South Florida Drenched, Tornado Touches Down in Palm Beach County
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The official start of rainy season is Tuesday but don't tell that to Mother Nature after she drenched South Florida a day early, all the way from the Florida Keys to Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
The heavy rain made driving tricky on highways and streets.
"It's not comfortable but you have to get where you are going. So you be careful," said John Thomas, who was driving in Sunrise, where some of the heaviest rain fell.
"I hate it. The traffic is very bad," said Amanda Henry who was also driving and dealing with the downpours.
Water pooled on some of the roads around the Sawgrass Mills mall, which had severe flooding last year
There was also some minor flooding off Oakland Park Boulevard and 120th street. Lionel B. who lives there said he had a little trouble leaving his house.
"It makes it inconvenient. It's not terrible, but I've lived in Florida my whole life," he says.
There was even hail in Pembroke Pines.
By far the worst weather hit Palm Beach County, a section called the Acreage, which is located 15 miles Northwest of West Palm Beach. The National Weather Service
confirms a minor tornado touched down early Monday.
"I started yelling at my kids to come in the bedroom," said Lazaro Santos whose property was hit pretty hard. "They came running, all three of them and went right into the closet."
He said it sounded like the windows were going to break but as quickly as the storm arrived, it was gone.
In its wake, downed tree limbs, a carport ripped to shreds, a mangled a pool screen, a damaged horse encloser and destroyed chicken coop that was part of a petting zoo.
No animals were hurt.
"It honestly sounded like my roof and my whole entire top of my two story was going to come off, come flying off," recalled Erica Chase.
Erica was home sick in bed. She says she peaked out of a window as a tree came crashing down.
"My roof is completely damaged. I had patio furniture that's now gone. I don't know where it is. I keep finding little pieces of my house in other people's yards."