HOLT – Carol Menzies said she walked out of the bedroom of her home at 4123 Sundance Way on Friday, looked out of a window and saw a tree “circling” flying toward her.
She had enough time to raise her daughter, mother-in-law and two grandchildren and collect them in as many of the seven household dogs as they fit in a master bathroom before what is believed to be a tornado reached her home in Holt. .
Menzies said she could not be sure if the storm happened near her home or landed directly on it.
“It was close,” she said. “I put snow in my time.”
There is also “lots and lots of water in the house,” she said, even in three bedrooms.
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The roof of the house and the vehicles in the yard were also damaged by falling trees, Menzies added.
“We have damage everywhere on the property,” she said.
Tornado will not be confirmed until the weekend
Menzies’ home, located at the corner of Sundance Way and Log Lake Road, was one of four that Okaloosa County officials said sustained damage from the storm, which is suspected to be a tornado but has not yet been officially confirmed as such. .
While a social media report from the National Weather Service in Mobile, Alabama, appears to confirm that a tornado has calmed down, meteorologist Jonathan Howell said the confirmation will not be formalized until a NWS team travels to the site and inspects the damage. .
“Our radar indications suggest that it is quite possible that there was a tornado,” Howell said.
The survey is to be conducted over the weekend.
The line of thunderstorms that produced the damaging wind passed through Holt around 12:30 a.m. Friday. It felled many trees, some of which fell on power lines. The Sundance Way was closed due to power lines and trees lying across the road.
Heavy rains, ranging from 2 to 4 inches, fell over the county, NWS said. However, most of the damage appears to have been isolated in the northern Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties.
No injuries were reported, according to Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Michele Nicholson.
Okaloosa County Public Safety Director Patrick Maddox said there was a report shortly after the storm was caused by a possible fire caused by lightning, but initial reactions were not forthcoming.
“Every move of people is due to homelessness,” he said at a news conference at 3:30 p.m.
Walton County hit with another possible tornado
Walton County was also pelted with heavy rain and turbulent weather Friday. Late in the afternoon, an “indication of debris” was reported to the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, according to meteorologist Mark Wool.
A tornado east of DeFuniak Springs just south of Interstate 10 at Shady Grove Road and Hinson Crossroads has been identified, Wool said.
He said Walton County was “hammered” by the rain and some flooding occurred.
Maddox said Okaloosa County on Friday changed to a modified version of its Level 2 emergency status. This led to the command level field staff and personnel being stationed at the County Emergency Operations Center in Niceville.
Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to inspect the area, and Menzies said an EMS ambulance stopped by her home to make sure everyone was OK.
Maddox said the complete detachment of a team to assess the damage to Holt was halted Friday afternoon by the storm, which slowed its movement through the county. He hoped the heavy rain, which passed through the south and central county in the afternoon, would leave the area before nightfall.
“We can not get many people everywhere we need to be” due to lightning in the region, he said. “We hope to get them there today, but the storm has its own spirit.”
Efforts to reach Florida Power and Light for an estimate of power outages were unsuccessful.
The sky started to fall in Okaloosa around 4:30 pm Friday after a second wave of storm passed through the Fort Walton Beach region.
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