Earthquakes In Our Area? We Take A Look At Local Quake History
March 8, 2019
Following a magnitude 2.7 earthquake about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday near Jay, NorthEscambia.com is taking a deeper look at earthquakes in the area over the past three decades.
There have been six earthquakes reported in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida and in Escambia County, Alabama, since 1990, and all of them were within 10 miles of the state line.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the North Escambia area sits on the Bahamas Seismic Zone (the BSZ). Several earthquakes have occurred along this zone in recent years, but most are too weak to be felt by residents. While not a likelihood, the USGS says another significant earthquake could happen in the area at any time.
The last recorded earthquake in Florida was a 5.9 in the Gulf of Mexico felt across much of Florida in September 2006.
At 3:35 a.m. on October 24, 1997, a significant earthquake startled a large number of people in Escambia County, Ala., and Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida. The quake, which measured 4.9 on the Richter scale, was centered near the Little Rock community in Escambia County, Ala., and was felt as far away as Eglin AFB, and Gulfport, Miss. It was the strongest earthquake in the southeast in 30 years. No significant damage was reported.
Four days later, on October 28, 1997, a magnitude 3.0 quake happened a few miles away. There was also a magnitude3.1 earthquake north of Bratt on May 3, 1997.
The U.S. Geological Survey classifies earthquake intensities. Here is how the October 24, 1997, earthquake measured up across the area, using intensity level descriptions from the Federal Emergency Management agency:
- (VII) Epicenter / Little Rock, Ala.
- People have difficulty standing. Drivers feel their cars shaking. Some furniture breaks. Loose bricks fall from buildings. Damage is slight to moderate in well-built buildings; considerable in poorly built buildings
- (VI) Brewton, Canoe and Lambeth
- Everyone feels movement. People have trouble walking. Objects fall from shelves. Pictures fall off walls. Furniture moves. Plaster in walls might crack. Trees and bushes shake. Damage is slight in poorly built buildings. No structural damage.
- (V) Atmore, Flomaton, Frisco City and Century
- Almost everyone feels movement. Sleeping people are awakened. Doors swing open or close. Dishes are broken. Pictures on the wall move. Small objects move or are turned over. Trees might shake. Liquids might spill out of open containers
- (IV) McDavid, Molino and Walnut Hill
- Most people indoors feel movement. Hanging objects swing. Dishes, windows, and doors rattle. The earthquake feels like a heavy truck hitting the walls. A few people outdoors may feel movement. Parked cars rock.
Pictured below: The U.S. Geological Survey installed a seismic monitoring station just north of Brewton following the 1997 earthquake.
Felony Child Abuse Charge Dropped As Unfounded Against Cantonment Woman
March 8, 2019
A felony child abuse charge against a Cantonment woman has been dropped.
The State Attorney’s Office dropped the charge against Marshall Gage Gilley after the Florida Department of Children and Families found the case was unfounded. The SAO said further investigation into the facts and circumstances of the incident failed to find sufficient evidence to charge a crime.
The child told deputies that Gilley slammed on brakes several times in an attempt to make him hit his head on the dash and head-butted him, but DCF’s findings did not support the claim.
Sunny Friday, Thunderstorms For The Weekend
March 8, 2019
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 73. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
Friday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 58. South wind around 5 mph.
Saturday: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 75. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
Saturday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Areas of fog after midnight. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low around 65. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light south after midnight.
Sunday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. Light south wind increasing to 5 to 10 mph in the morning.
Sunday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 62. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
Monday: A 50 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph.
Monday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers. Cloudy, with a low around 59. Calm wind becoming northeast around 5 mph.
Tuesday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 76.
Tuesday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 61.
Wednesday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 78.
Wednesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 64.
Thursday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 76.
After Approving $2 Billion In Projects For Bond Agency, Century Wants A Larger Fee
March 8, 2019
Over the past 20 years, the Town of Century has served an integral role in the tax-exempt financing about $2 billion worth of projects, including affordable housing projects, airport facilities, hotel and convention developments promoting tourism, health care projects, and K-12 educational buildings.
It’s a role that has provided significant income for Century.
On the surface it might seem unlikely that Century, the poorest small city in the state, could play a part in the financing of dozens of multi-million projects including the Community Maritime Park in Pensacola, $439 million in hotel and convention centers for the Seminole Nation, airport cargo terminals, schools and apartment complexes.
