Florida

A man was outside a McDonald’s after a tornado hit his Florida town. Then he looked up

After a tornado hit the area early on Oct. 12, 2023, in Dunedin Florida, a local man took a picture of portable toilet door stuck on a light pole outside a McDonald’s/COURTESY BRAD NAPOLI
After a tornado hit the area early on Oct. 12, 2023, in Dunedin Florida, a local man took a picture of portable toilet door stuck on a light pole outside a McDonald’s/COURTESY BRAD NAPOLI

Several tornadoes whipped through Florida on both coasts overnight Wednesday into early Thursday, with residents in at least three cities feeling the force.

Damage reports included downed power lines, fallen trees and ripped-uplawns.

According to National Weather Service, the strongest tornado hit the areas of North Clearwater Beach, Palm Harbor and Dunedin. That’s where one man spotted an unusual sight.

After a tornado hit the area early Oct. 12 in Dunedin Florida, a local man took a picture of portable toilet door stuck on a light pole outside a McDonald’s/COURTESY BRAD NAPOLI
After a tornado hit the area early Oct. 12 in Dunedin Florida, a local man took a picture of portable toilet door stuck on a light pole outside a McDonald’s/COURTESY BRAD NAPOLI

A few hours after a storm rolled through, Brad Napoli told Fox 35 Orlando he was driving around assessing the aftermath when he saw a portable toilet door stuck on a light pole outside a McDonald’s.

Napoli took a picture of the bizarre sight, the tan door hanging in a horizontal position, outside McDonald’s at the Causeway Plaza strip mall.

He told Fox 35 that the port-a-potty had burst into pieces, with the commode (and all its blue basin fluid) ending up in front of a thrift store at the same mall.

“Crazy to see something like that,” he said.

This isn’t the first time a portable loo ended up in an unusual location.

In December 2021, a bright red one ended up in the middle of a sandbar at Stump Pass marina in Lemon Bay, in Charlotte County, also on the Gulf Coast. The theory was that high winds blew the structure from a construction site or home.

“It was funny looking,” a marina worker told the Miami Herald at the time. “All the birds were looking at it, like, ‘What is this?’ It’ll make a great story one day.”

Madeleine Marr
Miami Herald
Celebrity/real time news reporter Madeleine Marr has been with The Miami Herald since 2003. She has covered such features as travel, fashion and food. In 2007, she helped launch the newspaper’s daily People Page, attending red carpet events, awards ceremonies and press junkets; interviewing some of the biggest names in show business; and hosting her own online show. She is originally from New York City.
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