Tornado rips through Tallahassee, shutting down the airport for about two hours
A tornado that swept across Tallahassee Wednesday afternoon interrupted government proceedings, closed the airport, tossed trees and cut power to thousands of people.
The National Weather Service’s Tallahassee bureau said the tornado cut across the south side of the city, hitting Tallahassee International Airport, which is southwest of both Florida State University and Florida A&M University. Around 1:50 p.m., the airport reopened, although with one of its two runways closed by debris.
The city’s power-tracking map said just over 5,800 people were without power as of 2 p.m..
Update - Everyone @NWSTallahassee is okay! The tornado occurred at the TLH airport. Our office is northeast of the airport on the campus of FSU and was not affected. Technicians are at the radar and report no damage. The radar remains down due to a communications issue.
— NWS Tallahassee (@NWSTallahassee) January 27, 2021
In the state Capitol building, committee meetings were paused. Staff and senators were told to go to the basement levels and hallways of buildings. Some members were concerned about being crowded together, although they supposedly stayed masked.
Here’s some pics of damage at ktlh from the confirmed tornado that just passed, and of course, a picture of the radar since the last year or so has not been kind to radars. @NWSTallahassee pic.twitter.com/wUYsGv1jZB
— Harrison Prieto (@harr1sonpr1eto) January 27, 2021
