Escambia County Flooding Update
May 1, 2014
Here’s a look at the latest Escambia County flooding update:
Reopening Thursday
- Escambia County Board of County Commission Offices
- The Clerk of Circuit Court Offices
- Tax Collector Janet Holley is reopening three of her locations on Thursday. Deadline for paying property taxes has been extended one day until tomorrow (Thu). Payment can be made on line or drop box. Property Appraiser Chris Jones will also reopen his offices on Thursday.
- The University of West Florida
- Pensacola Christian Academy
Closures
- Escambia County Public School System
- Santa Rosa Public School System
Road Closures
- Westbound I-10 ramp to southbound I-110
- Scenic Highway 150 ft north of Baywalk Circle
- Scenic Highway south of Scenic Highway Circle
- East Johnson Avenue (bridge is out)
- Dog Track Road at Lillian Highway
- Airport at Carpenter Creek
- 9th Avenue at Carpenter Creek
- Bauer Road at Sorrento Road
Roads Open with Issues
- Northbound I-110 at mile marker 6 is restricted
- I-10 at mile marker 5 is restricted
- Southbound Highway 29 to westbound I-10 is restricted
- Guidy Lane
- Detroit Boulevard East
- Eight Mile Creek Road
- Jernigan Road
- Galvin Avenue
- Joaquin Road
- Fairfield and 58th
Red Cross Shelters at the Bellview United Methodist Church and the Wedgewood Community Center remain open. People may bring their pets to the Wedgewood Center.
Residents in Escambia County that need non-emergency assistance can call the Citizens Information Center at 850-471-6600.
National Day Of Prayer Events Planned Today
May 1, 2014
National Day of Prayer events are planned today in Century, Flomaton and Atmore.
In Century, a National Day of Prayer service will be held at 6 p.m. in the Ag Building on West Highway 4. Everyone is invited as prayers are said for the nation, local government and more.
In Flomaton, the doors of Friendship Freewill Baptist Church will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. for anyone that wants to pray.
In Atmore, multiple events will be held:
- Prayer Walk — all day at Houston Avery and Tom Byrne Park
- Prayer — 10 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial at the Atmore City Hall
- Children’s Prayer – 5:30-6:45 for K-6 students accompanied by an adult in the old Escambia Count High gym
- Bible Reading – 6:15 p.m. Escambia County High School new gym
Pictured top: Rev. Ted Bridges of the Walnut Hill Baptist Church, on his knees, reading from his Bible during a National Day of Prayer event last year in Atmore. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Escambia County Under State Of Emergency (With Latest County Update)
April 30, 2014
Escambia County Emergency Response is still responding to calls for help as a result of this week’s flooding event. However, the call volume into the Escambia County 911 Center has fallen drastically since noon on Wednesday. Since the start of this disaster event Tuesday evening, Escambia County has responded to 281 cases while Escambia County Fire Rescue has responded to 266 cases. All total, the Escambia County 911 dispatch has received 4,129 calls between the start of the emergency at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Flood waters are receeding, but drivers are asked to avoid driving if at all possible. Escambia County will begin a full inspection of roads, bridges and other infrastructure early Thurday morning.
Reopening Thursday
- Escambia County Board of County Commission Offices
- The Clerk of Circuit Court Offices
- Tax Collector Janet Holley is reopening three of her locations on Thursday. Deadline for paying property taxes has been extended one day until tomorrow (Thu). Payment can be made on line or drop box. Property Appraiser Chris Jones will also reopen his offices on Thursday.
- The University of West Florida
- Pensacola Christian Academy
Closures
- The Escambia County Public School System
- Road Closures
- Westbound I-10 ramp to southbound I-110
- Scenic Highway 150 ft north of Baywalk Circle
- Scenic Highway south of Scenic Highway Circle
- U.S. 29 north of Kingsfield Road
- East Johnson Avenue (bridge is out)
- Dog Track Road at Lillian Highway
- Airport at Carpenter Creek
- 9th Avenue at Carpenter Creek
- Beaur Road at Serative Road
- Roads Open with Issues
- Northbound I-110 at mile marker 6 is restricted
- I-10 at mile marker 5 is restricted
- Southbound Highway 29 to westbound I-10 is restricted
- Guidy Lane
- Detroit Boulevard East
- Eight Mile Creek Road
- Jernigan Road
- Galvin Avenue
- Joaquin Road
- Fairfield and 58th
Gulf Power Restores 35,000 Customers
April 30, 2014
Almost 17,000 Gulf Power customers in Escambia County were without power at 3:00 a.m. Wednesday.
