Newspaper article The Florida Times Union
Deluge, Lightning Lash Area Storm Forces Evacuations
Article excerpt
Lightning hit a Westside home and injured a man reaching into a
refrigerator for a drink. Thousands of other lightning strikes
heated the sky Wednesday night as severe thunderstorms rumbled
through Jacksonville, dumping more than 5 inches of rain in some
areas.
David Williams, 34, of 3130 W. 15th St. said he saw lightning
flash just before he was hurt.
"I had my right hand on the refrigerator door and I was
reaching in with my left hand when, all of a sudden, there was a
boom," he said. "My hand turned red and white and it threw me
from the refrigerator to the doorway entering the living room."
Williams was taken to University Medical Center, where he was
treated and released.
The National Weather Service reported about 5 inches of
rainfall at the Jacksonville International Airport in the 24
hours ending 7 p.m. yesterday. But less than an inch fell during
that period at Cecil Field Naval Air Station on the Westside.
"This is not routine, day-to-day weather, but it is something
that does occur a couple of days in the summer and into the
fall," said Pat Welsh, science officer at the weather service.
At one point during the storm, weather officials said there
were 100 lightning strikes occurring every five minutes, not
many of them touching the ground. Jacksonville isn't far from
the area of Florida that traditionally receives the most
lightning strikes. The most active lightning area in Florida
runs along Interstate 75, from Tampa to Valdosta, Ga., Welsh
said.
On 13th Street in the Northside, rain, combined with heavy
winds, chased about 20 families out of the 182-unit Imperial
Estates apartment complex. Though the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development has been busy making repairs at the
complex since taking it away from the owner in October, the
building wasn't ready to weather the storm.
Jim Walker, HUD's acting area coordinator, said the flooded
tenants were to be moved into a hotel until the apartments could
be repaired.
The rain poured at such a fast pace that flooding became a
problem on some interstate highways. …