Flooding, severe weather leave some local residents wading through the mess

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Heavy rains dumping across the Florida-Georgia line prompted flood warnings for Charlton, Nassau, and Northern Duval counties on Thursday.

A Tornado Warning was in effect for St. Johns County until 7:30 a.m. News4JAX contacted the school district, which said that school schedules are not being impacted by the severe weather but they are taking precautions for students on buses and in schools.

According to the National Weather Service, a trained spotter reported a water spout at 7:30 a.m. near the coast of Vilano Beach, and a trained spotter reported a funnel cloud at 10:28 a.m. in Bunnell in Flagler County.

An earlier Tornado Warning that included Putnam County expired at 10:15 a.m. and one that included Flagler County ended at 10:45 a.m.

An afternoon Severe Thunderstorm Warning for St. Johns County ended at 2:30 p.m. The radar indicated 60 mph winds with possible hail in that system, and the NWS reported pea-sized hail at 2:25 p.m. in downtown St. Augustine.

A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was also issued until 5:15 p.m. for Duval County, including Atlantic Beach.

Hail up to a quarter size was reported at 2:45 p.m. in Kingsland, Georgia.

According to The Weather Authority, after a stormy start, some flooding was possible across southern Charlton, northern Duval, Nassau and southern Camden counties through sunrise. Scattered showers with storms will be possible this afternoon before decreasing late this afternoon and evening.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office reported that from the intersection of Lem Turner and Lannie roads all the way northeast to past Hargett Road on Lannie Road, drivers should use caution because of high standing water.

The Callahan area reported 4.5 to 6 inches of rainfall, Amelia City in Nassau County reported over 5.5 inches of rainfall and Yulee reported heavy rain of 5.41 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

A Yulee bowling alley’s parking lot flooded Thursday morning, but the manager told News4JAX the doors would still be open for customers at 10 a.m.

The water filled the parking lot of Yulee Bowling and Amusements from the door to the street, higher than a grown man’s knees in some places. But General Manager Josh Johnson was trying to pump it out.

“It’s typical out here when you get this summer thunderstorms that dump 5 inches an hour. There’s not a pump on earth that can keep up with it honestly,” Johnson said.

Johnson said although there was a lot of water, he doesn’t think any made its way inside.

The same storm caused other damage throughout Nassau County. Most of the parking lot at Crossroads Plaza in Fernandina Beach was flooded by 6:20 a.m.

And part of a tree fell outside of News4JAX engineer Howard Ford’s house on Alene Road, damaging the fence in his front yard.

He’s thankful it’s not worse.

“That limb could have fallen a lot of ways and done a whole lot more damage than 50 feet of chain-link fence,” Ford said. “I was very thankful that was only the fence. That is an easy fix.”

About 15 minutes away, two trees fell on the road at the intersection of Edwards and Newell roads near Yulee, taking down a power line and knocking out power to homes in the area. Debris was seen in neighbors’ yards and the powerline blocked the road for more than two hours.

Florida Power & Light crews were spotted restoring service before 7:30 a.m.

Before the sun came up in Callahan, plenty of cars were seen testing their luck driving their way through flooded streets, including Mickler Street and around the corner on U.S. 301.

Some drivers decided to turn around and find another way.

The good news is no one was hurt in any of this.

VIEW: Full Weather Forecast | Live Radar

Earlier this morning

Exact Track 4D did see a possible tornado that quickly weakened to a rotating thunderstorm. That has since weakened further. The tornado warnings are over and severe storm winds are the threat for Nassau and Camden counties are through 4 am. There may be some trees 🌳 downed by high winds we might see, once the sun comes up.

Update as of 3:30 a.m. All warnings have ended, looking back at the details:

Exact Track 4D did see the tight possible rotation of a tornado at 2:14 am, the warning officially came out at 2:27 am. Yes, Exact Track 4D is that good. But it also indicated that the possible tornado was extremely weak, never touched down and was brief.

Exact Track 4D indicated it had weakened to a rotating thunderstorm (meso storm) by 2:39 am. Only a window of 15 minutes to do damage.

The good news is that Exact Track 4D also indicated no debris, so there was no touchdown.

By 3:21 am the storm was off Cumberland Island and moving over the Atlantic. dissipated