WOW. VERY Scary 30 mins... we had 3 or 4 toranados touch down in Bay County. One tornado was in the Bay Point/Thomas Drive area. Several homes flattened, Hamilton's damaged, injuries and possibly one death. (This one also passed right by WJHG, which means it was VERY close to the Beach TV/TripSmarter office).

Another tornado hit the News Herald and Jenks middle school.

Another was in Parker and Hiland Park up to 231.

All of this from Hurricane Ivan.....

One death has been confirmed. 2 more unconfirmed reported.

This is crazy... 2 more possible tornados... 1 in the Cove and 1 near Tyndall.

They're showing footage of the damage on WJHG... pretty extensive.

Pray for those folks West of us...

There are reports of more tornados in Gulf Co.

This has all happened within the last hour or so... we've got a full night of this coming.

thanks for keeping this updated STeve! I hope this will be over soon. I'm off to look at the cams from schooners and boatyard, if they still have power?

no power to those cams... that was right near the first tornado... they had footage from WJHG's tower cam and it showed power transformers exploding everywhere.

yep, no power to the pcb cams, BUT I was able to connect to the destin cam and see the wind and ocean.

take a look while you can, maybe the power won't go out on these cams.

http://tripsmarter.com/destin/multimedia/livecams.htm

They just showed footage of Capt Andersons and Hamiltons with extensive damage to the roofs. Sure hope Boatyard made it okay.

Report of 70 homes damaged around Lance Street in Callaway. That's about a mile from where my brother lives. Just talked to him on the phone and he's okay.

I really hope everyone in PC will be okay. I miss my hometown and don't want anything to happen to it. Please be safe and take care. I'll be heading down there after the storm passes to check on my parents.

Jen
Mosley Class of '89

I have the Destin cam cranked up. Still running, although darkness is setting in as I type.

Update us as you can (or until your power goes out) but stay safe. This looks beyond nasty.

I have Weather Channel and Fox News picture-in-picture.

Ironically, at the beginning of the year, I had pencilled in a Sept. 15-21 trip to Destin and PCB. Figured Labor Day would be over and the kids would be back in school. Business growth kept me in place and put that on hold but I hope the area isn't too badly damaged and that recovery efforts go well.

If some of the hotels run a "we're back in business sale" after repairs, might be a good excuse sneak down and support the area tourism industry by visiting.

Sorry - I lost Internet service temporarily...

Some of the outer feeder bands on the Northeast side of Hurricane Ivan are responsible for the tornados. There are still several storms headed our way in other feeder bands.

The wind has really started to pick up now. You can tell Ivan is getting close to making landfall (still somewhere around Mobile, AL). Gusts in PC are around 30-40mph right now.

I think all of the damage so far has been becasue of the tornados. Sherriff Frank McKeithen just gave an interview on WJHG and siad that Hamilton's was almost completly destroyed. There were 2 deputies in Hamilton's when the tornado hit. They were almost sucked out when the rooof came off but grabbed on to something and only received minor injuries.

He also said "lots" of homes were damaged in the Bay Point / Thomas Drive Area.

Two confirmed deaths. One from the Thomas Drive tornado and one from a tornado near Sandy Creek in Eastern Bay County.

Storm surge is another major concern (up to 16ft) but I don't live close enough to the water to report on that.

Reports now of a tornado heading toward Fountain in northern Bay County.

Mobile Bay and P'cola will sustain HEAVY damages as Ivan is STILL a category 4 with 135mph winds as it approaches the coast.

More later......

I talked to most of my friends and coworkers that live in the area and they're all okay.

Officials have issued a county-wide curfew for Bay County from 9pm-7am.

I'm trying to get my WinTV software to work so I can post some screenshots of the local news footage.

I called my parents. Everyone's doing okay, so far. Mom's house is close to the Harrison Avenue damage. I can't believe Hamilton's was demolished. Unbelievable. And all of those houses on Lance Street...I used to live near there.

Please keep us posted. I hope those last tornadoes are the worst you guys will see.

Take care,
Jen

Glad to hear your bunch is okay! And good to see fellow Mosley Alum on the TripSmarter boards. (c/o '93)