352todayAlan Youngblood/352todayWalker Willis (left) helps his family clean up from a tornado that destroyed his family's Kings Bay fish camp.
CITRUS COUNTY, FL (352today.com) – On Monday, family and friends gathered at a wooden fish camp – or what remains of it – to clean up after a tornado splintered it over the weekend.
Crystal River Mayor Joe Meek said the National Weather Service confirmed the waterspout turned land-based tornado was rated an EF-0 with 65 mph estimated wind speed.
The storm’s destructive funnel cloud was well-documented on video and in photos by boaters and homeowners on Kings Bay who witnessed it spin up.
“It was almost as funny as it was sad,” said homeowner Mitchell Kinney about seeing the video of the waterspout.
Searching for sentimental items Many tall tales of the fish that got away have likely been told by Kinney’s family and friends. No one needs to exaggerate the details of what happened there this weekend.
“Put a lot of time and effort and a lot of belly laughs at this place,” said Kinney.
On this day, heartache replaced the laughs as they tried to salvage sentimental items. “We found a lot of pictures. I had a lot of old fishing rods and reels. We found a lot of them.”
The area has several modest fishing outposts built in the early 1960s and owned for generations by the same families.
Courtesy: Alan Youngblood/352today
Mitchell Kinney (left) and his nephew, Jeffrey Kinney (right), describe how a waterspout randomly spun onto the peninsula where his family has owned a fish camp since the 1960s. Courtesy: Alan Youngblood/352today
Mitchell Kinney was able to salvage some of his collection of rods and reels from the rubble. Courtesy: Alan Youngblood/352today
Mitchell Kinney’s fish camp was destroyed by a tornado that hit homes on Roy Thomas Road outside Crystal River, FL. Families were cleaning up on Monday, June 17, 2024. Courtesy: Alan Youngblood/352today
Jeffrey Kinney walks through the devastation of his uncle’s waterfront home. A waterspout splintered the wooden camp on Sunday. Courtesy: Alan Youngblood/352today
Walker Willis sorts through what’s left of his family’s fish camp after a tornado destroyed them on Sunday. Courtesy: Alan Youngblood/352today
Friends help residents move downed power lines after a tornado destroyed two fish camps on Roy Thomas Road near Crystal River on Monday, June 17, 2024. Courtesy: Alan Youngblood/352today
Walker Willis said his family was one of the originals to establish a weekend retreat here. He said the wooden homes were constructed from either redwood or cedar remnants from the old mill in the area that used to make pencils.
“The whole roof was gone. The whole side of the house was gone but the microwave was still standing there, and all the cups were still upright on the counters. It’s really bizarre,” said Willis as he combed through the debris.
Kinney says no one was home when the tornado hit.
That’s a good thing since there were no warnings about the weather threat.
Why no warnings? Mayor Meek posted on Facebook to address questions and concerns about the lack of advisory.
“A tornado watch is issued when there is a widespread potential of severe thunderstorms capable of producing land-based tornadoes. A tornado watch is not issued for waterspouts which have the potential to form on many days of the year when enough rising air intersects with a developing shower or thunderstorm,” wrote Meek. “It is important to note that waterspouts can produce damage, as this one did, and people should avoid waterspouts. These waterspouts tend to weaken once impacting land, as the land then disconnects the circulation tube – and we often then see a remnant funnel before it dissipates.”
The mayor said radar detected showers and thunderstorms across the Nature Coast but he says the radar data was not supportive of issuing a severe thunderstorm warning or tornado warning.
“The waterspout development was localized to an extremely small area and the radar beam would not effectively sample the low-level rotation in the lowest 1,000 to 2,000 feet where this waterspout developed,” wrote Meek on his Facebook page.
A freak of nature. “I still don’t understand how a tornado just hit here,” remarked Willis.
