About 40 planes were damaged at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport.
Small planes in St. Petersburg and Lakeland were flipped and scattered like toys.
Trucks toppled over on roads, and cargo containers at the Port of Tampa fell like a child's set of wooden blocks.
Somehow, a large trampoline from a Riverview home went airborne, snagging on a tree branch and hanging there like a holiday ornament.
Everyone knew about Thursday's forecast: A swath of thunderstorms was bearing down on the Tampa Bay area and the threat of tornadoes would hover over the region for most of the day.
No one expected this.
"I was rattled out of my brains," said Karen Scheidt, who saw sycamores and oaks snap near her Temple Terrace home. "I'm all jiggly all over still."
Damage from Thursday's massive storm was spread over a wide region. No county in West Central Florida was spared from flooding, road closures, downed electrical lines, wind damage and power outages. Dozens of homes and businesses were seriously damaged, particularly along Interbay Boulevard in South Tampa and in a small neighborhood in Progress Village.
