Posted on 10/09/2018 4:49:06 PM PDT by NautiNurse
Major Hurricane Michael is churning toward the northeastern Gulf of Mexico coast. Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency Monday for 35 counties with mandatory coastal evacuations in the FL Panhandle. 1,250 National Guard troops are aiding the process and more than 4,000 more placed on standby.
FEMA is already on the ground in Florida; other federal agencies are also preparing to assist people in the storm's path.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Monday declared a state of emergency for the entire state. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal issued a state of emergency for 92 counties ahead of Hurricane Michael landfall.
Meanwhile, Tallahassee city government (Andrew Gillum, Mayor & D'Rat FL Gubernatorial candidate) offices are "closed until further notice." Tallahassee International Airport is suspending commercial flight activity as 12:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday but expects to resume activity on Thursday.
The U.S. military moved its aircraft from the Panhandle on Monday. Roughly 50 F-22 stealth fighter jets — valued around $150 million each — have been relocated from the Tyndall Air Force Base, while the U.S. Navy said it is moving all its training aircraft from Pensacola.
Energy Production The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) on Tuesday estimated that around 726 MMcf/d (28.4%) of natural gas production and 670,831 b/d (39.5%) of oil production in the GOM had been shut in ahead of the storm.
As of midday Tuesday, 75 platforms and three rigs had been evacuated, while eight dynamically positioned rigs had been moved out of the storm’s path as a precaution, according to BSEE.
Gulf of Mexico Satellite Channels
Public Advisories
NHC Discussions
NHC Local Weather Statements/Radar Key West FL
NHC Local Weather Statements/Radar New Orleans, LA
NHC Local Weather Statements/Radar Mobile AL/Pensacola FL
NHC Local Weather Statements/Radar Panama City, FL
NHC Local Weather Statements/Radar Tallahassee, FL
NHC Local Weather Statements/Radar Tampa Bay, FL
OCT 14 6:20 PM
WEST BAY — All carriers have resumed flights at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport.
https://www.facebook.com/ShopPierPark/
Pier Park
October 13 at 10:35 AM ·
Our hearts go out to the thousands of people affected by Hurricane Michael. With so many without power, water and other necessities some of our merchants have opened their doors to residents seeking electricity, water, wi-fi, restaurants and other services. Currently Target, Dollar Tree, Dillards, Cariloha, Irene and Company, Toy Kingdom, Deja Vu and Paradise Found are open with other stores opening soon. Restaurants that are currently open are the Angry Tuna Seafood Company, Pompano Joes, Dicks Last Resort, Nathans and Smoothie King. Thank you for your understanding as we work together to ensure the safety of our customers, retailers and employees.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/CityOfPanamaCityBeach/posts/
City of Panama City Beach-Government
23 mins ·
Restaurants, we need you to reopen if you can and if you can get staff in. We are under a boil water notice, but utilizing commercial dishwashers is safe for cleaning plates and silverware. Thank you so much!
33 mins ·
The Beach is also picking up trash inside the city limits. Please put trash out by the curb and sort and separate your debris.
Verizon fiber suffered “unprecedented” damage from Hurricane Michael
Jon Brodkin - 10/15/2018, 11:40 AM
Nearly 300,000 households were still without home Internet, phone, or TV service yesterday in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, as telcos scramble to repair networks damaged by Hurricane Michael. More than 200,000 of the households without cable or wireline service are in Florida, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
Mobile service has also taken a big hit, with outages affecting about 15 percent of cell sites in the 21 Florida counties where the FCC is tracking hurricane-related outages.
Carriers have made progress in reducing those outage numbers the past few days. Nearly 29 percent of tracked cell sites in Florida were out as of October 11, but the outage rate has been nearly cut in half since.
“Unprecedented” fiber damage
Still, carrier efforts to restore mobile service have been hampered by extensive fiber damage.
“The storm caused unprecedented damage to our fiber, which is essential for our network—including many of our temporary portable assets—to work,” Verizon said yesterday on its webpage for hurricane updates.
Verizon said today that its fiber is still suffering new damage from other restoration efforts:
We continue to work round the clock on network restoration efforts and have seen some positive movement, although fiber connection—needed for cell sites and some mobile assets to work—still poses a significant challenge. For example, as soon as we have fiber repaired and start to see sites come back on air, we experience new cuts resulting from other restoration efforts happening in the community such as clearing roads, residential property clearing, and replacing electric poles.
Verizon said today that “99 percent of our network is in service in Georgia and 98 percent in Florida,” but those numbers appear to be for the entire state instead of just the disaster zones tracked by the FCC. “[T]he hardest hit area of Panama City, Panama City Beach and the surrounding communities [are] still experiencing the most impact,” Verizon said.
Verizon has both underground fiber and fiber hung from poles in the affected areas, according to The Wall Street Journal.
