Severe weather swept across the Treasure Coast and Palm Beach County on Friday, leaving behind waterspouts, lightning strikes and fires. Multiple videos sent to the WPTV newsroom showed a large waterspout passing over the Indian River Lagoon near Sebastian Friday afternoon. In Port St. Lucie, weather spotters captured heavy rain moving through the area, with Merry Moore O'Rourke reporting her rain gauge caught over 3 inches.
Lightning activity ignited multiple fires across the region. Lucie County Fire District said crews contained a brush fire near the 1900 block of Castinet Lane after reports that a lightning strike ignited vegetation in a nearby lot. Fire crews also responded to an evening house fire at the 900 block of Bellevue Avenue during the storm.
The Lucie County Fire District said it cannot confirm the cause, as the fire marshal's office still needs to investigate. The radar picked up a significant amount of lightning in the area at the time of the storm.
The severe weather stretched all the way to Okeechobee County, where fire rescue crews airlifted a man to the hospital after he was struck by lightning. Moore O'Rourke described the conditions in Port St. Lucie as the storms moved through.
"All of a sudden, it got black. The wind started just raging and the sky had lit up like I have not seen," she said.
Moore O'Rourke summed up what many across the region felt as the storms passed. "I mean it was radical. I mean it was it was a little scary," she said. Friday's severe weather served as a reminder of nature's unpredictable power across the Treasure Coast and surrounding areas.