The approvals were granted by Century and Gulf Breeze as members of the Capital Trust Agency, an independent public body for the purpose of financing or otherwise accomplishing development programs. Century entered into the Capital Trust Agency with Gulf Breeze in 1999 with Century essentially serving as the “second signature” for CTA, certifying that the projects meet a public purpose under IRS rules and regulations.
The CTA is structured in such a way to indemnify Century from any financial risk, whether it be from a company that defaults on repayment or any other legal liabilities, according to Michael Stebbins, CTA attorney. The funds used for the bonds are from the CTA’s funds, not from Century or Gulf Breeze.
Century has received over $1 million dollars in fees since signing on to CTA.
This week, Mayor Henry Hawkins said Century should have received a fee increase at some point during the past two decades, and he wants more for the town.
Since the inception of the agreement, Century has been paid $350 after closing for each million dollars of bonds issued, with a minimum of $2,500.
After discussions with Hawkins, the CTA has proposed:
- Increasing the minimum fee to $3,500.
- $400 per million for transactions of $50 million or less, a 14 percent increase
- For transactions exceeding $50 million – $400 per million up to $50 million, then $325 for each additional million
During the last three fiscal years, Century received $323,873.75 in fees from CTA. Under the proposed new fee schedule, the town would have received $351,711.80, which would have been a $27,838.05 or 5.9 percent increase.
“I am hopeful this more than fulfills the expectations of the Century officials in realizing an increase in income for the town. Far more important to realizing greater income than some percentage fee increase is the need to maintain the market reputation enjoyed by CTA for being responsive,” CTA Executive Director Ed Gray said in a February 22 email to Hawkins.
The town council was set to hear two CTA bond proposals at their February 18 meeting for up to $25.5 million for charter schools in Holleywood and St. Cloud, FL. Those proposals were pulled from the council’s agenda without explanation and not heard.
But they were addressed in Gray’s February 22 emailed correspondence to Hawkins.
“I urge you and the Town Council to immediately reinstate for action the financing now submitted for the council agenda. With this proposal now before you, I am demonstrating my good intentions to work positively with you. Removing the item previously scheduled for consideration isn’t the type action one would expect from its partner and can be damaging to CTA’s reputation. Your help in addressing this situation will be appreciated,” Gray said.
The council did sign off on both bond issues at their March 4 meeting, during which the new fee schedule was proposed. Council members expressed concern that they had not been provided a copy of Gray’s letter letter in a time fashion because it had been sent a week and a half earlier by the mayor.
Pictured above: Capital Trust Agency attorney Michael Stebbins (far left) and Denis McKinnon III, CTA senior analyst and compliance officer (second from left), address the Century Town Council. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Prep Softball, Baseball: Wins For Tate, Northview, Jay; Glodfelter Throws No-Hitter For Tate
March 8, 2019
SOFTBALL
Northview 10, Chipley 0 (5 innings)
Northview 8, Chipley 1 (JV)
Jay 12, Baker 2
Jay 14, Baker 0 (JV)
BASEBALL
Tate 4, Pine Forest 3
Tate 14, Pine Forest 0 (JV)
The Tate Aggie swept two from Pine Forest Thursday.
Tate’s varsity team took a four-run lead in the fourth inning and held on for a 4-3 win over the Pine Forest Eagles. Raymond Lafleur earned the win for the Aggies, giving up zero runs in five innings while walking one and striking out 12. Easter Sidner and Brantley Culbertson closed the win in relief. Tate’s Mason Land homered in the third inning. He went 2-3, 2R, RBI, 2B. Also for Tate: Hunter McLean 1-3, Darrien McDowell 1-3, R, RBI; Kaden King 1-3, R; Cole Fryman 1-3; Jadon Fryman 1-2, RBI.
Tate’s junior varsity shut out Pine Forest 10-0.
Tate 10, Pace 0 (Freshman)
In freshman action, Tate’s Josiah Glodfelter threw a no-hitter with 12 strikeouts and no walks as Tate beat Pace 10-0.
For Tate freshmen: Warren Henke 3-4, 2R, 3RBI, 2B; Jaxson Stafford 2-3, 2R, RBI; Saxon Hill 1-1, R, RBI; Joshia Glodfelter 1-3, RBI, 2B; Paul Whitson 1-3, 2RBI, 2B; Kirk Mosley R; Dagan Guy 1-3, 2R, RBI, 2B; Tucker Griffin 2-2, 2R.
