Florida gets more than their fair share of tornadoes unfortunately, including a rather spectacular storm system that wrought havoc on The Villages a few years back (my inlaws live up there). They aren't the kind of monster storms the midwest sees, but we are the lightning capital of the planet, so the conditions often get ripe for a twister. This one was mild in effect, if indeed it was a tornado and not just a brief squall of hurricane proportions, but it successfully took down every remaining sand pine in the neightborhood. Those trees weathered four consecutive hurricanes some years back.

I've lived in the mid west, most recently in Omaha, and I've witnessed the ominious power of the storms up there. Terrifying is right. I'll take my petulant, semi-tropical Florida any day