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We know life in lockdown isn’t easy, but—believe it or not—things were far scarier right around this time 23 years ago. On May 12, 1997, at around 2pm, an F1 tornado swept through downtown Miami, touching down in the Silverbluff neighborhood and sweeping through the skyscrapers of the city’s financial district. It then crossed the MacArthur Causeway (You can see cars driving alongside the twister!) and onto Miami Beach, sideswiping a cruise ship on its way.
The whole thing lasted only about 15 minutes but folks who experienced it recall seeing cars flipped over in their neighborhoods, fallen trees and newspaper stands smashed into storefronts. Compared to hurricanes and other natural disasters that affect South Florida, the damages were pretty minimal but shots of the photogenic tornado made headlines around the world. Here’s what it actually looked like.
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