Northview 9, Excel 4
Excel 3, Northview 1 (JV)
Saturday: Free Cops & Kids Spring Picnic, Opening Day At Molino Ballpark
March 8, 2019
ECSO COPS & KIDS SPRING FESTIVAL
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office will host their Cops & Kids Spring Festival Saturday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at Ashton Brosnaham Park.
There will be games and prizes, a bigger and better obstacle course and free food. There will also be demonstrations and a chance to meet K-9, SWAT, Mounted Posse and their horses, Escambia Fire Rescue, Escambia County EMS, ESAR and more.
Crime scene and evidence units will have demonstrations and “Color with a Cop”, and fingerprinting will be available with parent or guardian permission. Computer crimes will have a table with information about issues affecting parents and kids with today’s technology. The ECSO DUI Unit will have a course set-up for adults and teens to learn the effects of driving while impaired by wearing impaired goggles while driving a pedal cart.
MOLINO BALLPARK OPENING DAY
Saturday is Opening Day at the Molino Ballpark. There will be games, a variety of food, arts, crafts and much more from team booths. The family fun day will have lots of T-ball, baseball and softball to watch. Opening ceremonies are at 9 a.m., and games begin shortly after.
There are 27 teams at Molino Ballpark this year.
Pictured: Last year’s Cops & Kids Spring Festival at Ashton Brosnaham Park. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
ECUA To Continue 900 Acre Prescribed Burn In Gonzalez
March 8, 2019
The Emerald Coast Utilities Authority (ECUA) will continue prescribed burn operations on about 900 acres of ECUA property in the vicinity of the Central Water Reclamation Facility (CWRF) in Gonzalez through Saturday.
The burn activities will begin about 9 a.m and are a part of ECUA’s management plan for the ecological restoration of forest lands at the CWRF site.
The ECUA’s CWRF property is in the Gonzalez community and mostly lies south of Becks Lake Road, west of the Escambia River. A small amount of ECUA’s property north of Becks Lake Road will be included in this prescribed burn operation.
Pictured top: Smoke from ECUA’s prescribed burn Thursday, as seen from the Magnolia Lakes Estates neighborhood over two miles away. Reader submitted hoto by Kayla Boutwell for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
T.C. Venom Holding Free Football Spring Scrimmage Game Saturday In Century
March 8, 2019
Century’s new T.C. Venom minor league football team will hold a free Spring Scrimmage Game this Saturday.
The game will kickoff at 10 a.m. at Anthony Pleasant Park, and admission is free. Fans will be able to meet the players.
The Venom will play four homes games in Century as the newest team in the Amateur to Professional Development Football League, the AFDFL.
The APDFL is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to the promotion and advancement of adult minor league football teams throughout the Southeast, according to their website. Players are between the ages of 18 and 30 looking to obtain a second chance of reaching their college or professional football dreams. The APDFL provides these athletes a place to improve their football skills and a platform to showcase their talents by attracting scouts from the collegiate and professional levels.
T.C. Venom Home Schedule
Sat Mar 23 — Steel City Raptors — Century, 7 p.m.
Sat Mar 30 — Crescent City Kings — Century, 7 p.m.
Sat Apr 6 — Greater Pensacola Jets — Century, 7 p.m.
Sat May 11 — Florida Phoenix — Century, FL, TBD
Florida Senate Signs Off On Smokable Marijuana
March 8, 2019
Bowing to a demand by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a measure that would allow patients to smoke medical marijuana if doctors deem it the proper treatment.
Under the proposal, patients could buy up to 2.5 ounces of medical pot during a 35-day period and would be able to possess up to 4 ounces of cannabis at any given time. Smoking of medical cannabis — which would have to be purchased from state-authorized operators — would be banned in public places. And patients under age 18 would be allowed to smoke the treatment only if they are terminally ill and have a second opinion from a board-certified pediatrician.
The Senate’s 34-4 vote in favor of the measure (SB 182) came two days after the start of the 2019 legislative session, and the House is expected to take up the measure Wednesday.
“We have been working around the clock, with our colleagues in the House and with the governor’s office, to come up with a consensus product. I think we have done that,” Sen. Jeff Brandes, the bill’s sponsor, said in an interview Thursday.
The quick legislative action comes in response to an ultimatum delivered by the Republican governor shortly after he took office in January. DeSantis gave the Legislature until March 15 to address the smoking ban. If they don’t act, DeSantis threatened to drop the state’s appeal of a court decision that found the prohibition violates a constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana.