AT&T said today that its “network is performing well and nearly fully restored in most affected areas.” AT&T is using portable cell sites “in numerous locations throughout Florida and Georgia” while the carrier repairs its network.
FCC disaster reporting
The FCC activated its disaster information reporting system on October 9 and has provided daily outage updates since the Category 4 hurricane made landfall on October 10. The latest update, released yesterday, shows that carriers have a way to go in restoring service for both mobile networks and wired connections to people’s homes.
More than 66 percent of the cell sites (216 out of 327) in Florida’s Bay County were out, while more than 69 percent of cell sites (16 out of 23) in Florida’s Gulf County were out. Across the 21 Florida counties that are part of the FCC’s disaster reporting, 383 out of 2,543 (15.1 percent) of cell sites were out of service.
In Georgia, 2 percent of cell sites in tracked areas were out yesterday, down from 14.2 percent on October 11. The outage rate yesterday was 50 percent in Georgia’s Early County and more than 18 percent in Decatur County. In Alabama, 1.1 percent of cell sites in tracked areas (8 out of 759) were out yesterday, down from 9.2 percent on October 11.
While the number of cell site outages provides a rough approximation of the storm’s impact, the FCC said the statistic “does not necessarily correspond to the availability of wireless service to consumers in that area.”
“Wireless networks are often designed with numerous, overlapping cell sites that provide maximum capacity and continuity of service even when an individual site is inoperable,” the FCC said. Carriers also “frequently use temporary facilities such as cells-on-wheels” to keep service up in disaster areas.
Charter cable customers still lack service
Most of the home Internet outages are in Florida, where 205,643 cable or wireline subscribers remained out of service yesterday. The cable and wireline outages affect Internet, phone, and TV service. The Florida wireline outages were at their peak on October 12, when 252,748 households were affected. Many of the outages affect Charter Spectrum customers.
“Our technicians are working to restore Spectrum service interrupted by damage from Michael,” Charter said. “Power outages continue to affect many of our customers, and electricity is necessary before we can restore or troubleshoot Spectrum service. Restoration will be ongoing as conditions permit.”
Nearly 70,000 Georgia households were still without cable or wireline service yesterday, down from 103,775 on October 11. Nearly 16,000 Alabama households were still without service yesterday, down from 18,244 on October 11.
https://www.gulfpowernews.com/gulf-power-announces-panama-city-beach-all-powered-up/
Gulf Power announces Panama City Beach all powered up – Oct. 15, 2018
(Information current as of the morning of Oct. 15, 2018)
By Natalie Smith -
October 15, 2018
Gulf Power announces that more than 95% of customers who can receive power in Panama City Beach east of Highway 79 to the Hathaway Bridge have been restored 18 hours before estimated restoration time.
This brings the total number of customers who have been restored since Hurricane Michael’s landfall on Wednesday to approximately 62,000. Work continues around the clock as crews repair and rebuild the electric infrastructure in the areas severely affected by the wrath of Hurricane Michael.
“Our ability to get the lights on even quicker than our earlier estimate on Panama City Beach is a testament to the great teamwork and commitment of the entire team from across the country that have come to assist us.” said Adrianne Collins, vice president of Power Delivery. “We are glad to get these homes and businesses powered up and together, we will continue the work to restore hope to all of the families we serve.”
Wow that is great news for PC Beach.
Those linesmen are unsung heroes.
They usually have a big, big motorcycle rally in the spring and fall at PC Beach, but I heard just a while ago the fall rally (10/24-10/28) was cancelled.
https://www.facebook.com/captandersons/
Capt. Anderson’s Restaurant is feeling blessed.
22 mins ·
Hello everyone, as Hurricane Michael made landfall, it also hurt a lot of our community. We were very blessed as a restaurant with very minimal damage. Our goal is to re-open on Monday, October 22nd. Stay tuned to our Facebook for further updates.
http://www.pcbgov.com/Home/Components/News/News/1659/18?backlist=%2f
Bay County Updates
Post Date:10/16/2018 9:00 AM
From the Bay County Emergency Operations Center
Essential Information
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - The death toll from Hurricane Michael rose to at least 29 on Tuesday as crews scoured debris for hundreds of people reported missing in the Florida Panhandle, nearly a week after the storm flattened whole communities.
The article states over 1,000 still unaccounted for, but many of them are likely still without cell or phone service. Still hard to fathom this many missing, but only a handful from Mexico Beach.
Dreaded this day. We were warned it was coming.
Folkes, I live and work in Walton county which borders Bay county (Panama City). Tonight a man who lives in Panama City came to work for the 1st time since the hurricane. This is not make believe conspiracy stuff. This is a first hand report. He says there is a media blackout. That martial law is in effect. That looting is beyond rampant. That homeowners are doing 24-7 stay awake armed shifts, that 2 police have already been shot and killed by looters, that a dusk curfew is in place unless you can prove a reason to be out (he said he would be stopped and questioned at the inlet bridge tonight and would have to show his work clock out sheet, and that looters were being shot on site by law enforcement. Anyone else hear of this? He claims media is being ordered to not report the scale of the looting and deaths.
