Stacey Samuel, WCJB TV 20 News

Lake City suffered the brunt of the severe weather today when a tornado tore a path through the downtown area.

The twister uprooted trees and damaged homes and businesses all along a two and a half mile stretch.

There are a lot of people in Lake City who will spend the weekend cleaning up the mess around their homes, but many say when they consider how widespread this tornado was they can see why they consider themselves lucky to be alive.

The tornado's path of destruction: From US 90 West, Eastward from State Road 100 and North of US 41 and US 441.

According to the National Weather Service, at least 20 homes were damaged and numerous mobile homes destroyed. The Anne Mattox neighborhood was one of the worst hit,along with the area near the CSX railroad tracks. This area also includes industrial and retail businesses.

The storm also knocked out power to 30,000 Florida Power and Light customers, many are still without power. Many traffic lights in the city still aren't working. For that reason residents are asked to stay off the roads as much as possible in the affected area and a curfew is in effect from 7:00 pm tonight to 7:00 am Saturday morning.