Power outages reported across Central Florida as storms roll through

Soggy weather causes crashes, delays

ORLANDO, Fla. – Strong storms Wednesday afternoon in Central Florida wreaked havoc in the area, causing widespread power outages and multiple vehicle crashes.

Officials with the National Weather Service in Melbourne tweeted that a wind gust of 67 mph was reported at Orlando International Airport around 1:30 p.m. as strong storms moved across Seminole and Orange counties.

NWS issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of Brevard County, including Palm Bay and Merritt Island, until 3:45 p.m. Parts of Orlando and Kissimme were under the same warning until 2 p.m.

News 6 meteorologist Candace Campos said lightning is a major concern as the region experiences wet weather.

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"The west coast sea breeze will be reaching the I-4 corridor by noon and continue to track toward the east coast beaches," Campos said. "The main threats with these storms continues to be deadly lighting, strong wind gusts and torrential rainfall across areas that have seen 4 to 7 inches of rain since late last week."

Reports began to trickle in of power outages in the area during the afternoon hours.

Duke Energy's website showed 167 residences without power in DeLand due to downed trees, 29 outages in St. Cloud also due to fallen trees, 300 outages in the Conway area and 115 residences without power near Dr. Phillips Boulevard.

Fallen tree limbs caused a Kissimmee Utility Authority outage that affected 2,136 customers around 1:30 p.m. Power was restored in the area an hour later.

Drivers in Central Florida also hit some snags as the weather worsened.

SunRail train P323 southbound and P320 northbound were delayed by 40 minutes and 25 minutes, respectively, due to signal issues. The trains were still able to move at a reduced speed between Maitland and Winter Park.

Orange County Fire Rescue officials tweeted that storms caused nine crashes in southwest Orange County, including one on Florida's Turnpike.

"Slow down for conditions, headlights and wipers ON, flashers OFF," firefighters tweeted.

Check back with ClickOrlando.com for the latest weather forecast.

 


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