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‘Get to your safe space,’ Meteorologist issues warning as tornado hits Florida TV station during live broadcast | Watch
A shocking video shows the moment a tornado wreaked havoc while a television meteorologist broadcast live on air.
A shocking video shows the moment a tornado wreaked havoc while a television meteorologist broadcast live on air. The storm hit his station's studio in Lake Mary, Florida, near Orlando. WOFL-TV meteorologist Brooks Garner warned employees to take shelter as lights flickered during the broadcast.
Garner was warning people to take shelter when he realised that the storm was heading right for the TV studio. He then asked people in the building to take cover while still on air.
‘That's the first time a tornado has hit’
"Get to your safe space under your desk. We're catching debris right now on the roof," Garner said. "This is a tornado."
One home collapsed and several other homes were damaged as a result of the storm, weather.com reported. However, no deaths or injuries were reported. The National Weather Service’s preliminary survey found damage indicating an EF1 tornado along most of the path, with a small area being rated EF2 with peak winds estimated up to 115 mph.
Even as the power flickered and the twister passed over, Garner remained on air. "This is a very serious situation," he told viewers. "This is a real live tornado."
Garner then went on to tell viewers where the storm was headed next. He ultimately stopped to catch his breath around 90 seconds later, after it was over. "I've been doing this for a very long time. That's the first time a tornado has hit me while I'm doing the weather," he said.
WOFL, a Fox network station, has studios in Lake Mary, Florida, about 16 miles northeast of Orlando. The weather was actually part of a broader system that hit parts of the South.
"A low-pressure system tracking across the Southeast today has been mainly a rainmaker," weather.com senior meteorologist Chris Dolce said Monday morning, March 10. "But enough unstable air ahead of it has created an environment that can produce isolated severe storms in central Florida, including damaging wind gusts and the chance of a brief tornado."
The Seminole County Fire Department reportedly confirmed that people were inside a home that collapsed, but no one was harmed. The department took to Facebook to share photos of the damage caused by the storm.
