'All hell broke loose': Marianna residents pick up pieces after tornado upends campground

MARIANNA — Kevin Keene knew a big storm was coming.

After checking the weather radar before dawn Tuesday from his camper at the Florida Caverns RV Resort, he made the fateful decision to take shelter with his three sons inside the campground’s concrete block clubhouse.

An hour or so later, as a likely tornado descended on the campground, they huddled together as tree limbs and metal debris slammed into the sides of building.

“The scariest thing was the possibility of the windows coming in and the roof lifting up on us — worst case scenario the building basically coming open,” he said.

In Marianna, seven people were taken to the hospital, the Sheriff's Office said Wednesday. Two suffered critical injuries and the other five minor injuries.

'Everything is just destroyed'

When the storm passed a couple of minutes later, Keene and others who had been staying at the RV park emerged to find the campgrounds in ruin and their motor homes and campers reduced to hulking piles of twisted metal — with some people pinned inside the wreckage.

Peter Salter was still inside his RV when the tornado hit the campground, located on the picturesque Merritt’s Mill Pond on Highway 90 just east of downtown Marianna.

“All hell broke loose,” said Salter. “My motor home started shaking big time and rising, and I was just talking to it telling her to hold on.”

He said he was concerned about losing only one item — his prosthetic leg — as the tornado ripped through the park. The devastation was shocking even for Salter, who lived on a yacht for 20 years and survived Hurricanes Sandy and Isabel.

“When I looked outside and I saw all this, I said, ‘Oh my God,’ ” he told the Democrat. “Everything is just destroyed.”

Jackson County Sheriff Donald Edenfield said the twister was one of two or three that hit Jackson County on Tuesday morning, part of a severe weather outbreak that left a trail of destruction from Panama City through Georgia and the Carolinas.

“When we first responded here, there were approximately seven to eight members that were camping here that were trapped inside their campers that we had to rescue and cut out ... with saws," he said.

At least three people were killed in the storms, according to media reports, including an 81-year-old woman whose mobile home in Cottonwood, Alabama, was hit by a tornado. The other fatalities occurred in Atlanta and Clarement, North Carolina.

Wright Dobbs, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, said the damage at the RV park was caused by a “likely” tornado and that survey crews were in the field Wednesday to confirm that. The Weather Service was also looking into whether another possible tornado that damaged the Graceville area in Jackson County was the same one that struck Cottonwood, Alabama.

'This was all beautiful yesterday'

The storm obliterated the laundromat at the campground, peeled the roof off the gas station and restaurant and damaged or destroyed a number of one-bedroom park models and mini-cottages, some recently purchased, said Erwin Jackson, a Tallahassee businessman who owns the property formerly known as Arrowhead campground.

Jackson bought the campground in early October 2018, just days before Hurricane Michael brought unprecedented destruction to the Florida Panhandle and Jackson County in particular. The hurricane caused $2.5 million in damage to the campground, but Jackson invested significant sums rebuilding and renovating, paying the last bill Monday.

“This was all beautiful yesterday,” Jackson said as he walked the property. “We actually had more damage with this than with Hurricane Michael. It’s unbelievable.”

The tornado knocked down large pines, one just missing the clubhouse where Keene and his sons took refuge, and left power lines and debris across about the property.

Jackson said crews would remove debris from fallen trees over the next couple of days and that the campground could be back in business within a week or so once power is restored. Just as he did after Michael, he said he plans to rebuild.

“There’s only one damn way and that’s forward,” he said.

Keene and others staying at the campground spent the day trying to salvage what was left of their belongings. His trailer camper was flattened, with appliances and electronics wiped out. But his wife, luckily, was out of town in the family’s pickup truck, leaving it unscathed.

“I have some things in here that I hate to see get destroyed,” Keene said. “But the important thing is I decided to bring my kids out and go stay in the building during the storm. So the fact that I did that makes this seem like nothing.”

'That's our whole life right there'

Megan Bollman and Matthew King, who were staying in their RV just a few slots from Salter, said they had only moments to decide whether to seek shelter as the tornado arrived.

Racing to the campsite’s restrooms, the two hunkered down with their two dogs just in time before the wailing winds passed over them. They emerged to find their RV destroyed and their possessions in tatters. Sifting through the rubble, they tried to save anything they could.

“I don’t know why I grabbed that pillow, it’s trash” Bollman said with a faint chuckle as she tossed it onto the ground with countless other items, from stuffed animals to Christmas ornaments. They were able to save a few clothes, but Bollman said her wallet got sucked out of her car and King was searching for his missing birth certificate.

“We just moved down here while we’re trying to find a house — that’s our whole life right there,” Bollman said of the pile that once was their home.

Sheriff Edenfield said a number of the storm victims were staying at temporary shelters set up at First Baptist Church on Green Street and Chipola Family Ministries on Highway 71. Others, including the Keenes, were planning to stay with nearby family.

Edenfield marveled at the damage, which left some buildings intact and others in splinters.

“It’s something you don’t expect,” he said. “After Hurricane Michael, not much would shock you. But still you hate to see anyone’s life or property destroyed. But again, out of all of this, with no fatalities, it’s a blessing.”

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180. Elena Barrera can be reached at ebarrera@tallahassee.com. Follow her on X: @elenabarreraaa.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida tornado victims: Marianna campground residents pick up pieces