FKA Kiteboarding Forums - Waterspout/Tornado Wrecks Boats On Ft. Lauderdale Beach

I was rushing south to get some kiting in Pompano with the unforecast wind into the 20's today. Lots got out before I did but I headed down as soon as I could break free. Trouble is, there was all hell breaking loose with powerful squalls to the north with a line of smaller, but nasty looking squalls heading up the coast through Ft.Laudedale and edging offshore in Pompano. So, I figured I would go down and wait out the passage of the southern squall. It looks like it dropped the heavy weather south in Ft. Lauderdale as the system was moving north.

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The radar, so no riding for me until it passes and if the wind returns or doesn't shift offshore.

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The scene in Pompano Beach. Something bad is going down around the time this pano image was taken ten miles down the coast in Ft. Lauderdale on the right side of the frame.

http://fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes...g?m=1458426595
Most kiters had already landed but not all unfortunately. Some were even launching to go out. This is a real bad idea given the violence of thunderstorms and this one in particular. If it doesn't seem right or real safe, well there's your answer. Otherwise you may give me more work writing up your accident which I would be very happy to skip.

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Dave, Vicky and Sandra pose with the squall in the background.

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This nasty looking squall seems to have dropped a tornado which left as a waterspout in the area of Bahia Mar and just south of Tiki Beach around 3 pm. The video below shows a lot about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9eVgdbd38s

You can see two kites in the area, one on the sidewalk. Pretty amazing they are still in one piece.

Some screen captures from the video.

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All the hobie cats had been picked up and blown around, many being torn by what was presumed to have been a tornado, while it was on land anyway. Three kiters and kites were present, one now on the sidewalk with the other two on the beach. I imagine those kiters will have an interesting story. They are lucky their kites weren't torn or blown to sea.

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A look north at the damage.

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One of the kiters at Hobie Beach in Ft. Lauderdale, Nathan Herber got in touch and provided an eyewitness account from ground zero. The storm came on very rapidly without warning that they noticed. Their kiters were fortunately on the beach with no one flying at the time. Nathan was dealing with an intense wall of flying sand when he saw a hobie cat fly about ten feet over his head! At that point Nathan ducked his head and ran for a safer place. The white towel in the shot below is where he was approximately standing which was about 20 yards north of where the Hobie Cats were originally stored along the western edge of the beach. All the guys were very lucky to have come through without injury. Thank you for sharing your story and photos Nathan!

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Nathan went on to day " It came from the S but I can't say for sure if it was SW. We didn't know it was coming until it was on top of us. There were three kites out there. One blew towards the street but the other two (including mine) just ended up a little down the beach. When I saw the Hobies fly 50 yards, I couldn't believe the kites survived. I also was surprised that the winds didn't lift us if they were tossing hobies around. I have no idea how high the winds were, but I think they had to be at least 70 mph to lift those cats. I can still see them flying past me. Feeling very lucky tonight."
Photo by Nathan Herber.

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Photo by Nathan Herber.

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Photo by Nathan Herber.

http://fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes...g?m=1458448401
Photo by Nathan Herber.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-EVKAetAyY
A video shot from her lifeguard stand looking north up the beach by Florencia Morales.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yame7S7zUhY
Another video of the waterspout as it moves further north and east along the coast.

https://vimeo.com/159935121
Robert Shahady was one of the three kiteboarders including Nathan Herber in the path of the tornado/water spout. He shot this video of the scene. He was taking a break from kiting for about a half an hour sitting in his car. Heavy rain started coming down we happen to notice a kite flying northward across the sand in his rear view mirror. He jumped out of his car and started sprinting after it, he turned to look south and saw tons of high-speed flying sand. The Hobie cats had yet to go airborne but were rattling pretty severely. He put his head down and held onto the kite and proceeded to be sandblasted. He really didn't know what was happening but he wanted to save his new slingshot RPM kite.

More about what happened in Ft. Lauderdale at: http://www.local10.com/news/possible..._WPLG_Local_10

It would be good to see kiters take thunderstorm hazards more seriously. In reality, some will, some won't and some will get pretty messed up. A guy was lofted almost 300 m in Spain recently reacting a bit too slow to a squall and amazingly lived. Many haven't been nearly as fortunate. Act early to avoid this stuff, gust fronts can strike out at a substantial distance, winds can shift offshore, die, boost, (as happened in Pompano).