LONGBOAT KEY – Flooded streets, fallen trees, and a damaged building are things you would have seen driving through the Longboat Key area Wednesday morning.


“We hit a squall line that came through, and we’re not sure if we had a small tornado or they were straight line winds,” said Longboat Key Police Chief Pete Cumming, “but the winds were of enough force to knock down a lot of trees and to blow off a section of the roof at the Longboat Key Club.”


Trees were knocked down at the club and on Gulf of Mexico Dr. As for the roof, the damage was minimal.


“I think most of this is cosmetic,” Cumming said. “I think whatever structure will be handled fairly quickly.”


Longboat Key Club’s communication director Sandra Rios said the damage would not interfere with the club’s daily routine.


“There was water leaking in, a minor injury, nobody was taken to the hospital,” Rios said, “and people are going back to work.”


The biggest issue from the storm was the cleanup process.


“Most of our damage is tree limbs and things like that,” Cumming said, “which we have our road crew out now working diligently to get that picked up as quickly as possible.”


As of early Wednesday afternoon, the Longboat Key Club was the only building majorly affected by the downpour.


“No buildings damaged thankfully,” Cumming said,”but we do have trees up and down the island, some minor flooding on the north end, but nothing at this point that’s gonna be too significant for us.”


These floods had drivers moving slower than normal, particularly in St. Armand’s Circle.


The floods, fallen trees, and damaged roof are not atypical during storm season.


“We are in Florida, and we are in storm season, so there’s obviously a weather pattern that’s coming through,” Rios said.


She said the damage to the roof was an inconvenience at most.


“I know we had a few spa cancellations that they were just changing the times on, but other than that, business as usual,” Rios said.