Lights Out For Lee; Little Damage Reported

September 6, 2011

Tropical Storm Lee wasn’t much more than a nuisance in North Escambia, while the southern part of the county did see damage.

Wind And Rain

Most of northern Escambia and Santa Rosa counties received about six inches of rain or less over the Labor Day weekend, causing very few problems. Strong wind gusts were reported Monday afternoon as the center of the remains of Lee moved closer to North Escambia. A wind gust of  48 mph was recorded in Walnut Hill at 12:09 p.m., while a wind gust of 57 mph was recorded in Jay at 12:16 Monday afternoon. The highest official wind gust on Dauphin Island, Alabama, was 55 mph at 7:13 Monday morning.

There were several tornado warnings issued for the area, but no actual twisters spotted.

Local Damage

The only damage reported in North Escambia or northern Santa Rosa County was minor — mostly downed trees, tree limbs and power lines. There were no reports received of structural damage.

Power Outages

Over 10,000 Gulf Power customers in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties lost power at some part of the day Monday as Lee moved through the area At 7 p.m. Monday, 7,000 in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties were still in the dark. By 6 a.m. Tuesday, that number was down to about 1,100 without power, mostly in North Escambia. Gulf Power said all customers were restored by 5 p.m. (Read more…)

Escambia River Electric Cooperative reported power was restored to all of their customers before 10 p.m. Monday.

Escambia County Fire Rescue responded to over a dozen calls of downed power lines, some arcing or sparking, during the day on Monday. There were no injuries reported as a result of the downed power lines.

An unknown number of Escambia River Electric Cooperative customers also lost power during the high winds.

Crews were expected to have the power restored to all customers by this morning.

Escambia And Santa Rosa Damage

On Innerarity Point, an apparent tornado destroyed one home and about a half dozen others were damaged in the early morning hours Sunday.  Numerous trees were downed, and a sailboat was flipped upside down.  Just minutes earlier, the same apparent tornado damaged about 20 homes in Lillian, Ala.

Two businesses received broken windows on Perdido Key Sunday morning, and a house was damaged by a possible tornado.

Trees and power lines were reported downed across Escambia  and Santa Rosa counties. There was no other damage in Santa Rosa County reported to the National Weather Service.

For a photo gallery from Pensacola Beach on Saturday, click here.

Pictured top: Heavy surf Saturday at Pensacola Beach. Pictured inset: A large tree limb downed on Highway 97 in Davisville. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.

Comments

3 Responses to “Lights Out For Lee; Little Damage Reported”

  1. McDavid Resident on September 6th, 2011 4:33 pm

    We never lost power :-) Way to go EREC

  2. Me on September 6th, 2011 12:54 pm

    I work in lillian for the homeowner’s assocation that got hit. It got about 14 houses, one a complete loss, but nobody got suriously hurt luckily.

  3. Aaron on September 6th, 2011 5:10 am

    EREC

    THANKS FOR THE QUICK SERVICE!!!

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News