Gulf Power Company has restored power to more than 35,000 customers as of 9 a.m. this morning. Crews resumed restoration efforts at 6 a.m. after the storms began to subside.
Less than 24,000 customers are still without power, primarily in Escambia County, which was hit hard by nearly 2 feet of rain since Tuesday afternoon.
Crews from Mississippi Power, a Gulf Power sister company, are en route to Northwest Florida to help the company with restoration efforts.
For customers’ safety, Gulf Power offices in Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties will not open until 1 p.m. today.
Crews could do little work overnight because of the flooded road conditions and continued storms that rolled through the area. Widespread damage to the system is still being assessed before an estimated restoration time for all customers can be determined.
Gulf Power’s customers are experiencing fewer power outages than any other time in recent history. In fact, investments in the power grid have made a significant difference, improving reliability for the utility’s 436,000 customers by more than 35 percent since 2010.
“Our line and support personnel have had a lot of experience over the past couple of years restoring power,” said Jeff Rogers, Gulf Power Communications manager. “When you pair that with the improvements we’re making to our power grid — the bottom line is customers get their power back on more quickly.”
Gulf Power’s Online Outage map<http://outagemap.gulfpower.com/external/default.html> enables live tracking of power restoration efforts. You can access this map through the company’s new Outage App on your smartphone. Search for “Gulf Power” in iTunes or on the Google Play store to download the free app. You can also keep updated through Gulf Power’s Facebook page.
Escambia, Santa Rosa Schools Closed Thursday (With Closure And Cancellation List)
April 30, 2014
Schools in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida are closed on Thursday.
Other Wednesday closures include
- University of West Florida
- Pensacola State College classes/exams
- Pensacola Christian Academy classes/exams
- Marcus Pointe Christian
- Fortis Institute
- Escambia Catholic Schools
- Escambia Health Department
- ECAT – no service Wednesday
- Escambia Health & Hope Clinic (Pcola and Century)
- NAS Pensacola (until 10am, contact supervisor)
- Eglin Air Force Base
- Navy Hospital
- Escambia, Santa Rosa county courts
- Pen Air Credit Unions
- ECUA residential and commercial sanitation collections scheduled for Wednesday will be postponed until Thursday. Thursday’s and Friday’s collections will be made on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
The following community agencies are closed:
- Alzheimer’s Family Services Office
- Autism Pensacola
- Big Brothers Big Sisters
- Boys and Girls Clubs of the Emerald Coast (7 clubs located in Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton Counties)
- Chain Reaction
- Children’s Home Society
- CIL Disability Resource Center is closed.
- The Community Action Program Head Start and All other Community Action Programs
- Community Drug and Alcohol Council, Inc (CDAC) Offices
- Gulf Coast Kids House
- Gulf Coast Council, Boy Scouts of America Office
- Health & Hope Clinics locations
- Lutheran Services of Florida
- Manna Food Pantries
- PACE Center For Girls
- United Cerebral Palsy of Northwest Florida Offices
- United Ministries
- UCP’s Capstone Academy Pensacola and Milton
- UCP’s Children’s Services Center and Milton Child Care Center
- USO locations
- BRACE will be represented at the EOC throughout the State of Emergency.
- 2-1-1 information and referral agents will work from their homes for the duration of the State of Emergency.
- Chain Reaction’s luncheon is cancelled for today.
- Manna is closed until further notice. Their building & grounds are flooded with 4 to 5 feet of water. They are unable to reach our building to assess the damage due to standing water in their parking lot. They anticipate extensive loss of equipment, vehicles & food.
Have a closure or cancellation to add to this list? Email news@northescambia.com. Include your name and contact photo number (will not be published).
