Trees and power lines were blown down along Paschal Street in the Marietta area Thursday afternoon and a business owner in the 5000 block of West Beaver Street told Channel 4 his roof was blown off.
The National Weather Service says the damage was the result of straight-line winds of 60 to 70 mph during a thunderstorm moving across Duval County.
A chunk of the roof of Mary's Wholesale Furniture was ripped off by the high winds.
Employees said the doors were shaking and it sounded like a train as the storm blew through. The business received two new truckloads of furniture Thursday, and employees estimate about $40,000 of it was ruined when rain came pouring through the roof.
The business moved a couple years ago from a nearby location because of flooding.
Police reported flooding had closed the intersection of Gate Parkway and Town Center Drive during Thursday's storms. It was reopened a short time later.
Classes at the University of North Florida were canceled Thursday evening because of a power outage on the core of campus. Power was expected to be returned to the campus later Thursday night, and classes Friday are expected to be held as usual.
A viewer sent a photo of hail that fell about 4:20 p.m. at the corner of Gate and J. Turner Butler Boulevard.
Channel 4's chief meteorologist John Gaughan said the thunderstorm passed by early evening, but the area is extremely vulnerable to flooding because the ground is saturated from 5 to 8 inches of rain that fell across the area over the last four days as a result of Tropical Storm Beryl.
