Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter HIALEAH (CBSMiami) — The National Weather Service has confirmed an EF-0 tornado did indeed, touchdown in Hialeah during severe storms Sunday night. Experts from the National Weather Service were in the area early Monday morning conducting a storm survey. An EF-0 rated tornado has winds between 65 – 85 mph. Sunday’s tornado reached 85 mph. The path of the tornado was a half mile and the width was 100 yards, according to the NWS. It happened just before 8:00 p.m. Sunday night near West 17th Avenue and 76th Street. It ripped a path of destruction that left a neighborhood full of debris and others right beside it untouched. “It was horrible, it was pretty bad,” said Ibrahim Galvez. Surveillence video shows the moment it rolled through his back yard. He was home alone with his kids and says they scrambled to the bathroom for what seemed like just 15 seconds of terror. “Like a couple trains, sounded like they were outside my house, my furniture is missing,” he told CBS4’s Rielle Creighton. “It’s not damaged it’s missing?” asked Rielle. “Yeah somewhere in the lake or probably my neighbor’s house,” he said. The missing furniture showed up in a mangled pile in the yard of his neighbor two houses away. There was a giant pile of twisted metal that used to be an awning in Garrett Hays’ yard and the remains of the patio furniture. Farther down the street sat a trampoline, a nearby park had downed metal fences and the winds were strong enough to toss a heavy dumpster and rip pieces of the roof off nearby businesses. Power was knocked out in a two-block area and the power outages spread all the way to Hialeah Hospital. However, Capt. David Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Hialeah Fire Department said power was restored fairly quickly to the hospital and FPL crews were working on restoring power to the homes. Large trees from a nearby park were uprooted and blown into the street and a couple of box trucks were flipped over by the powerful wind. No injuries or structural damage was reported.<doc-sep>HIALEAH, FLA. (WSVN) - Officials said a small tornado briefly touched down in West Hialeah, as severe weather wreaked havoc in parts of Broward and Miami-Dade counties and caused flight delays at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Hialeah Fire officials said the tornado touched down near 1800 West 76th St., Sunday night. Developing incident…. A tornado touched down in west Hialeah in the area of 1800 West 76th st. PIO is on scene. The media staging area will be in the parking lot at the corner of 17th avenue and 75th street. Media is asked to enter from the south of 75th this street. — City of Hialeah Fire Department (@HialeahFD) January 28, 2019 Even though it was small, officials said, it knocked down trees at a nearby park to the ground. The debris made it impossible to drive or even walk through the area where the cyclone hit. “It’s a small little area, but what has gone through there, you can’t even drive a car [and] you can barely walk through there,” Hialeah Fire Capt. David Rodriguez said. Officials said area homes suffered damage, but concluded that there was no major structural damage to any of the homes in the area. An area resident posted photos of the damage to her home on Twitter. A canopy in her backyard could be seen knocked into a swimming pool. Other residents also posted photos and videos of heavy rain and downed trees. A resident posted video of an overturned trailer near West 76th Street and 17th Avenue. The National Weather Service sent out a storm survey crew to further investigate the reported tornado, Monday morning. They confirmed a high-end EF-0 tornado did in fact touch down with approximately 85 mile per hour winds. “It’s not all that uncommon, but still tornadoes are rare events in this particular system,” said Stephen Konarik with the NWS. “It’s pretty rare in that it was a pretty organized storm, not a very quick spin-up. The storm was fairly long-lasting across the county.” Near where the tornado touched down, police closed off West 76th Street as crews worked on cleaning up debris. @OfficialJoelF Took this crazy footage before the tornado warning happened. Didn't expect anything major when I set my phone up to record but holy shit that changed. The emergency alert cut the video lol pic.twitter.com/SM03bwmECk — Diandi (@Diandii_) January 28, 2019 Surveillance video at PT’s Showclub Miami captured gusty winds blowing what appeared to be a garbage bin. Debris could also be seen crashing into a parked car. The resident who posted photos of her home said the first thing she noticed was the howling wind. “We