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Waterspout Comes Ashore in Bay County
10/08/08 - 07:37 AM
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Bree Sison - bio
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Bay County, Fla:

Panama City Beach residents have a mess to clean up after several tornados touched down over the day. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service reports two water spouts that came ashore around 8:25 a.m. Bay County officials report as many as 30 homes were damaged.

Neighbors in the Preserve subdivision the storms sounded like missiles hitting their homes as trees fell and roofs were damaged.

“I said a prayer during that I would be safe and that my family would be safe… I said a thank you prayer afterwards,” says homeowner Chandra Malamud who took cover in the interior of her house when she spotted the tornado over water from her back window. Malamud had just stepped out of the shower when the power went out- something she found odd because there was no thunder or lighting before.

Her prayers were answered. Her home was not damaged. But her neighbors directly across the street received the worst of the damage. Their chimney was torn from the house and a tree fell into the back of the house. Neighbors say those homeowners live primarily in Connecticut.

So far no reports of injuries in Bay County- though some say they barely had anytime to take cover. “I doubt it last 45 seconds. Like a dutz I was thinking wow look at that! But luckily my husband has more sense than I do and ran in and said Dee Ann it's a tornado let’s go,” says Dee Ann Sollenbarger.

Power outages, broken traffic signals and torn roofs seem to be the theme of the storms but County officials are still working to see it all. “We're still in the process of assessing damage,” says Battalion Chief Darrel Wise.

According to the Walton County Emergency Operations Center, there was also a tornado in northern Walton County. EOC Operators say a tornado touched down around 10:20 a.m. north of Mossy Head. There are no reports of damage from Walton County. NOAA has not yet confirmed the tornado and did not issue a warning for Walton County during that time.

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Pictures:The Preserve, Panama City Beach, Bay County
Courtesy: Janice Hupt

User Comments

same here 8:49, but i had been in the parking lot since 8:30,, it really stormed like 2-3 min before the text…that must have been it??

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  10/08  at  10:13 PM

Gator - what time did you get the alert? I got my alert at 8:49, well after the tornado had passed us by. (Again, from what GCCC said, this was because the weather radios didn’t activate for the warning, so I’m not blaming GCCC)

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  10/08  at  05:45 PM

great camera action, i also was at GCCC in the parking lot, and recieved a text stating to be careful, tornado in the area,, great job to WMBB and GCCC, now if GCCC can just solve the parking problem???

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  10/08  at  04:42 PM

I was in the cafeteria at GCCC this morning - I noticed some really hard rain around 8:30-8:35 (didn’t pay attention to the exact time). At 8:45, the tornado warning came on the televisions (tuned to the internal GCCC station). It took 2-3 minutes for any staff to move folks out of the cafeteria (which is a strong building, but lots of glass windows) to another part of the building with fewer windows. I’m from Texas - I was already moving to the other area by the time the staff came… I’m told that the weather radios didn’t receive activation, and it was only by luck that someone called the school. The automated email alert reached my inbox at 8:49, which was timely compared to the 8:45 time GCCC was aware of the storm - so kudos to them… I understand they’re implementing disaster plans that aren’t fully set up yet - again, not a bad response for that process *in progress*, but if the tornado HAD hit the college, it would have been with absolutely no warning. Scary stuff.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  on  10/08  at  02:44 PM
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