Florida residents are picking up the pieces today, and for many days yet to come, after storms rolled through the state Tuesday.
The storms destroyed homes, blew over RVs, blasted walls and roofs off buildings, downed trees and caused multiple power outages.
The National Weather Service will determine whether tornadoes — or straight-line winds — were the cause of the destruction and whether it was one or several tornadoes that hit several areas of the state.
Meanwhile, life returned to normal for students across the state as schools reopened today in all but Jackson County.
Here’s what we know as of Wednesday morning.
‘Absolute devastation’ left behind in Jackson, Bay counties
Heavy structural damage was left behind by a reported tornado in the Lower Grand Lagoon area south of Panama City. Another — if it was a tornado, it may have been the same one — tornado also ripped through the Marianna areadestroying and damaging homes in the Spring Chase neighborhood and wrecking the recently refurbished Florida Caverns RV Resort at Merritt’s Mill Pond.
“Where the tornadoes touched down, there is absolute devastation,” said Matt Fuqua, a Marianna attorney who shared photos of the storm damage. “By God’s grace, the storm lifted and spared many.”
A squall line and intense storms ahead of it appeared to have dealt the heaviest blow to areas just west of Tallahassee. The storms shut down schools, courthouses and government offices across the area.
Marianna, the “City of Southern Charm,” is located just south of the Alabama border. The city, which has barely recovered from the widespread devastation of Hurricane Michael in 2018, was hit hard by Tuesday’s storms.
National Weather Service survey teams to assess damage, determine whether it was tornadoes
Whether Florida was hit by tornadoes Tuesday — and if so, how many — will be determined by the National Weather Service.
The National Weather Service office in Tallahassee said it plans to send out three survey teams Wednesday and two additional teams Thursday to survey suspected tornado damage.
“The three teams on Wednesday will be surveying suspected tornado damage in Walton, Bay and Jackson counties in Florida.
“The two teams on Thursday will be assessing damage in Houston County, Alabama and Calhoun County, Georgia. Additional assessments in other counties are possible,” the office said in a tweet. Surveys will begin between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. Central Time.
“Some locations might not be accessible and surveys could take longer. Please be patient with regards to how quick preliminary information gets out as some areas were hit very hard. Our thoughts are with them.”
The National Weather Service Jacksonville also will be sending out survey teams today.
One team will be surveying suspected tornado damage in St. Johns and Duval counties. Another will be heading to several counties in Georgia.
Was anyone injured or killed by Tuesday’s storms?
Authorities said the storm system caused at least four deaths in Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina on Tuesday.
One person was killed and four people were injured in Claremont, North Carolina, when a storm went through Catawba County, damaging multiple homes in a mobile home park, Catawba County spokesperson Amy McCauley told USA TODAY.
Police in Clayton County, south of Atlanta, said a man died during heavy rain when a tree fell on his car on a state highway in Jonesboro.
An 81-year-old woman died in Cottonwood, Alabama, after an apparent tornado touched down around 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Houston County Coroner Robert Byrd confirmed to USA TODAY. The woman’s mobile home was picked up by the storm and “rolled” three to four times, Byrd said.
In Florida, no deaths have been reported but there have been several injuries, including a couple in Escambia County. They were injured when a tree fell on their home in Myrtle Grove.
Gov. DeSantis declares state of emergency for 49 counties
Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency Tuesday for 49 of Florida’s 67 counties — nearly three quarters of the state — even as storms continued to move through the state.
The governor, who returned to Florida to deliver the State of the State address before the start of the 2024 Florida Legislative Session, activated the Florida State Guard on Monday in advance of the storms.
The order allows the state and local governments much more freedom to coordinate their emergency agencies, relax restrictions, cut through red tape and reallocate resources to quickly deal with an imminent or ongoing threat that local services can’t handle on their own.
Counties included in the executive order are: Alachua, Baker, Bay, Bradford, Brevard, Calhoun, Citrus, Clay, Columbia, Dixie, Duval, Escambia, Flagler, Franklin, Gadsden, Gilchrist, Gulf, Hamilton, Hernando, Hillsborough, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lake, Leon, Levy, Liberty, Madison, Marion, Nassau, Okaloosa, Orange, Osceola, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Putnam, Santa Rosa, Seminole, Sumter, St. Johns, Suwannee, Taylor, Union, Volusia, Wakulla, Walton, and Washington counties.
How many people don’t have power?
As of 6 a.m., 13,178 people were without power in Florida.
Numerous outages have been reported across the Panhandle, from Crestview and Destin to Live Oak.
Another 33 outages have been reported in Duval County.
Among the worst hit was Jackson County, where 3,835 were without power, and Bay County, where 2,409 outages were reported Wednesday morning.
Another 1,045 were without power in Washington County. In Gadsden County, 1,316 were without power.
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