WEATHER

Panama City Beach deserted as Hurricane Michael strikes

Rick Neale
Florida Today

PANAMA CITY BEACH – This beach town, famous as a Spring Break capital, is all but deserted as Hurricane Michael takes aim at the Florida Panhandle.

epa07083266 A man runs out in the rain to check his sail boat before Hurricane Michael makes landfall in Panama City, Florida USA on 10 October 2018. Reports state that more than 370,000 people in Florida have been ordered to evacuate their homes and move safer locations.  EPA-EFE/DAN ANDERSON ORG XMIT: DAX01

While Michael’s destructive winds have yet to reach land, rain is already starting throughout the Big Bend area of Florida and waves are kicking up along the area’s famed “sugar sand” beaches.

Hurricane Michael webcam:  Live feed from the category 4 storm

More:How big is Hurricane Michael?

Track the storm:Hurricane Michael's track and predicted path

But apparently, most of the 12,000 residents have heeded evacuation warnings and headed inland away from the destructive storm surge predicted for the area.

Every business in town is closed and most are boarded up. In what is always a sign that things are expected to get bad, the Waffle House restaurants in the area are closed.

A drive through the town turned up only a handful of people walking the streets. The bridges connecting the barrier island areas to the mainland remained open as of 8:30 a.m. allowing anyone who still wants to flee the opportunity to do so.

About 7:30 a.m., Perry and Mollie Williams walked through the rain to check the surf, one block from their Beach Drive home.

“It’s our first storm that we’ve encountered to be on top of us. We’ve had a number of them come into the Gulf, and either come to the left or the right of us. But never on top of us,” Mollie Williams said, standing on her street.

The couple has lived the past 17 years in their single-story home — which Perry described as “a fortress.” They’ll ride out Michael with their three cats and a Rottweiler.

“We anchored everything down. We took all the precautions you’re supposed to take: shutters up on the windows, food, water, pet supplies,” Mollie said.

“We’re just chilling, taking everything in,” she said.

More:Hurricane Michael: Is that a skull in the center of the hurricane?

More:Hurricane Michael update from National Hurricane Center

Retired carpenter Mike Whaler will ride out Michael in an eighth-story condominium facing the Gulf — and he hopes his windows will withstand the storm’s fury.

“I’m hoping for the best. You know these older condos: I don’t know the rating of storm the windows are supposed to have on them,” said Whaler, a 25-year Panama City Beach resident who lives a stone’s throw from the well-known Club La Vela nightspot.

Whaler moves his Ford Explorer to higher ground, and he is charging batteries for his portable lantern.

“When they evacuate, it’s like bumper-to-bumper traffic two or three days. My parents left for Opal back in 1995, and they were stuck in traffic as far north as they could get,” he said.

James and Moneic Miller wish they would have evacuated. Instead, they’ll ride out Michael in a friend’s oceanfront condominium that was built in the early 1980s.

“I don’t believe I would have stayed if I would have known it’d go from a 3 to a 4. Just remembering Opal, it was bad enough,” said James Miller, who has lived in Panama City Beach since 1989.

Can't see the map?  Click on this link from the National Hurricane Center

More:Hurricane classifications: What are the 5 hurricane categories?

More:2018 hurricane names — is your name on the list?

The couple moved her Hyundai to a nearby parking garage, then stopped at a Coke machine in the rain. They plan to brace doorways with mattresses during the hurricane.

“There’s no much you can do. We’ve got two sliding glass doors, a front door, one little window and a walkway, he said.

If worst comes to worst, James said the couple and their friend have a sheltering plan: “He called the bathroom. We’re going to the kitchen.”

Bridges throughout Franklin County, south of Tallahassee, closed Tuesday night as tropical storm force winds neared the coast and Michael slogged north.

By Wednesday morning loose debris littered the streets of Apalachicola and more than a half dozen roads were closed because they were under water.

Franklin County Emergency Management Director Pamela Brownell said state strike team were on standby to assist once the storm passed, but that may not be until Thursday morning.

“We want to make sure that they know they’ve got packages coming, they’ve got search and rescue, basically everything we need is sitting on ready,” Brownell said from the EOC in Apalachicola. “As soon as they can get in here they will get in here.”

She said Tuesday night a final warning to evacuate was issued across the county as Michael ballooned in size and winds strengthened.

About 50 people remained on St. George Island, 10 stayed on Alligator Point and two people stayed on Dog Island, a barrier island only accessible by boat.

“We told them, its time to leave or put on a life jacket,” Brownell said.

Before sunrise Wednesday Water Street in Apalachicola was closed due to high water and several trees were reported down across the city. Portion of Alligator Drive on Alligator Point were under water, a transformer fire was reported and a tree was cleared after falling across U.S. Highway 98.

Malinda Dempsey stayed in Apalachicola, just three blocks from the river expected to crest a possible 12 feet.

That’s her biggest concern.

“I’m very anxious and nervous,” she said at about 5:30 a.m. as she watched sideways rain and debris blow down the street.

She, her son Wesley and his uncle decided to stay. Their house sits on the highest point in the small, coastal fishing town. Dempsey said in her 46 years she has left once for a hurricane when she was 12 years old.

“We’ve gone through storms like this all our lives,” she said. “These houses have been here a very, very long time and they’ve seen many storms. Its just the surge I’m worried about. Not the wind. No the lightning. It’s the water.”

Contributing: Karl Etters of the Tallahassee Democrat

Check back for updates.

Support local journalism:  Subscribe at floridatoday.com/subscribe