for a thunderstorm to be considered severe.
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But Lord said many people don’t sign up for severe thunderstorm warnings because those warnings are repetitive depending on the time of year. He also said some people sign up for notifications, but ask not to be disturbed at night.
About 8,000 people would have received a severe thunderstorm warning because they were in the storm’s path, if they had signed up for such notifications at night, Lord said.
“It was a little difficult to notice the circulation.”
A tornado warning was not issued because there was not a high level of confidence that the storm could produce a tornado, said Al Sandrick, a coordinating meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jacksonville.
“It was a little difficult to monitor the course from our vantage point,” Sandrick said, referring to the weather radar in Jacksonville.
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He added that there was a severe thunderstorm warning, and also warned of the possibility of a tornado. He said a tornado watch was issued earlier in the morning for the area, including Flagler County.
The NWS issued a tornado warning later in the morning, but that was for a different storm that came through the area after the tornado that struck Section B, he said.
