PANAMA CITY — PANAMA CITY — Bay County officials issued a state of emergency Wednesday morning and urged the public to stay off the roads as heavy rain bore down, causing flooding and road closures in the area.
“The situation may continue for the next two or three days,” said Brad Monroe, deputy chief of the county’s emergency services division, during a press conference Wednesday. “We have a high percentage of rain tomorrow and also Friday, so our situation could be more complex than it is right now.”
In response to the flooding, a general population and special needs shelter was opened at Bozeman High School around 10 a.m. Wednesday. Gov. Rick Scott also issued a state of emergency for 26 counties, including Bay, making the National Guard available for assistance if necessary.
Commission Chairman Guy Tunnell said residents around the Deer Point Lake reservoir are in imminent danger of flooding due to rapidly rising water levels. The reservoir’s drawdown gates have been fully open since 7 a.m. Monday, but it has not been enough to combat Mother Nature, he said.
“We are experiencing a tremendous amount of flooding,” Tunnell said, advising residents to closely monitor water levels and take action accordingly. “The reservoir has risen almost one-half foot since 8 a.m. this morning.”
Tunnell also cited record water levels at Ecofina Creek, which had a water level rise of 0.77 feet between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.
“We’re doing everything we possibly can,” Tunnell said. “It’s a situation where folks have to use common sense and look out for dangerous situations.”
The Bay County Emergency Operations Center is at partial activation and is monitoring reports for flooding and road closures in the area. Monroe urged the public to report any flood information to the Bay County Communications Division at 784-4000 and stay tuned to the local media for updates.
Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen said high water levels likely will lead to more runoff and more widespread flooding than the county observed over the July 4 holiday last year.
“Our guys are out working very closely with the county personnel to try to do everything we can to help the public, help the people,” McKeithen said. “I can tell you there are more overflowing ditches than there are county personnel and deputies out there working.
“This is something we can’t control,” he added. “If you don’t have to go anywhere, don’t go anywhere.”
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POWER
Gulf Power issued a notice at 7 a.m., "We are working to restore widespread power outages across our system following the thunderstorms and intense rainfall over the past 24 hours. Because of the severity of the storms and flooding, and because we have many outages, crews may not be able to restore power to each and every customer until late tomorrow."
At 9 a.m. the company said this: "Gulf Power Company has restored power to more than 35,000 customers as of 9 a.m. this morning. Crews resumed restoration efforts at 6 a.m. after the storms began to subside. Less than 24,000 customers are still without power, primarily in Escambia County, which was hit hard by nearly 2 feet of rain since Tuesday afternoon."
The Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative officials said they were working to restore power to about 1,000 members. Tyndall Air Force Base stated that delayed reporting was authorized because of the hazardous conditions.
STATE ISSUES
As bad as things might be in Bay County they are much worse to the west.
Gov. Rick Scott says officials have received about 300 requests for evacuations from flooded areas in Pensacola.
Scott said Wednesday that some 201 rescues have been completed and the Florida National Guard is sending 24 high-water vehicles to the area to assist with others. Earlier Wednesday he declared 26 Florida Panhandle and north Florida counties that have been hard-hit by torrential rain a state of emergency.
Heavy rains started falling over the Florida Panhandle on Tuesday, drenching parts of Pensacola with between 15 and 20 inches of rain. Scott says about 32,000 Panhandle residents were initially without power, but that number was down to 28,000 by mid-morning.
Some people left their flooded cars and walked to find help on their own. "We have people at the police department," Officer Justin Cooper said in Pensacola. "They walked up here and are hanging out until things get better."
About 22 inches of rain had fallen by midmorning in Pensacola, with 4 more expected Wednesday. Average annual rainfall for Pensacola is 65 inches, meaning much of that area was seeing about a third of that amount in just one day.
In some neighborhood, streets flowed like rivers as water reached mailboxes. Cars were submerged in driveways, and residents paddled by on kayaks.
"We've seen pictures that people are posting with water halfway up their doors, front doors," Grigsby said. "It's going to be a big cleanup, looks like."
The widespread flooding is the latest wallop of a storm system that still packed considerable punch days after the violent outbreak began in Arkansas and Oklahoma. More than 30 people have been killed, including the 67-year-old driver in Pensacola.
In Pensacola Beach, people woke to violent storms, heavy rain and lightning. Standing water could be seen on many parts of the beach, and a military vehicle made its way through one heavily flooded neighborhood. Pensacola Naval Air Station's hospital was closed, as was the Air Force Special Operations center at Hurlburt Field.
Paul Schuster made an emergency run about 4 a.m. from Pensacola Beach to his mother's flooded home in nearby Gulf Breeze. The woman, 82, had to be rescued from by an emergency official in a boat, he said.
"The water was waist high," he said.
Ron Hruska's neighborhood was flooded, but his home, more elevated than others nearby, was safe. Hruska said there were flash flooding warnings on television throughout the night but that the water came up faster than expected.
"I've never seen it this bad in 12 years here," he said. "It wasn't even this bad after hurricanes."
In Gulf Shores, Ala., where nearly 21 inches of rain fell in a day's time, the scene resembled the aftermath of a hurricane early Wednesday. The intracoastal waterway rose, reaching the canal road linking the town with neighboring Orange Beach.
There, at Sportsman Marina, employee J.J. Andrews couldn't believe what she saw out the window.
"We've got water up in our parking lots," she said. "Our docks are under water. It's worse than during Hurricane Ivan, is what they're saying. It's crazy."
Shelters opened for evacuees, but some people had difficulty traversing roads. Water covered parts of Alabama 59, the main road for beach-bound tourists.
In Mobile, a few dozen rescues were conducted, mostly on roads, the emergency management agency estimated.
"We do have a lot of roads that are still underwater," the agency's Glen Brannan said but noted improvements, with the worst weather to the east.
That included Baldwin County, where crews started rescues before midnight, said Mitchell Sims, emergency management director.
"As soon as we get a water rescue team in here, they're sent back out," he said. "We're rescuing people from cars, from rooftops, from all over the place.
"I think we're going to be dealing with this for days. I don't know where the water's going to go. Everything is saturated."
Over the past four days, storms hit especially hard in places such as Arkansas' northern Little Rock suburbs and the Mississippi cities of Louisville and Tupelo. Arkansas, with 15 deaths after a tornado blasted through Sunday, and Mississippi, with 12 deaths from Monday's storms, accounted for the brunt of the death toll.
Authorities in Louisville searched until dark Tuesday for an 8-year-old boy missing since Monday's large tornado that killed his parents and destroyed the home where they lived. Though searchers didn't rule out finding the boy alive, officials were describing the process as one of recovery.
On Wednesday, Louisville officials said they were shifting priorities from response to cleanup. They expected volunteers to stream into the town to lend a hand.
"Today is the day we start putting Louisville back together," said Buddy King, county emergency management director.
The Associated Press contributed to this report