Panama City Tornados - Wed 15 Sep

Here’s a summary of what we know and can verify to be true as it relates to the Hurricane Ivan and the impact on Panama City and the surrounding area. These reports have been verified by WJHG TV and WMBB TV.

Bay County Emergency representatives have confirmed that some 70 homes and mobile homes in Parker have been heavily damaged by tornados. There are many downed power lines in that area. This is about 5 miles from our house.

Reports say that there has been a great deal of damage to a trailer park in the Marianna area and all 16 or so trailers in this park have been destroyed by a tornado. Marianna is about 20 minutes from where Ron’s parents live. A twister also struck the Federal Prison at Marianna and there was damage, but the extent isn’t known yet.

The Bay County Sheriff announced a curfew for all of Bay County from 9:00 Wednesday night until 7:00 Thursday morning.

Two persons are dead as a string of tornados roared into Bay County late this afternoon. The twisters were spawned by Hurricane Ivan. In all, there were about a dozen tornados in a little more than an hour, and they stretched from one end of the county to the other. One person died in the Sandy Creek area when a twister demolished two houses. The second fatality came at Panama City Beach in an area off Thomas Drive near North Lagoon. A gentleman was visiting his daughter’s real estate firm, when the tornado struck. The fatality at Sandy Creek was killed when the tornado demolished her home. In addition, six people were injured including two Bay County sheriff’s deputies.

The Sheriff said Hamilton’s restaurant was heavily damaged; a number of businesses, fire station and homes in that area were demolished, including the famous Capt. Anderson’s Restaurant. The sheriff says two deputies and several customers were inside Hamilton’s at the time the twister hit and had to hang on to keep from being sucked out of the building.

Bay County School officials say two local schools have damage, Parker and Patronis Elementary Schools but the extent isn’t known yet.

Several tornados were reported in the Bayou George area. This is where Ron’s work is located, the extent of any damage to is not known at this time. However, I called my office and got my voice mail which means we still have power. We saw this on the Weather Channel.

We have called our house several time and got our answering machine which means we still have power, and to some degree a house. We do not know if we have any damage to the house, it’s simply too early to tell.

Sorry this post is not very well written but I just wanted to let you know the impact that this storm is having in Panama City.