PCB Tornado
Now that I am down in Panama City Beach, Florida, I decided to take a quick look around at the tornado damage. There were injuries from this storm but no deaths here in PCB (unbelievable). My brother lives only about 1.5 miles from where the tornado touched down on January 9, 2024. When I initially arrived at my brothers house, I did not ride in on the highway where the tornado hit but came in the other way. I knew that some of the damage was pretty severe (looked at some pictures and from what my brother told me). I was actually shocked that 3 months later, many of the damaged buildings, etc. still remain intact and untouched.
The tilted house is probably the most famous of the pictures I saw in the news. I had to see this in person as I have been through a tornado and hurricanes and NEVER have seen a house just lifted up and tilted sideways. How the houses next to it did not sustain any damage is a miracle. The house is still there and untouched.
Another image I saw was of a Huddle House. Ok, it is not really a Huddle House as I forget the name but it is the same layout as one with the red trim. The building in the image has not been touched at all. No clean up at all. The building is squashed on top of itself. The building next to it is intact just without any windows.
Along the main road there used to be a couple of apartment complexes. The picture is from the backside. From the front, you can still see toilets on the floors. The roof and walls are completely gone.
Damage to homes is the local neighborhood is bad as well
I decided to drive through some of the neighborhoods near the tornado and there is still so much damage. One house you can see the brick wall is torn away leaving just the wall. Another house was completely demolished so they removed all the debris. Another house the upstairs is gone.
Repairs are slow. Its sad as well. Hurricane Michael hit in October of 2019. There is still a lot of damage from that storm that has not been repaired. That was the hurricane that destroyed Mexico Beach. Not damaged but completely obliterated every home (just google it). With so much damage in the surrounding areas, you can see why repairs can take a long time. I am just glad nobody died and that my brother’s family and his house was spared.