Walton County officials have declared the county to be in a State of Emergency after heavy rainfall caused significant flooding and damages to area roadways and bridges. Okaloosa County has also sustained some damages,but there have been no evacuations.
“This is an extraordinary rain,” said Russell Beaty, Walton County’s emergency management coordinator. “We typically can handle a good deluge. I don’t know that we’ve ever seen anything quite like this in recent history.”
Officials with Walton County Emergency Management met Friday morning and declared a local State of Emergency.
"What this means is we're heightening our awareness," said Louis Svehla, public information officer for Walton County. "By resolution, the State of Emergency will be in effect until 10 a.m. next Friday."
Updates on road closures began early Thursday and continued to come in Friday. More than 60 roads and bridges in the area were closed as a result of the rain.
Beaty said a washout on County Road 3280 south of State Road 20 has closed the road indefinitely. He said a portion of State Road 81 north of SR 20 also has been damaged and likely will be closed for the time being.
Randy McDaniel, Okaloosa County’s emergency management director, said officials have alerted residents of the possible need to leave their homes. As of Friday morning, McDaniel said no one in Okaloosa County has had to be evacuated because of flooding.
“This is something we see every year with these tropical systems,” McDaniel said. “We’re monitoring the rivers throughout the area while the rain continues.”
Crestview had received 5.8 inches of rain as of Thursday while Destin got 3.62 inches, according to the National Weather Service. Walton County had rain measuring from 10.22 inches to 17.44 inches nearer the coast.
Okaloosa and Walton counties are under a flash flood warning through Sunday.
“We don’t know anything official, but those numbers (for Walton County) probably does break some records,” said meteorologist Katie Moore with the National Weather Service in Tallahassee. “It was quite significant, and unfortunately there will probably be another 2 to 3 inches and still some possible storms to come.”
Jack Cullens, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mobile, Ala., said similar rain patterns are expected through the weekend.
A deep tropical moisture plume coming from the central and southern Gulf of Mexico is bringing the wet weather. Cullens said. He said that there is a high pressure system to the east of Northwest Florida and a low pressure system to the west.
“Between the two areas there is extremely moist air,” Cullens said. “With that much moisture it takes very little heat to get you showers and thunderstorms. This same pattern is expected to stay in place until Monday or Tuesday.”