I’ve been following Facebook discussions on the motorcycle rally, and also the PC Beach City Facebook. There is some mention of looting, but not of extensive shooting. Also, they have suspended sale of alcohol at stores and restaurants.
I also watched a meeting of the Bay County Commission yesterday, and there didn’t seem to be a sense of panic among the commissioners. They extended the emergency declaration for 7 days.
The dusk to dawn is in Bay County, but the PC Beach curfew is 9 PM to 7 AM.
We’re going to PC Beach on 10/27, so I should be able to report then.
His view was that PCB was ok and that the chaos, deaths, and mass lootings were occuring in Panama City north to Lynn Haven.
There has been media coverage of a looter being shot and killed while stealing a fire marshall vehicle. No way the media would willfully agree to keep silent about murder and mayhem, particularly during election season.
I can’t believe how fast the Feds/State are getting basic services up and running. Elect power and to a lesser extent water is up in just about all affected local areas a week after the storm! Due to the washout at Stump Hole, we won’t be able to inspect our home for a while, but with power and water restored nearby we’ll be able to stay at a friend’s vacation home not that far away.
http://www.newsherald.com/news/20181017/officer-involved-shooting-among-shots-fired-reports
Officer-involved shooting among ‘shots fired’ reports
By ZACK McDONALD
News Herald Reporter
Posted at 3:38 PM Updated at 3:38 PM
In the days after Hurricane Michael, officers responded to untold numbers of gunshots in the hard-hit areas east of the Hathaway Bridge as lootings and thefts erupted. Only a handful of shooting reports, though, were substantiated, officials said.
PANAMA CITY — Reports of shots fired flooded Bay County law enforcement officers in the immediate wake of Hurricane Michael — including a fatal officer-involved shooting and a domestic quarrel — but most were without substance, officials said Wednesday.
Since making landfall Oct. 10, Hurricane Michael has rendered much of Bay County powerless. In the days after, officers responded to untold numbers of gunshots in the hard-hit areas east of the Hathaway Bridge as lootings and thefts erupted. Only a handful of shooting reports, though, were substantiated, officials said.
Panama City Police Chief Scott Ervin said many people arrested have been carrying guns but his officers only had a couple of substance, including one man thought to be mentally ill firing rounds in the air in front of his home. He said the influx of calls seemed to be a combination of hypersensitivity and misinformation.
“Because of the absence of power and the curfew removing traffic, something that might be miles away seems like it’s next door,” Ervin said. “Some reports are just rumors of gun-play.”
In Bay County, however, one person has been killed by gunfire and another survived a shot to the head.
Sparse information has been confirmed by officials from the first shooting, other than it happened late Oct. 11 in Bayou George, involved an on-duty officer and was fatal. Neither the name of the officer nor that of the victim have been released, as FDLE continues to investigate.
Days after the shooting, visiting media outlets spoke with an alleged witness, who claimed the victim had been attempting to steal a running patrol car. When the victim began to drive away in the cruiser, a Florida Fire Marshal opened fire and killed him, the witness said.
FDLE has not confirmed the witness account.
The second shooting took place Monday afternoon on Alpine Way in Callaway.
The victim, Matthew Sites, was shot in the back of the head. Immediately after, he still was able to stand and speak with officers.
BCSO Capt. Jason Daffin said Sites so far survived the gunshot wound.
“He was flown to another county for treatment,” he said. “When I left, he was alert and conscious.”
According to BCSO reports, Sotes was in a car with the estranged wife of the accused shooter, Christopher King. Sites had driven his girlfriend to Alpine Way to pick up the children she shares with King. The situation then escalated to gunfire.
“You’re not taking the kids,” BCSO quoted King as saying. “I’ll shoot you if you take the girls.”
King allegedly went inside and grabbed a 9mm as Sites and his estranged wife loaded up the children and left. King opened fire on the car carrying the children and shot Sites in the back of the head in the process, BCSO reported.
Sites then crashed into a power pole.
King retrieved the children from the car and went back home. He was arrested a short time later.
King has been charged with shooting into an occupied vehicle.
“He’ll have other charges,” Daffin said. “We wanted to make sure the victim didn’t take a turn for the worse.”
Other than those two shootings, Daffin likewise said there have been no other gun-play related injuries.
Heavy equipment is out there at work on the road.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ-zSHFzN0U
“Progress on Cape San Blas Rd after Hurricane Michael made landfall,
Cape San Blas road at the Stump Hole was made impassable, but
progress is being made on rebuilding this area of the road.”
Yep. The downtown area of PC is still tough but gulf power is powering through.
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