NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A nasty storm raced through Volusia County during the evening commute, but there were no major outages or traffic accidents reported in greater New Smyrna Beach, police said.
"We got pretty lucky," said acting Sgt Mike Mathyas of the storm that passed through with a heavy downpour and several huge lighting strikes that slowed traffic, especially on Dixie Freeway.
The north and south stretches of the main north-south artery made for dicey driving, Mathyas said, as well as Saxon on the beachside, but after the 20-minute downpour, the water receded pretty quickly.
"No downed trees, no (downed) power lines -- just the normal, pretty much," he said.
Though there was a tornado watch posted for the storm, there were no reports of any in Volusia County, though some areas of Daytona Beach reported hail and some downed tree limbs.
An inch of rain was recorded at Daytona International Airport, according to the National Weather Service in Melbourne. There were no reports of flooding locally.