JACKSON COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – The National Weather Service put three teams on the ground today to assess whether it was high winds, tornados, or a combination that caused all of yesterday’s damages.
Jackson County first responders escorted one of the teams to some of the hardest hit areas.
National Weather Service team members began their morning in the same place county emergency managers monitored Tuesday’s storm.
“We went to the EOC here in Marianna just to kind of get our bearings and make sure that we were on the right page, actually tagged along with one of our emergency officials,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Felecia Bowser said.
The team then moved into the field, beginning their evaluation in southern Marianna and working their way north.
They believe Tuesday’s storm system produced more than one tornado in Jackson County.
But they can’t yet confirm how many tornados or their strength.
“It looks like it was multiple tornadoes from the same storm, which is not unusual for a line of storms, which is basically a squall line. That’s what we were experiencing yesterday. And so it was definitely a couple of tornadoes for this for the county of Jackson,” Bowser said.
Florida Department of Emergency Management officials also took part in the assessment.
“What I’ve run through here, this would probably take about a week and a half, two weeks to get completely cleaned up,” Florida Department of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said.
Guthrie says he’s seen more than 100 homes and more than 20 businesses with damages.
He’s hoping to have damage cost estimates within 72 hours.
But that number could increase, depending on the severity of Friday’s weather forecast.
One resident who survived the Merritt Mill Road RV resort tornado is waiting before making her next move.
“Waiting for insurance and cleanup. And then we just have to decide if we can stay here, what they’re going to do to our rig. If we need to get find another place to live,” resident Cynthia Bryd said.
