We talked to Escambia County Emergency Management Director over the past few days about how Tropical Storm Gordon would effect our area. We put a lot of trust in Adams because he's getting his information from the horse's mouth and not off of Facebook or Social Media.
We've seen Adams when he gets concerned and we pay attention. He pretty much nailed Gordon – lots of rain and nothing more.
We began receiving calls Tuesday as Jay High School and Northview High Schools were shutting down at noon in preparation of the storm. Why wasn't Escambia County (Ala.) closing schools? That was the question we kept getting. But it was apples and oranges, the school shutdowns in Jay and Northview were due to shutdowns of the Santa Rosa and Escambia County (Fla.) school districts that have schools close to the Gulf Coast.
We talked with Escambia County (Ala.) School Superintendent John Knott about his plans. He told us he would make a decision about Wednesday before schools got out Tuesday. He made the right call. Yes, there was more rain than we anticipated and some buses may have been delayed, but at no time were students' lives in danger.
The thing we like about Adams' assessments of pending storms is he keeps a realistic look on the facts before he opens his mouth. He doesn't want to panic anyone like some of the TV weather people like to do. If you listened to some of the TV accounts coming out of Mobile and Pensacola Tuesday you would have thought we were about to face Ivan II.
We asked Adams Wednesday about Hurricane Florence and at least two tropical waves in the Atlantic.
He gave the right answers – it's still too early to tell whether those storms will effect us, but we all need to keep an eye on the storms.
You can rest assured that if Adams felt any of these storms posed a major threat to our area he would be telling us very loudly.
We are in the height of hurricane season and we've got disturbances in the Atlantic. Keep an eye on these storms and take precautions as necessary based on facts, not fear.
