Watch a freak storm rip through cruise ship in Florida. ‘Like a scene from Twister’
A sudden freak Florida storm sent cruise ship passengers running for cover last week as they were boarding Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas at Port Canaveral in Cape Canaveral.
Videos of the tumult show hurricane like winds whipping through the pool area last Friday, sending lounge chairs and umbrellas into the air, and debris crashing onto the deck.
Terrified people scramble to find shelter, with some scooting on their behinds as they try to stand up.
One woman seen pulling a stroller narrowly escapes being slammed with a flying object as she bolts with her baby in her arms.
“Oh no!” Watch out!” screams a woman off camera.
“Oh my God!” yells another as furniture flies by.
Passenger Jennifer Stancil posted two angles of the chaos for her You Tube and Facebook followers.
“So super scary!!” said her caption. “This storm came so fast!!”
“It just turned crazy,” Stancil later told Fox 35 Orlando. “It looked like a scene from the movie ‘Twister,’” the 1996 disaster flick about tornado chasers.
About four minutes after the violent weather came, the winds died down, the rain stopped and the skies cleared.
READ MORE: ‘It’s a tornado!’ See a storm rip through a Florida Winn-Dixie
“That was scary,” says a woman in Stancil’s video.
The cruise line released a statement regarding the frightening situation: “On Friday, June 16, while departing from Port Canaveral, Independence of the Seas encountered a sudden gust of high winds. This lasted for a brief period and there were no serious injuries to our guests or crew.”
The ship continued “its regularly scheduled three-night itinerary,” arriving to Perfect Day at CocoCay in the Bahamas, on Saturday morning, the statement said.
Sudden, brief storms, characterized by heavy rains and strong winds, are not uncommon during summertime in the Sunshine State.
This story was originally published June 23, 2023 at 2:45 PM.
