FRI., JAN 5 thru WED., JAN 10, 2024
We spent one night in Tallahassee then traveled 137 miles west, stopping at a truck rest area to kill a few hours, before arriving for an afternoon check-in at St Andrews State Park in Panama City FL on Sat., Jan. 6th (2023).
We are back in Central Time zone. Our site at the state park is a little slice of heaven. We have a spectacular view of the Gulf. Our camping reservation is for 8 nights. The Hannafords are parked a little away from us… coincidentally, they are close to the cement bathhouse/rest room. That comes into play a little later in this story.
Since we arrived on the weekend, we figured we’d hold off on any sightseeing until during the week when there are less crowds. We grocery shopped and drove past the very colorful “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” in Panama City. On Sunday afternoon I enjoyed a 2.5 mile walk in the state park with glorious views of the Gulf, walking past a capsized boat from a previous storm, the fishing pier, and some very cool looking rental yurt-type structures in the campground. The weather was lovely. Then the bottom dropped out.
A severe storm was predicted for Monday night with the possibility of a tornado. Oy. Not looking forward to this! The weather got progressively worse on Monday, and the evening was interesting for sure… rain, thunder, lightning, and wind. When we headed off to bed, I had the weather alerts on my iPhone turned on. There were so many going off that it was totally confusing as to which ones we should listen to. Then 5 AM Tuesday morning, Jan. 9th (2024), a Tornado Warning went off. What do we do? Do we get out of bed and run across the open field to the bathhouse and hope we make it across the field in time, or do we ride it out in our tiny home? We decided to stay put. Probably not the best decision we ever made! (In future, we’ll act differently.) C&J headed to the bathhouse with their cat Gigi. Their campsite was within spitting distance of the bathhouse. The Hannafords said they could hear the funnel cloud a few miles away. We stayed in our tiny home, and I said prayers. It passed by, electricity went out, and the Hannafords headed back to bed. Cheryl & I were texting each other. We were all feeling blessed that angels above had kept us safe.
Sunrise brought much calmer weather and no wind. The campground was fine… no damage to trees or RVs. We couldn’t leave the campground easily as there were road closures nearby, plus where would we go anyway. So we just stayed put, took walks in the state park, and managed without electricity. We do have solar capabilities so we were fortunate. The roads were finally re-opened the next morning, and we were able to head to Walmart, and see the damage to houses and infrastructure first hand on Wed., Jan. 10th (2024). We also saw the hardworking utility workers. The whole thing was so sad.
The tornado struck the Lower Grand Lagoon (2 miles away from us) and was rated EF3. It was on the ground for 5.22 miles, and had a maximum width of 550 yards. It caused 3 injuries and was responsible for over $15 million in damages. That’s the closest we ever got to a tornado, and hopefully we are never that close again.
Power was restored to St Andrews State Park at 7:30 Wed. night. However, by then we had made plans to move to Gulf Shores AL the following day with the Hannafords. We didn’t really want to remain in this area for the remainder of our stay with all the destruction. Plus we were looking forward to re-connecting in Gulf Shores with our NH camping friends, Lisa & Paul. This lifestyle isn’t perfect and Mother Nature can sometimes wreak havoc. But for us, the good still far outweighs the bad.
Such damage from the tornado!
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