READ ALL ABOUT IT\Florida tornado leaves emotions whirling.

A woman got the ride of her life in the eye of a storm: The twister hurled her Honda Civic as if it were a toy.

"I saw wood, bricks and I don't know what else inside of it," Maritza Acosta-Pinon said in the aftermath of a tornado that skipped through a residential neighborhood. About 30 people were injured.

She got precious little warning when the tornado struck as she was driving to work, spinning her car up about the height of a one-story house and hurling it dangerously close to power lines.

"I just prayed, and asked God not to let me die this way," she said. She was taken to a hospital but was not seriously injured.

The tornado struck the suburbs about 8:15 a.m. (EST), the height of the rush hour and a time when parents were dropping off children at schools and day-care centers.

Marline Concepcion, 32, also was in her car at the time.

"I felt the car lift up in the air, then flip over and drop on the ground at least twice. It was like a roller coaster ride," she said.

Dozens of roofs were damaged and windows blown in, cars and boats flipped over, and trees and power lines knocked down as the tornado hopscotched across a 5-mile path in southwestern Dade County.

The storm, which spun out from a line of thunderstorms that moved across southern Florida and into the Atlantic Ocean, had winds from 75 mph to 110 mph, the National Weather Service said.

Three people were treated at a hospital. The rest got treatment from police and fire rescue crews.

The cleanup began in earnest by afternoon, with plastic sheeting patching the holes in ripped-up roofs and shopkeepers mopping up. Clothes, furniture and debris littered the streets.

About 100 homes were damaged, 20 of them badly, said Metro-Dade fire chief David Paulison. No dollar estimate on damage was available.

Marie Pineda was getting out of her car at work when the wind intensified quickly. She said she had to hang on "for dear life."

At her mother's home, the tornado hit again.

"The wind just sucked all of our things out into the front yard. We can't even find a lot of our stuff," said Pineda's mother, Clotilde Cabriles.

Use information from the story to answer the following questions:

1. What part of Florida was recently hit by a tornado?

2. Why do you think there was so little time to warn people about the approaching windstorm?

3. Why was it especially dangerous for the tornado to strike the Florida town at 8:15 a.m.?

4. Why is a tornado sometimes called a twister?

5. How do you know that the wind at the center of the storm was very strong?

6. Where was Maritza Acosta-Pinon when the twister touched down?

7. How did Marline Concepcion describe her ride in the eye of the storm?

8. List three types of damage caused by the intense (very strong) wind.

9. Who came to the aid of many of the people injured during the tornado?

10. After the windstorm, what kinds of debris (broken pieces of things) do you think were found in the street?

Answers: (Wording may vary.)

1. A tornado recently hit a neighborhood in southwestern Dade County, Florida.

2. Answers will vary.

3. It was a dangerous time because many people were either on their way to work or taking children to school.

4. A tornado is commonly called a twister because it whirls, or spins, around rapidly.

5. The wind in the center of the storm must have been strong because it was able to lift cars into the air.

6. When the twister touched down, Maritza Acosta-Pinon was in her car driving to work.

7. Marline Concepcion said that during her ride she felt as if she were on a roller coaster.

8. Answer will vary.

9. Police and fire rescue crews helped many of the injured people.

10. Answers will vary.