The smoking ban was included in a 2017 law aimed at carrying out the amendment, approved by more than 71 percent of voters in 2016.
Cathy Jordan, a plaintiff in the case, credits a daily regimen of smoking marijuana with keeping her alive decades after doctors predicted she would die from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Jordan, who grows her own pot and who is highly regarded by pot advocates nationwide, testified last year that smoking marijuana treats a variety of life-threatening side effects of the disease and that other forms of ingestion don’t have the same positive impact.
Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican who has long advocated for medical marijuana, praised the soft-spoken Jordan’s tireless efforts to get the Legislature to sign off on smokable medical cannabis.
“Every year, she comes up and she would visit us,” Brandes said. “Cathy Jordan was a champion.”
Several Republican lawmakers, however, bristled at the idea of legalizing smokable pot, which Sen. Kelli Stargel of Lakeland called a dangerous “gateway drug.”
The proposal requires the state university system’s Board of Governors to designate a university to house a “Consortium for Medical Marijuana Clinical Outcomes Research” and would steer $1.5 million each year to fund the research, which would be based on data submitted by doctors.
But Sen. Keith Perry, R-Gainesville, said that doing away with the ban defies common sense because of the well-known negative health effects of smoking.
“I guess we could take any medication and now say why don’t we smoke any medication? There’s lots of medications out there, and I think we ought to open it up to that, unless we think there’s something wrong with that,” he said. “The research needs to be done before we implement it, not afterwards.”
But Sen. Rob Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican who has been instrumental in passage of the state’s medical marijuana laws, argued the legislation erects “reasonable guiderails” that would be lacking if the governor drops the court appeal.
“It’s time to move this discussion from Tallahassee to doctors’ offices around the state of Florida,” he said.
But Bradley, a former prosecutor, also challenged doctors to take the issue seriously.
“This is a medicine. Treat it as such,” he said. “Make sure when you make your decisions with your patients that you do so in their health, in their best interest, and not turn this into some kind of joke.”
The newly inaugurated DeSantis appeared at a news conference Jan. 17 with Orlando lawyer John Morgan, who largely bankrolled the 2016 constitutional amendment, to deliver an unambiguous ultimatum about eliminating the smoking ban, saying the “sword of Damocles” was hanging over the head of legislative leaders.
“We have to comply with the Constitution. I am not going to fight these lawsuits when we are on the losing side of them. So if they continue to do a bill that’s constitutional, then we will move on,” DeSantis, a Harvard Law School graduate, told reporters Tuesday.
Senate President Bill Galvano, however, is among those who believe the ban does not violate the constitutional amendment, which does not specifically state that smoking of medical marijuana is allowed.
“I think we were right when we interpreted the amendment the way it was interpreted … but the world we find ourselves in is where the courts disagreed with us. That’s how it works, and we have respect for the courts and respect for the Constitution that we’ve sworn to uphold. So we’ve done what I think is taking some reasonable steps in meeting the requirements of both,” the Bradenton Republican told reporters after Thursday’s floor session.
If the House approves the bill and DeSantis signs it into law as expected, it’s unclear how long it will take for smokable pot to become available to patients.
State health officials would still have to craft rules regulating smokable marijuana. And DeSantis has yet to appoint a Department of Health secretary, who also serves as the state’s surgeon general.
The state’s largest medical marijuana operator, Trulieve, is prepared to offer whole-plant products to patients “as soon as all rules and approvals are in place,” the company said in a news release following passage of the bill.
“Though we do not have an exact date for when these rules will be in place, we understand patients’ urgency in getting immediate access to this form of medicine and are working to be as prepared as possible for when approvals are granted,” the Quincy-based company said in a statement.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
USGS Increases Magnitude of Jay Earthquake To 2.7, Moves Epicenter Closer To Century
March 7, 2019
Story updated to reflect new information from the USGS with increased magnitude, location closer to Century.
A magnitude 2.7 earthquake was reported last night just outside Jay.
According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake was centered 2.6 miles west-southwest of Jay at 10:45 p.m.. The epicenter was near the intersection of Nelsontown Road and Shell Road
At a magnitude 2.7, light shaking can be felt, but damage typically does not occur, according to the USGS..
Multiple NorthEscambia.com readers reported feeling the shake. Many reported their entire house shaking and items rattling.