Cleanup continues as storms blow through Bay area

Some of Tuesday evening's worst storm damage was in Tampa, all over the Sulfur Springs area.

More storms could be on their way Wednesday, too. But for now, folks are just trying to cleanup from yesterday.

The winds, rain and lightning came so fast and furious many people told us they swear they saw a tornado pass by. Seconds later, when the sound had died down, folks were out looking around, checking on each other and wondering what had just clobbered their neighborhood.

"Look. There it goes!," said David Morgan, who captured a bit of the storm's might with his camera.

Just like a paper tablecloth, the wind yanked the roof off a building across the street – effortlessly.

"That's amazing!," exclaimed Morgan. "That's messed-up! It just came out of nowhere. There was no warning or anything."

From a safe vantage point across the street, Morgan saw it all.  The storm was intense and quick and lasted less than two minutes.

"Well, the winds got really high, and the trees were blowing a little bit sideways," said Morgan. "And all of the sudden their roof started to lift across the street. I thought, ‘Oh my God, it's coming completely off.'  Cars everywhere, there were people hiding underneath my awning here, trying to get out of the storm."

Hector Angus runs the One Apple Grocery store across the street and adjacent to the business that lost its roofing.

"All I heard was like a big boom," he said.

He watched his neighbor's roof peel off.

"It was a mess," he said. "There was a lot of rain. The whole roof came in.  And then my store got flooded."

Angus estimates about 5 inches of rain got inside.

"I usually sit on my front porch during storms, this one drove me in," said Susan Long, as she ducked for cover near the corner of 10th & Broad Streets.

Trees had torn down power lines and she tried to warn impatient drivers.

"Some guy in a red pick-up truck just drove right through all the trees and I told him there were live wires, and he didn't care," she said.

"Well, first it's just lightning strike, lightning strike, lightning strike, power is out, panicking," said Garrett Luzadder, who told us he can't believe no one got hurt.  "I heard a crackling, crackling, thud, come out, then there's this."

Nearby, a tree wrecked a neighbor's home.

"It happened so fast, so fast, I didn't know what was going on," the frightened woman said.

Her boyfriend was visiting; she heard a loud, disturbing sound and called out to him.

"I told him to run," she said. "He said huh? I said run! Soon as I said that, all you heard was boom, everything caved in, it was like a lake running down in my living room. Water was everywhere, tree branches coming in. The whole tree is in my living room. I've never been through anything like that in my life."

All those trees clogged storm drains, which were overwhelmed in minutes, making it a challenge to cross in some spots.

Police had to block off some roadways until power was restored. No doubt, plenty of people will be spending their Wednesday cleaning up all the damage.