Posted on 10/28/2006 2:03:56 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
APALACHICOLA, Fla. - This seaside town was without power Saturday after a tornado tore through the area, damaging several buildings and leaving two people with minor injuries, authorities said.
Some residents could have power restored on Saturday, said Butch Baker, Franklin County's emergency management director.
"The best case scenario would be midnight, and that may not be all over the entire town," Baker said.
Baker said eyewitnesses confirmed that it was a tornado that struck the town of some 2,500 people, about 65 miles southwest of Tallahassee.
"It was like a black wall," Helen Reese, an admission clerk at George E. Weems Memorial Hospital, told The News Herald of Panama City on Friday. "It was coming right at us. It was a horrible noise."
The twister hit a power substation and damaged several homes, a hospital and the roofs of an elementary school and a fast food restaurant, Baker said.
During the power outage, Baker said residents could get services in nearby towns. "We have the availability of food and water and restaurants within a 10 minute drive," he said.
seems kind of late in the year for this area..
seems kind of late in the year for this area..
or maybe not. :-)
checked back the last few years, on average and somewhat rgularly they have a few reported in Oct Nov and Dec of almost every year,,
Holy crap! We have a house there!
No...we get most of our tornadoes here during September through April (or, at least that's the way it has been in the 32 years I have been here in nearby Panama City).
Our worst tornadoes are associated with frontal passage.
Thanks, I wasn't sure of the exact season down there.. it varies a lot from the Midwest and such..
Apalachicola is a wonderful place - Florida the way it used to be.
No, I live just east of Apalachicola in Fort Walton, and on 31 December 2003 a tornado hit my house and cause $15K in damages. It was an omen of what was to come for the next year.
Having said that, I hope the injuries that happened in Apalachicola are nothing more than band aid types. Houses can be rebuilt quickly, health takes a bit more.
-Traveler
A-pa-la-chi-CO-la ?
Ap-a-la-CHIC-o-la ?
(I give up.)
I pronounce it the former. Got to visit there last year and stayed in a motel right on the waterfront. Lovely little old town. Thank heavens there weren't worse casualities.
Accent on "co".
Roger that.
Thanks for the pronunciation assistance.
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