00:00The picture here this morning, tranquil, beautiful, over my shoulder, the pier, very calm, eerily calm,
00:06I must say, for a rapidly changing system and a rapidly changing weather scene here in Panama City
00:12Beach. But it has been about eight years since the last time this part of eastern panhandle of
00:19Florida saw a hurricane warning. And as you alluded to, that hurricane warning was tacked on
00:24to catastrophic Hurricane Michael. And we spent a lot of time yesterday talking to folks all along
00:31the panhandle from anywhere from Pensacola, where Bill is, over to Santa Rosa Beach, also Navarra
00:37Beach, and right here in Panama City. Many of the people that we met described what they are still
00:42calling a lingering PTSD from surviving that catastrophic hurricane. Now, we shot all kinds
00:49of video of folks getting ready. Let me show you some video where things are still looking kind of
00:54normal. You can see the beachgoers and the kiteboarders were enjoying conditions along
00:59parts of Navarra Beach yesterday. The approaching hurricane, of course, still changing routines.
01:06As we got a little further inland to Santa Rosa Beach, we saw a huge line upon huge line in
01:12the
01:13gas stations. The one that we stopped at in particular took about, we got gas there, about 45 minutes for
01:19us
01:19to get gas. And we talked to the owner of that gas station. And he was saying that so many
01:24people have
01:24been hitting that particular gas station. That's a story playing out along the panhandle here that the
01:30pumps are running slower. So what would normally take maybe a two minute fill up is taking 10 to 15
01:35minutes
01:35because the gas coming out of the hoses has been stretched, has been worn. And so that's adding to the
01:41frustration for folks that are trying to get ready. Eight years ago on October 10, by the way, so almost
01:46to the
01:47day. Excuse me, Category 5 Hurricane Michael devastated this community from Panama City through
01:53Mexico Beach, Cape Sand Blast, destroying homes, severely damaging infrastructure and leaving some
01:58without power for weeks. No one is expecting Isaias to become another Michael, but a forecast feels very
02:04different when you've already survived one major disaster. Well, a lot of us just sound like being
02:12fully recovered from Michael, like a lot of our houses, you know, with insurance and things that took so long,
02:16um, and getting everything kind of back to normal. We're kind of at that point now. Um, and so going
02:23into this weekend is pretty stressful for some of us that went through, you know, this horrific time
02:27for Michael. It's just another level of anxiety, you know, will we have gas? Will we have water?
02:31Um, you know, if it hits us, how long are we going to be without power? How long, you know,
02:36those things like that. It's just, um, an underlying anxiety, I think that we all worry about or think about.
02:44So, so here in Bay County, uh, the coastal cities have declared local states of emergency just along
02:50all of the panhandles, you know, Panama City Beach is under both a hurricane warning and a storm surge
02:55warning, which really has people nervous here in Panama City. Uh, the tropical storm force winds are
03:00expected to start impacting us as soon as tomorrow, as you know, and, uh, we could see five to seven
03:05inches of
03:06rain, a surge five to seven feet. So far, we have not heard of mandatory evacuations here where we
03:12are in Panama City. Uh, we maybe we'll see that change later today. The closest, uh, mandatory
03:17evacs are in Fort Walton, which is back towards the West, uh, closer to where Bill is. Uh, but again,
03:22it's interesting to note, you know, that the, all the people that we talked to, you guys really,
03:26uh, getting very nervous because that path is so similar to Michael, even though not in intensity,
03:31the fact that something's getting that close to them, even eight years from now, causing a lot
03:36of anxiety for folks that live here.
