CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE DUE TO HURRICANE MICHAEL… Hurricane Michael has been called the “Hurricane Camille of our lifetime.” I’ve seen hundreds of photos and videos showing unbelievable damage and utter destruction in the Florida Panhandle. Some of the damage, especially near Panama City and Tyndall AFB, is clearly equivalent to what a large, violent EF3 or EF4 tornado would cause, except over a MUCH larger land area. A few early afternoon updates…
– The photo attached is Jinks Middle School in Panama City, Florida. The specific room you’re looking at is what was the gymnasium. You can see more extreme damage and destruction in the distance.
– Catastrophic wind and water damage has been reported in areas near Panama City, Port St. Joe, and Tyndall AFB. Consistently, some of the worst damage photos I’ve seen have come from Mexico Beach in southern Bay County. I’m concerned that what we have seen so far, however, is only the “tip of the iceberg” as it’s still extremely difficult to get info/pics in and out of these areas.
– Power is out across many locales south and east of DeFuniak Springs. Cellular phone and data coverage is also completely down in many spots in Bay, Gulf, Calhoun, Jackson counties in the Florida Panhandle. If you’re trying to reach a friend or family member in these areas and can’t reach them, don’t panic. Communications are nonexistent in many of these areas, especially in smaller communities farther inland like Blountstown, Wewahitcka, and Altha.
– I’ve talked to several people who have indicated that there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of trees down in this part of the Florida Panhandle. This is a devastating blow to the timber industry, which is massive in parts of Calhoun and Jackson counties especially.
– An 80-mile stretch of Interstate 10 remains (and will remain for at least the next few hours, if not longer) closed and totally shut down between DeFuniak Springs and Quincy. Thousands of trees are apparently down on this stretch of this vital east-west corridor.
– I’m in Tuscaloosa today and tonight doing TV weather for WVUA 23. During my commute from Brewton this morning, I observed very heavy southbound traffic. U.S. 231 and U.S. 331 presumably are also packed with southbound traffic today due to the massive return of Hurricane Michael evacuees. Please be patient on the road today! These folks need our compassion and patience today as some of them have lost everything in their Bay County residences and don’t even know it yet.
– 33,000+ east Alabama customers of Alabama Power remain without electricity today after the passage of Michael. Alabama Power says most of the outages are in Houston County. A significant number of outages also have been reported in Geneva, Henry, and Dale counties in southeast Alabama.
– Michael continues to rapidly move northeast. While the system is now a tropical storm centered over North Carolina, major impacts continue to happen. Many, many counties in central North Carolina are under a Flash Flood Warning this afternoon.
– Alabama and northwest Florida are now in a cool, dry, stable airmass that will keep our weather sunny and mild/warm through the weekend. High temps near 80° with morning lows in the 50s are expected. Glorious weather is upcoming for high school football on Friday and college football on Saturday.
– The people of the Florida Panhandle need our love, support, and prayers in the coming weeks and months. This is a catastrophe, the likes of which have not been experienced in the affected areas in our lifetime! Search and rescue operations are ONGOING. There will be plenty of time to help and serve in the coming weeks but today is not the day to travel to this area!
I’ll have more updates throughout the day here in the RedZone Weather app.
