Storm warnings issued along Gulf Coast

EUSTIS, Fla. - Severe weather, including a tornado, damaged about 50 homes in central Florida, before the system became a tropical depression Friday and had parts of the Gulf Coast under tropical storm warnings.

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Only two injuries, both minor, was reported in the area about 30 miles northwest of Orlando, Lake County emergency management spokesman Chris Patton said. Crews went door to door to make sure everyone was safe after the storm.

"It's amazing ― we're completely blessed," said Brett MacLaughlin, who safely rode out the storm with his mother and stepfather in a bathroom as tree limbs crashed through windows outside. "The entire neighborhood is very blessed."

The tornado touched down late Thursday and reports confirmed it was an F1 twister, with winds estimated at 105 mph, the National Weather Service said. It spawned from a storm system that crossed through the state before spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.

The system developed into a tropical depression Friday, with tropical storm warnings posted from Apalachicola in Florida's Panhandle westward to the mouth of the Mississippi River, including New Orleans, the National Hurricane Center said. Two to 6 inches of rain were expected.

At 2 p.m. EDT, the depression had top sustained winds of about 35 mph and was centered about 50 miles southwest of Apalachicola. It was moving northwest near 11 mph, and its center will be moving nearly parallel to the coastline Friday, forecasters said. Rain and wind from the system were still over parts of Florida.

The depression could strengthen slightly, but its poor organization and cool air in the gulf should keep it from becoming more than a weak tropical storm, forecasters said.

"A landfall location is difficult to pinpoint but in any event the center of a subtropical cyclone is relatively unimportant. Most of the weather associated with the system is well-displaced from the center," senior hurricane specialist James Franklin said.

In Eustis, Herrell said 20 houses were uninhabitable and about 30 other homes have broken windows, debris from fallen tree branches and roof damage. He said the second story was shorn off one house, but the residents escaped unharmed.

Television news footage showed a boat overturned in a yard, a toppled mobile home and downed trees. About 100 people remained without electricity by early afternoon, but power was expected to be restored by sundown, officials said.

MacLaughlin said he, his mother and stepfather were sitting on their back porch, watching the thunderstorm, when they noticed odd cloud formations and an eerie quiet.

"That's when we started to hear the freight train that everybody talks about," said MacLaughlin, 20. "It just got louder. The wind picked up immensely within seconds."

The trio ran into the bathroom, where water began pouring out of the toilet as the apparent tornado passed. After the two-minute ordeal, MacLaughlin said he walked out of the bathroom to see a jumble of glass and leaves in the home. A 1950s era barn behind the home was demolished, he said.

The late-night storm caused much less damage than the deadly tornadoes that hit the same area in the dark, early morning hours of Feb. 2, killing 21 people and destroying hundreds of homes in Lake, Sumter and Volusia counties.

Gulf Coast residents and the oil industry were making early preparations ahead of the depression.

In Louisiana, which was smacked by Hurricane Katrina two years ago, the governor declared a state of emergency late Thursday, putting the National Guard on alert and school buses, ambulances and evacuation shelter workers on standby.

New Orleans is prepared to open three to five shelters for thousands of people still living in government-issued trailers, said Col. Jerry Sneed, director of the city's Office of Emergency Preparedness. A decision on whether to open shelters probably won't be made until Friday afternoon, Sneed said.

Oil industry workers have left five production platforms in the gulf, and three drilling rigs have been evacuated, according to the federal Minerals Management Service. In Mississippi, officials in coastal Hancock County handed out sandbags. And in Mobile County, Ala., authorities were opening a shelter for residents leaving homes in low-lying areas.

In the Pacific, Hurricane Ivo weakened slightly Friday and was expected to become a tropical storm over the weekend before plowing into a desolate part of southern Baja California on Monday. The Category 1 storm had sustained winds of about 75 mph and was moving to the north at about 8 mph.

Authorities in the resort of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, began advising residents to buy water and food. The area was hit Sept. 4 by Hurricane Henriette, which killed 10 people and destroyed about 2,000 homes.