Escambia County Road Closures
April 30, 2014
Drivers should avoid being on the roadways, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
The following state and local highways are closed, according to FDOT and Escambia County:
- I-10 is open to slow moving traffic.
- U.S. 98 at Jaquin Road is restricted due to water on the road.
- Southbound I-110 at MM 3.5 (Texar Drive) is restricted due to water on the road.
- U.S. 29 at Tate Road is closed due to water on the road.
- U.S. 90 at Nine Mile Creek is closed due to water on the road.
- U.S. 90 at Eight Mile Creek is closed due to water on the road.
- State Road (S.R.) 727 (Fairfield Drive) is closed due to water on the road.
- Southbound U.S. 29 is restricted due to water on the road.
- Highway 297A at 11 Mile Creek – bridge out
- Meadowbrook Drive – bridge out
- 9th Avenue North at Carpenter Creek – bridge out
- Airport Boulevard at Carpenter Creek — bridge out
- Condor Drive
- Bauer Road
- Mobile Highway at Bayou Marcus
- Dog Track Road at Lillian Highway
- Johnson Avenue near Olive Rd — bridge out
In addition to flooding, several road and bridges sustained major damage in the flooding.
Pictured above: Large portions of Scenic Highway are gone. Pictured below: Johnson Avenue near Scenic Highway. NorthEscambia.com reader submitted photos, click to enlarge.
Only A Slight Chance Of Rain For Tonight, Sun To Return
April 30, 2014
Flood warnings are in effect. Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Tonight A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 7pm, then a slight chance of showers between 7pm and 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 54. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming north after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
- Thursday Partly sunny, with a high near 73. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Thursday Night A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 50. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Friday Partly sunny, with a high near 75. North wind around 5 mph becoming west in the afternoon.
- Friday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 47. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm after midnight.
- Saturday Sunny, with a high near 82. Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph in the afternoon.
- Saturday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 52. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
- Sunday Sunny, with a high near 84. West wind around 5 mph.
- Sunday Night Clear, with a low around 57.
- Monday Sunny, with a high near 87.
- Monday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 58.
- Tuesday Mostly sunny, with a high near 86.
- Tuesday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 59.
BREAKING: EXTREME FLOODING, NO SCHOOL WEDNESDAY
April 29, 2014
There is extreme flooding in Escambia County. School is canceled for Wednesday. Virtually all roads Cantonment south are flooded and impassable. We are posting LIVE updates on our Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/NorthEscambia
“Like” the Facebook page for updates.
Tate, Jay, WFHS Softball Games Rescheduled; NWE Cancels Games
April 29, 2014
The threat of severe weather has forced changes in softball playoff action tonight, and forced the cancellation of games at two youth parks.
The Region 1-7A game between the Tate Aggies and Navarre Raiders has been moved to 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The West Florida versus Tallahassee’s Florida High Regiona 1-4A game has been postponed until 6 p.m. Wednesday.
The Jay Lady Royals regional semifinal playoff game against South Walton has been moved up to 4:00 Wednesday. The game is being played at Jay.
Northwest Escambia has canceled all games at their park for tonight. Members of teams scheduled for practice tonight at NWE will be contacted by their managers.
All games at NEP are also canceled.
Round Two Of Storms Coming Tonight
April 29, 2014
There is a tornado and flash flood watch in effect. Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
- Tuesday Night Showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms could be severe and produce heavy rainfall. Low around 68. South wind 10 to 15 mph becoming west after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
- Wednesday Showers and thunderstorms likely before 1pm, then a slight chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 78. North wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- Wednesday Night A 20 percent chance of showers before 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 52. West wind around 5 mph becoming north after midnight.
- Thursday A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 74. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
- Thursday Night A 30 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 51. Northwest wind around 5 mph.
- Friday A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 75. Northwest wind around 5 mph.
- Friday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 51. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm after midnight.
- Saturday Sunny, with a high near 78.
- Saturday Night Mostly clear, with a low around 55.
- Sunday Sunny, with a high near 81.
- Sunday Night Clear, with a low around 58.
- Monday Sunny, with a high near 82.