Tornado knocks out power in Florida town
APALACHICOLA, Florida (AP) -- This seaside town was without power Saturday after a tornado tore through the area, damaging nearly 50 buildings and slightly injuring two people, authorities said.
Some residents could have power restored Saturday, said Butch Baker, Franklin County's emergency management director.
"The best case scenario would be midnight, and that may not be all over the entire town," Baker said.
By Saturday evening, George E. Weems Hospital had reopened its lab using generator power; workers covered the roof with tarps and the broken windows with boards.
American Red Cross damage assessors said three homes were destroyed and 43 were damaged in Friday afternoon's tornado.
Baker said eyewitnesses confirmed it was a tornado that struck the town of 2,500, about 65 miles southwest of Tallahassee.
"It was like a black wall," Helen Reese, an admission clerk at George E. Weems Memorial Hospital, told The News Herald of Panama City. "It was coming right at us. It was a horrible noise."
The twister damaged the roofs of an elementary school, Baker said.