started hearing a lot of wind noise, that was, like, a little abnormal,” she said, “and then our lights started flickering on and off, so we came over to the closet door.” Other residents in the area were startled by the damaging storm. “As I was going out, I saw that everything in the back was just being thrown around,” said Sergio Perez, who lives in the area. “I said to my wife, ‘That’s a tornado. '” As of 10 p.m., Florida Power & Light reported 376 homes without power in Broward County and 377 homes in Miami-Dade. Just after 11:20 p.m., 7News cameras captured more than a dozen FPL trucks at the scene, as crews removed downed trees and power lines. They worked to restore power to a two-block radius near where the tornado touched down. “All of a sudden, I started hearing some crashing sounds, some wind, and I look outside, and I’m like, ‘I’ve seen hurricanes, but this is totally different,” Hialeah resident Chantil Sanchez said. The area resident who posted photos of her home said she saw what she’s fairly certain was a funnel cloud. “When I was standing there looking out, I saw what I think was a funnel started appearing on top of my barbecue over there,” she said. Meanwhile, in a tweet sent Sunday night, FLL officials confirmed 163 flights had been delayed and five flights had been cancelled. That announcement came about an hour after the National Weather Service in Miami issued the tornado warning for parts of Miami-Dade and Broward counties, just after 7:30 p.m. Meteorologists later said the radar indicated potential for a tornado in Miami Lakes, Hialeah and Opa-locka, but just after 8 p.m., that warning was cancelled. “We came out afterwards and of course we saw the trail and the damages that occurred,” said Perez. Storm Report from Broward with strong wind gusts from this evening's storms. pic.twitter.com/gPeSZb9k6D — 7 Weather (@7Weather) January 28, 2019 In addition to the tornado in West Hialeah, wind gusts of up to 49 mph were reported at North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pine, just after 8 p.m., and a strong storm pelted the coast near Pompano Beach and Lauderdale-by-the-Sea with heavy rain and possible hail. As of Monday afternoon, no injuries had been reported. Storm Report from Broward with strong wind gusts from this evening's storms. pic.twitter.com/gPeSZb9k6D — 7 Weather (@7Weather) January 28, 2019 FLL officials advised travelers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.<doc-sep>
Weather 'Weak Tornado' Touches Down In Hialeah The National Weather Service in Miami confirmed that a "weak" tornado touched down in Hialeah Sunday night. Reply HIALEAH, FL — The National Weather Service in Miami confirmed that a "weak" tornado touched down in Hialeah Sunday night. A storm survey crew conducted a walking tour of the damage on Monday to make the determination. "It's a weak tornado. It's on the lowest end of our tornado scale," meteorologist Barry Baxter with the National Weather Service in Miami told Patch. Subscribe to Miami Patch's free email news alerts and newsletters Baxter said the tornado struck just off Florida State Road 826 near West 76th Street between 7:50 p.m. and 7:55 p.m. The storm was classified as an EF0. An EF2 or higher is considered a significant tornado. Sunday's tornado measured 85 miles per hour at its peak. EF0 storms range from wind speeds of 65 mph up to 85 mph. The width of the Hialeah storm was about the size of a football field and it traveled about half a mile, according to Baxter. The National Weather Service later narrowed the start of the tornado to 7:52 p.m. It lasted only a minute. "Tornado likely began on W 20th Avenue and W 76th Street just east of the Palmetto Expressway, tracking ENE over the Palm Lakes neighborhood of Hialeah," according to weather officials. "Heaviest damage began a block to the east at the intersection of W 18th Lane and W 76th Street, where two vehicles were overturned. The heavy damage continued at homes in the 1800 block of W 76th Street, where minor roof damage was noted, along with many broken large tree branches, a couple of uprooted trees, awning and patio damage. "The tornado then tracked over a small lake, then over a home at W 16th Court and W 77th Street where a small patio roof was blown across the street," weather officials explained. "The damage pattern became quite discontinuous and spread out to the east of W 16th Court, suggesting that the tornadic circulation had lifted. Estimated wind speeds with the section of the tornado from W 18th Lane to W 16th Court is 75-85 mph, in the upper end of the EF-0 range." Watch an animation of the tornado below courtesy of the National Weather Service: