Photo from the ABC Action News Facebook page, taken in Odessa... on Twitpic
I’d like to start out by saying that I hope everything works out as best it can for everyone that is actually at Sun ‘n Fun. From what I understand, some severe storms and potentially a tornado tore through the airport there earlier today. According to the event staff, no major injuries were reported and, pending clean up today, the event should resume as close to planned as possible.
Initial reports are that as many as 40 aircraft are damaged – some significantly more than others. Having looked at the pictures and video coming from the site I can say that it’s a bad day to own a STOL aircraft in central Florida. I can certainly sympathize with everyone there, a tornado blew through my neighborhood last week, and I’m glad that everyone appears to be safe. For now it seems like power and internet are hit or miss, so things seem to come out in chunks, check the Sun ‘n Fun website , Facebook page, or Twitter for the latest.
If you’re curious about the extent of the damage Jason Schappert of M0A has posted some pictures to his blog and EAA have posted a gallery of some of the carnage on their Facebook page. Additionally, there are some updates on Youtube.
The first is from Warbird Radio and shows some pretty significant standing water in addition to damaged aircraft.
The second, from AvWeb, offers some updates on the whole situation including the news that apparently Aircam’s entire collection of display aircraft are destroyed.
The third, from Grassroots News, shows some pretty spectacular footage during the actual storm.
So to everybody at Sun ‘n Fun I hope you stay safe and that things work out for everybody.
UPDATE
The following was posted on the Sun ‘n Fun Facebook page at 4:35pm:
Many of you have heard about the weather we had at SUN ‘n FUN today. We know a lot of conflicting and confusing information was being thrown out, even some from normally reliable sources that turned out to be, fortunately, incorrect. We knew there was a lot of conjecture swirling around in addition to the wind and rain, and we didn’t want to add to the confusion by giving out bad or incomplete information, so we appreciate your patience! Here’s what we know:
We had a very brief but powerful storm cell sweep through our area earlier today. It got very dark, very windy, and very rainy in a very short amount of time. We cannot yet confirm that it was actually a tornado versus just a very severe thunderstorm. Either way, it was unpleasant.
The storm did cause damage to the show grounds, but no permanent structures collapsed. Reports of one of our hangers collapsing and trapping 70 people were incorrect. To our knowledge, no one was trapped or even seriously hurt at SUN ‘n FUN. A temporary office trailer at the airport, off SnF property was flipped over by the wind, and that is the “collapsed” structure being shown on some news sources. As far as we know, no one was in the trailer.
There was significant damage to several exhibitor tents and displays, and a number of aircraft were damaged, displaced from their tie-downs or flipped. We have no official count, but from what we saw as we left campus, the number is probably closer to the 40 that Bay News 9 reported, than the 200 that some others have posted on Facebook.
We once again want to thank everyone at SnF that helped in response to the rapidly unfolding storm. We also want to thank all of you who posted your thoughts and support here and on Twitter. Clean-up is now ongoing, and we plan to open the gates at 8am, though it may not be business as “usual” right away.
The forecast for the rest of the weekend is clear and sunny, and we will have an airshow tomorrow (as well as Saturday and Sunday). Due to the weather, neither the Blue Angels or the F-22 arrived today, but as far as we know, both plan to arrive tomorrow and perform.
We will give you more updates as we get them!