Storm Spawns Tornadoes on Florida Coast

Tropical Storm Keith blustered ashore in Florida today, spawning tornadoes, flooding streets, knocking down power lines and forcing more than 600 people to evacuate, including residents of a nursing home.

A Pacific storm, meanwhile, pummeled Oregon with 75-m.p.h. winds and unleashed heavy rain in Northern California.

There were no reports of deaths or injuries from the Florida storm, which packed 65-m.p.h. gusts, but the cost of cleanup was expected to run into the millions.

The late-season storm, one of more than a dozen November tropical storms this century, reached the coast about 3 a.m. near Bradenton and Sarasota on the Gulf Coast, pushing a wall of water up to 6 feet high across small barrier islands and coastal beaches to the south.

The storm sped south of Orlando and over Cape Canaveral, and by 11 a.m. it had emerged off Florida’s east coast. Maximum winds dropped to 60 m.p.h. and all tropical storm warnings were canceled.

Pinellas County Manager Fred Marquis said that up to nine tornadoes touched down over a wide area of the county on the state’s west coast, blowing roofs off several homes and destroying a carport. No injuries were reported.

Shuttle Engine Wet

Water from Keith got into the aft engine of space shuttle Atlantis, but workers pumped in air to dry it out and the problem was not expected to disrupt the Dec. 1 launch.

Among the hundreds evacuated, mostly in the Ft. Myers and St. Petersburg areas, were the 96 residents of Shore Acres Nursing Home in St. Petersburg Beach, who were taken to two other nursing homes because of a danger of flooding.

Northern California’s most powerful storm of the season spread heavy rain as far south as Yosemite National Park today, dumped several feet of snow in the Sierra and prompted gale warnings on the wave-battered coast.

The National Weather Service issued small-craft warnings for the entire coast and winter storm watches for the Sierra Nevada.

Almost an inch of rain fell on Sacramento this morning, flooding some streets. Also getting a heavy downpour that stalled motorists were San Francisco and Marin County.

But the state’s heaviest downpour--9 1/2 inches for the 24 hours ending at 4 a.m. today--was at Four Trees, east of Chico in the northern Sierra Nevada foothills.