I lived in Tallahassee for close to ten years; I know these cities well. Some of them, like St. Marks and Panama City, I still know like the back of my hand. Seeing these pictures is just devastating.
Thankfully, AFAICT all of my friends are ok. Some minor building damage, some power loss, some phone service interrupted for a few days… but everyone generally okay.
Indeed, close to shore it’s the storm surge that is the real threat – what may just stand up to winds will have no chance whatsoever against driven waters.
Looking at that picks at still fresh wounds. Certainly here’s hoping that most people got to a safe place. Category 4 means it’s not the time to be proud.
My elderly uncle owned a beachfront condo at Mexico Beach for many years; I was never there, but my parents (he’s my mom’s oldest brother) went there a few times, and while he was no longer able to go there, his kids and grandkids went there regularly. Last year, against the kids’ wishes, he sold it, and now they’re all glad he did, and are hoping nobody was there at the time because all that’s left is the slab.
He only revealed in the past few days that for several years prior to putting it up for sale, he had repeated nightmares about a storm suddenly blowing up and destroying it. :eek:
My house was <10 miles from the eye as the crow flies just outside panama city. My wife is checking on the house in a few hours, but it is definitely standing and mostly intact, somebody from the neighborhood went around and made videos and FEMA did an aircraft pass with photos. New construction codes clearly work though - if not for downed trees I would bet I would have only lost some vinyl siding. I have at least trees 3 in my back yard judging by the overhead photos though. That seems to be the biggest issue and damage dealer in Panama City area - the aerial photos show so, so many trees down. And not even trees with big leafy canopies to catch the wind, the trees down on me are slash pine and longleaf pine.
So glad to hear it!
A guy in the locker room this morning was telling me about his vacation home down there. The security guy called and told him that the water line was 6 feet up the side of the house.:eek:
He started a list of things to replace: drywall, A/C, maybe the bathroom, …
Um, at what point is this a teardown or at least a total gut job? You’re never getting all the mold out when it gets that high.
Those pictures look like tornado damage. 
So Hurricane Michael happened last October, but:
Nearly 8 Months After Hurricane Michael, Florida Panhandle Feels Left Behind
zombie thread alert. Here I went to the weather channel to get news about this Cat IV storm, and there was nothing.
Reported.
Moderator Note
I edited the thread title to indicate the date to prevent further misunderstandings that this might be a breaking news type of event.