MIAMI (AP) -- Tornadoes and violent storms that ripped across the state killed a Liberty City man in his living room, injured eight people at an Ocala golf course restaurant and flooded a Gainesville community college with 1 1/2 feet of water.
At least four twisters were spotted in the state during a brief period Thursday afternoon, officials said. One in the Liberty City-Brownsville area in northwest Miami knocked down power lines, uprooted trees, ripped roofs off of several buildings and flattened one home.
A 67-year-old man was killed in his home when a 6- to 7-foot tree branch crashed into the living room. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue had not released his name early Friday. Four others suffered minor injuries.
The storm left much of the neighborhood swallowed in darkness Thursday night, without street lights or illumination from the tall public housing units and apartment buildings. Dozens of people were forced into shelters.
``We were watching TV and we heard the windows cracking and everything caving in,'' said Shantavius Flanders, 16. ``We hid in the closet.'' The roof was torn off of the family's home.
Several tractor-trailers were overturned, said Rob Handel, meteorologist for the National Weather Service. Winds of 80 mph to 100 mph can tip the vehicles, he said.
In Ocala, a wall of wind knocked a 30-by-60-foot hospitality tent off of the Nancy Lopez Legacy Country Club at The Villages Marion, while at least two dozen people were underneath it at the restaurant.
``For a while, I was airborne,'' said Richard Plunkett, 60. ``One minute we were sitting there, the next minute we're 10, 15 feet away.''
Seven customers were injured, including one with serious injuries, Toni Wilson, spokeswoman for the Villages Regional Hospital, said Friday. The seriously injured patient was flown to Orlando Regional Medical Center and officials there did not immediately return a call seeking comment. The other six were treated for cuts and bruises and have been released, Wilson said.
In north-central Florida, Santa Fe Community College was closed after 1 1/2 feet of water flooded three buildings. The rain also flooded an elevator shaft in another building, parking lots and ditches.
``To us, it was something of biblical proportions,'' said Larry Keen, spokesman for the Gainesville school. ``Hail was hitting the windows almost parallel to the ground, it was coming at such velocity.''
A few miles away, a large oak tree fell through a house, smashing the bedroom and living room and coming to rest in the kitchen. No one was injured.
``It's unbelievable, the damage,'' said homeowner Nancy Espinosa. ``I think I'm still in shock.''
The Miami tornado was an F2 on the Fugita scale, which ranks the strength of tornadoes on a scale ranging from F0 as the weakest to F5 as an extremely damaging storm, said meteorologist Wayne Colin with the National Weather Service in Miami.
About 17,000 Florida homes without power late Thursday because of the storm, down from about 39,000 people earlier in the afternoon, said a Florida Power & Light dispatcher. Crews were working to restore all power.
One tornado touched down briefly near the Naples airport in southwestern Florida and caused minor damage to roofs and trees, but there were no reported injuries, officials said.
The storm cells then sprouted at least two tornadoes that briefly touched down in southwest Miami-Dade County near the Everglades, but there were no reports of damage or injuries from either, meteorologists said.
Another funnel cloud was sighted in Palm Beach County near Wellington, but it did not touch down, said Jim Lushine, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami.
