Jun 23, 2009 9:00 pm US/Eastern
Broward County Hammered By Storms, Homes Damaged
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ―
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Rita Linda of Coral Springs shows us the damage caused by the storm to her screened patio.
Viewer Rita Linda
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The Elliott family home was damaged by this ficus tree that was struck by lightning. The 60-foot tree crashed through the roof and perforated the ceiling seen here.
CBS
Storms rolled across most of South Florida all day Tuesday. In Broward County two families lost their home and at least 2 people were taken to local hospitals for injuries suffered during the storms.
Along with the damage, power had been knocked out to approximately 11,427 FPL customers in Dade and Broward Counties at one point. By Tuesday night that number was down to 2,979 in Broward County and 1,075 in Miami-Dade.
Lightning struck the 60-foot ficus tree next to Savann Elliott's home in unincorporated Ft. Lauderdale, causing it to crash through the roof and through the ceiling.
"It went into my bedroom," said Elliott. "While I was there I saw this big lightning flash."
The ceiling came tumbling down while his four children were playing inside.
The damage displaced his family from the home, but fortunately no one was hurt. The Red Cross is assisting them with hotel accommodations.
Beatriz Lagala also lost her Deerfield Beach apartments after hers and one other apartment was condemned when water from a broken drainage system on the roof flooded the downstairs apartments. The apartments are on the 4000 block of Northwest Ninth Avenue and are part of a two-story complex.
Lagala was stunned by what she saw in her apartment. "I walk through my house and I see water everywhere and it make (sic) me crazy," Lagala said.
At around the same time as the apartments were flooding, a tree fell on a man in a golf cart around the 900 block of 116th Terrace. The 70-year-old driver was found unconscious but breathing and had to be cut from the cart. He was transported to Broward General Hospital, but his condition has not been made public.
Shortly after those two incidents, an FHP Trooper was responding to a traffic incident when the vehicle he was in hit standing water on the Sawgrass Expressway, hydroplaned off the road, and ended up hitting a pole. The trooper was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.
Click here to read about the damage in Miami-Dade County.
Throughout the morning as the storms pounded the area, air travelers at Fort Lauderdale International Airport experienced travel delays of about an hour and a half during the worst part of the storms. As of noon, flights were back on schedule with the exception of flights heading to Boston, which was dealing with weather problems of its own.
In Ft. Lauderdale beach, many beachfront cafes and restaurants stood empty, and the few tourists that did venture to the sand found the area emptied out by the storms.
CBS4.COM's Daniel Lastra Contributed To This Report
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