TROPICAL STORM HERMINE PRESS RELEASE 1
WALTON COUNTY ISSUES LOCAL STATE OF EMERGENCY: WEATHER ALERTS AND OPERATIONS UPDATES FOR TROPICAL STORM HERMINE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: August 31, 2016
For More Information Contact:
Louis Svehla at 850-951-7101
DeFuniak Springs, FL…The Walton County Board of County Commissioners, in conjunction with the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, Board of Education and other Constitutional Offices has issued a local state of emergency in response to the impending weather event to be caused by Tropical Storm Hermine.
Walton County is currently under a Tropical Storm Warning and a Hurricane Watch.
As part of the local state of emergency, the following actions have been taken:
- Walton County Emergency Management has issued a mandatory evacuation for all locations that fall within Evacuation Zone A (Low lying coastal areas and manufactured homes/trailer) beginning at 7:00am Thursday, September 1st. To find your locations evacuation zone, please visit http://evaclookup.waltoncountyem.org
- Walton County Emergency Management has opened an Evacuation Shelter for the general population and those with special medical needs. The shelter will be opened at 7:00am on Thursday, September 1st and will be located at Freeport High School at 12615 U.S. 331 Business in Freeport. The shelter will not accept pets, other than service animals, and other arrangements should be made.
- Walton County Schools will be closed on Thursday, September 1st and Friday, September 2nd. At this time, all extracurricular activities have been cancelled for Thursday, September 1st. A decision about extracurricular activities on Friday, September 2nd will be made at a later date as the storm is monitored.
- All Walton County Government Offices will be open on Thursday, September 1st. Decisions on possible governmental office closings will be made at a later time as we continue to monitor the storm.
- The Walton County Design Review Board meeting scheduled for Thursday, September 1st has been cancelled.
- The beaches of Walton County are currently under red flag conditions. Red flags relay that the beach is a high hazard area and that rip currents, high surf, strong currents and or other hazardous situations exist.
It is anticipated that as the storm arrives, Double Red Flags will be posted symbolizing that the waters are closed to the public.
- Walton County Public Works has one location open for sandbags at the Blue Mountain Pit-1002 83S. (Old Blue Mountain Road). It is open from 6:00am until 4:30pm. There is a limit of 25 sandbags per household. Please bring your own shovel.
- The Walton County Emergency Operations Center will upgrade Level 2 – Partial Activation beginning at 6:00am on Thursday, September 1st
For important update, please monitor the Walton County Emergency Management Page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/WaltonCountyEM/. Users do not have to be members of Facebook or have an active account to view the page.
IMPORTANT WEATHER INFORMATION FOLLOWS:
* At 5pm EDT Wednesday, the center of Tropical Storm Hermine was located about 335 miles south of Pensacola, or approximately 350 miles west of Naples, Florida.
* After a slow north movement today, the storm is now moving north-northeast around 7mph. This motion is expected to continue along with a faster forward movement tonight and Thursday.
* Maximum sustained winds have increased to 45 mph with higher gusts. Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 36 hours and could be near hurricane strength just prior to landfall.
* Walton County could start receiving sustained winds of approximately 45 mph beginning at 5:00pm on Thursday, September 1st and receive approximately 5 inches of rain.
* It is important to understand that projected impacts could change based upon the actual track of the storm.
