Severe storms caused widespread power outages, damage homes in Jay and Santa Rosa County
The tornado-like winds tore, literally, through areas of Jay in the early morning hours on Friday. The homes and cars of local residents were battered by flying objects, or the winds themselves, leaving many waiting for help before they could even begin to clear away the mess.
Getting that help wasn't easy.
Fallen power lines caused partial closures to the roads leading into Jay and motorists had to work together to clear the road when necessary and maneuver past the safety cones set up by officials.
Despite the gloomy situation that residents woke up to, they put their grievances with the storm’s outcome aside and got to work ensuring everyone in their area was OK.
Northwest Florida was rocked Friday morning when a line of severe thunderstorms moved through the area in the pre-dawn hours Friday. As the storms moved through, the National Weather Service issued multiple severe thunderstorm warnings and at least one tornado warning for Santa Rosa County.
The storms caused power outages in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties and damaged homes in northern Santa Rosa County.
The storms continue moving east causing more damage in other areas of Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 12 Florida counties but those did not include Escambia or Santa Rosa counties.
Pensacola area weather: Storms cause power outages, school closures in Escambia and Santa Rosa
No serious injuries or fatalities have been reported to Escambia and Santa Rosa county officials from the storms, but their reports indicate Jay may have been the hardest hit location in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
Two buildings were completely destroyed, and five others severely damaged, as well as two agriculture structures. Six more homes were listed with minor damage and four listed by the county's Building Inspections Department as "affected."
The home that was destroyed was located on Watermill Road, according to county spokesperson Brittany Ellers. Reports stated that a couple inside had been thrown from their residence but suffered only minor injuries.
Another home on Spring Street suffered severe damage, Ellers said. Further assessment was being done as department staff who had been in the field convened Friday afternoon to compile their findings.
Residents of Jay were outside Friday morning, cleaning up the trees and other hazards that were thrown into their yards and those of their neighbors. Despite experiencing a rocky and uncertain time, everyone was focused on helping with the clean-up efforts.
Steven Newberry wasn’t at his residence during the worst of things, but his son was. During his interview with the News Journal, Newberry could only thank Jesus for the outcome.
“How do I feel? My son is alive, this stuff ain’t nothing,” Newberry said. “All of this stuff can be replaced, the Lord blessed us and took care of my son, I can’t complain a bit.”
One resident living off of Watermill Road was sound asleep in her home before being woken by the storm. Before long, multiple trees had fallen into her home and she spent all day Friday figuring out her next steps.
“(The trees) punctured my bathroom, kitchen and master bedroom. It terrified us,” said Bertha Lambeth. “We heard trees snapping and then after that we heard it hit the top of the house and that was about it.”
A neighbor lost their home completely ? the only one so far recorded by county officials as destroyed. Reports stated that a couple inside the home had been thrown from their residence but suffered only minor injuries.
Ellers said that the final estimate of the structures damaged was less than 20. The storm uprooted trees, and significant damage was done to power lines across North Santa Rosa County.
The up to 70 mph wind gusts from the line of storms caused trees to be knocked down over both counties. The only public facility with any damage was Benny Russell Park, which will be closed for the foreseeable future while crews remove debris and assess what structural damage might have been done to county equipment within the park.
Escambia County storm damage
In Escambia County, there were no reports of any structural damage, but widespread reports of trees and power lines damaged.
“Obviously, there’s trees all over the place down, especially on the north end,” Escambia Emergency Manager Travis Tompkin said.
Tompkins said there were several “near misses” where trees narrowly avoided hitting homes. He said in one incident where a tree had fallen in front of a mobile home, Escambia County Fire Rescue had to remove it so people could exit their home.
Road crews in Escambia County were out before sunrise removing fallen trees from roads. Some roads may have obstructions, but Tompkins said no roads in Escambia County were closed.
In Pensacola, a person had to be rescued from their home in the 1800 block of West Gadsden Street after a tree fell on it.
Widespread power outages
When the storms passed Friday morning, more than 23,000 electric customers were without power in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.
Approximately 12,723 Florida Power and Light customers were without power just before 7:30 a.m., with 6,809 in Escambia and 5,914 in Santa Rosa.
By Friday afternoon, that number had fallen to 4,800 FPL customers with 4,157 in Escambia and 650 in Santa Rosa.
Things were in the northern parts of those counties. More than 10,957 Escambia River Electric Cooperative customers were without power.
The utility co-op, which provides power to the northern halves of the two counties, hoped to have power restored to at least 4,000 of those customers by end of day Friday, mainly in EREC's southern service area, according to EREC CEO Ryan Campbell.
Campbell said the northern areas were harder hit and could take "multiple days" to restore service. They're still evaluating the damage to come up with a more definite estimate.
"We're still evaluating our hardest hit areas," Campbell said. "We are looking at a multiple-day event. I don't know if it's going to be tomorrow or the next day, so Saturday or Sunday, we're hoping at this point. But again, we're still assessing, and we'll have a better idea of that later."
EREC currently has 100 line workers responding to the storm, eight times its normal staff, and is looking to bring in more from mutual aid partners, Campbell said.
Campbell said EREC crews have seen evidence of tornadoes and hurricane-force straight-line winds.
"It's not as widespread as Ivan was, but we haven't seen anything like this since Hurricane Ivan in the pockets that are hardest hit," Campbell said.
In Jay, residents were working together Friday afternoon to clear debris and get things back to normal.
A nearby group of residents, including Josh Holloway, told the News Journal on Friday that a long line of debris lining Watermill Road was the remnants of a nearby barn and another of their neighbor’s home, which were completely destroyed in the storm.
“Every time there’s a storm like this, a bunch of the farmers with tractors they get out and help get all the trees off,” Holloway said. “That’s what they’ve been doing all morning; cutting up and moving stuff.”
“There’s a mobile home that my mother-in-law lives in, (the winds) were rocking the mobile homes, tore the skirt off the bottom, and then it was trying to flip it over. They were really scared. They were in it,” Holloway said.
Jim Little and Tom McLaughlin contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola weather: Severe storms damage homes in Jay Santa Rosa County