Video: Tornado Strikes U.S. Mail Truck

A Sunday morning waterspout that formed near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Manatee County, crossed the road and flipped a U.S. Mail truck over twice left its Wesley Chapel driver shaken, but otherwise OK.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Randall Leaver, 56, was heading northbound on Interstate 275 just before 10 a.m. on the Skyway approach when a funnel cloud popped to from the west and crossed the road.

“The semi-truck was lifted and turned onto its right side,” a highway patrol report stated. “The truck was then picked up a second time and placed upright.”

Leaver remained inside the truck for the duration of the incident, but escaped any serious injuries, the report said. A nearby construction site also suffered some damage, a small boat was overturned and many signs were knocked over, troopers noted.

“I’ve never been to hell, but I thought I was in hell,” Leaver told “Good Morning America” during a Monday morning interview.

See Also:

• Florida Waterspouts: What You Need to Know

Meghan Benoit witnessed the waterspout’s formation and snapped photos of it as it crossed the road.

Benoit told Patch the waterspout formed as she was driving over the bridge.

“(We) had to stop, (because) it was over the road,” she said.

Waterspouts are fairly common occurrences in Florida, National Weather Service meteorologist Robert Garcia said. “They’re one of the contributors to our high tornado density.”

Garcia explained that Florida technically has the highest density of tornado activity of any state due in large part to the number of waterspouts that kick up over its waters.

“The good news with waterspouts is they tend to be weak,” Garcia said.

But, that’s not always the case, he warned. “They can be a bit of a destructive force.”

With winds in the 30 to 60 mph range, waterspouts are very capable of destruction, as evidenced by Sunday’s incident.

Photos of the waterspout courtesy of Meghan Benoit. Photos of the damage to the mail truck courtesy of the Florida Highway Patrol.