Tornadoes Hit Pensacola, Florida Causing Widespread Damage

At least two tornadoes hit Pensacola, Florida, and the surrounding communities. Although the full extent of the damage is not yet known, raw video hitting local channels already are showing damage to homes and at least one church. In addition, a daycare school filled with children suffered what is being described as significant damage.

Pensacola residents went to bed last night with a pounding rain arriving around 9:00 PM and woke up this morning to a torrential downpour. On the road this morning I personally encountered a flooded road that was about two feet deep; deep enough to have caused one car to stall in the middle of the knee-deep water and force others to take an alternate route. The flood was just the beginning, however. Roughly two hours or so upon returning I received the first indication of a potential tornado. Details were sketchy and even conflicting depending upon which local television station you were watching. While most of the stations reported a hurricane path running from the Brent area up through Ferry Pass and into Ensley-a northeasterly direction-indications were that another tornado might well be hitting the downtown area.

And that is exactly what happened. Video taken by WEAR-TV shows a very dramatic sight of a darkened sky in mid-morning with swirling clouds that appear to have been taken place well into the evening. While the original tornado has not yet appeared to have resulted in significant damage-as of yet-it was the downtown tornado that seems to have resulted in the worst that weather to give. Gulf Power reports that over 5,000 people are without power. Among the damage reported are overturned cars, roofs torn off and at least one bona fide Pensacola Beach landmark suffered exterior damage: the UFO house.

This futuristic round house that looks like a flying saucer and sits atop a standard house was still recovering from damage caused by Hurricane Ivan. In fact, the owners were in the process of renovating the house when the tornado pulled off newly applied roofing materials. In addition to this damage, reports indicate that the worst problems are localized along Cervantes Street from A to E streets. The good news is that so far there have been no reports of serious damage and, let's keep out fingers crossed, no fatalities. Even the children in the daycare center are said to have only suffered minor bumps and bruises, which is extremely fortunate since all indications are that the tornado passed directly over the building.

Today was supposed to mark the opening of the Pensacola Interstate Fair, but that has been postponed until tomorrow. Schools are scheduled to be dismissed at the regular times today and there are no plans for school to be canceled tomorrow. However, trees and power lines are down in the downtown along Cervantes and Garden streets and bus and car paths may be rerouted. In fact, word just came over the television that the school where I dropped my wife off what seems like long ago this morning has suffered some roof damage.

Pensacola, of course, has a long history of being hit by hurricanes. A 16^th century hurricane, in fact, prevented it from becoming North America's oldest city. Tornadoes are very rare, however. In fact, very few citizens can remember the last time a tornado of this intensity hit the city.