The following is a report from mypanhandle.com about a Jackson County RV park experiencing heavy damage following a tornado.
A Marianna RV park owner said he paid the final bill for Hurricane Michael repairs on Monday, and now he’s starting all over with another natural disaster.
Campers at the Merritt’s Mill Pond RV Resort braced for impact Tuesday morning as a tornado moved through the area. General Manager Chuck Mcintosh’s wife woke him up.
“We were going to go shelter and I never got that far, like I said, I stepped out of my door and it went sideways,” Mcintosh said.
Mcintosh was caught in the middle of the tornado, clenching onto his pickup truck for his life.
“I’m hanging on to the side of my truck and stuff hit me in the head and hit me on the arms and it’s swirling around me and at that point, I’ve never been through it so you don’t know what’s going on,” Mcintosh said. “Intellectually you know but you don’t know here, I know here now, and I don’t want to do it again.”
People at the back of the resort bunkered down in newer homes.
“Within five minutes, I walked outside and it was just as clear as it could be and hot, and then all of a sudden, the door was snatched out of my hand and the window shattered,” Regina Nickison said.
Nickison was in town for her father’s funeral. Her aunt was in the home next to her.
“She was by herself in her cabin and that was my first thought, how am I going to get over there?” Nickison said. “That was all I could think of and then my sister was here so I mean, we just had a really rough morning, seriously but search and rescue came in here really quick and got my aunt out.”
As soon as the weather cleared up, everyone kicked into recovery mode.
“First account for people, make sure you’re safe, second thing, let’s get them some food, and then after that, let’s start to evaluate where we are, let’s help these people evaluate where they are,” Mcintosh said.
Recover will take time and money, but property owner Erwin Jackson knows it will happen.
The tornado damaged a propane tank in the area, spewing gas into the air. Florida Public Utilities crews cut off the propane before it caught fire.
Read the full report here.