Lightning Strikes Cause Damage During Friday Storms
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The Red Cross was assisting residents displaced after lightning struck their west Miami-Dade apartment building Friday.
Miami-Dade firefighters responded to a charred apartment building on SW 17th Lane.
Gustavo Franco said he saw lightning hit the building.
"Very difficult for me," he said, shaken up. "This moment, I can't put my mind in order."
He asks he saw lightning hit his apartment the moment he pulled in to the parking lot.
The inside of his home is trashed.
Insulation that was once in the ceiling, is now all over the floor.
"We live in a city with hurricanes, tornadoes, lightning storms, so we see it all," Franco said.
Franco added that's why he has insurance and he hopes everything will be covered.
No one was hurt.
Miami-Dade firefighters also hosed down a hot spot where they believe a bolt of lightning struck through a metal awning of a home on SW 3 Street in Sweetwater.
The rain soaked Aventura, where at one point, power went out at the mall.
FPL reported outages affecting more than 6,000 customers Friday evening.
In Dania Beach, a car stalled on I-95, not because of flood water, but because it took a direct hit from a bolt of lightning.
"I was driving and unjust felt something hit my car and start shaking. Light everywhere," the driver said.
The driver did not want to give her name, but says her car stopped working right in the middle of the road.
"I had to get out the car from the window and runaway because I was scared something was going to happen because of the smell of gas," she said.
She wasn't hurt.