Most of Pensacola escapes Tuesday's severe weather unscathed, but a few weren't as lucky

Severe thunderstorms brought strong winds and heavy rain to the Pensacola area early Tuesday morning, but when the sun rose, it appeared that most of Pensacola had been left relatively unscathed by the raging storms.

But a few weren't as lucky.

Linda Cox and her husband recently moved to Pensacola from California and were awoken in the middle of the night by the loud crash of a tree falling on both their vehicles, destroying them.

"I'm used to earthquakes, and when the tree fell, we didn't know what it was," Cox said. "It felt like an earthquake. And my husband woke up and he said, 'What was that?' And I said, 'That felt like an earthquake,' and 'Do we have earthquakes in Florida?'"

The tree also knocked down a live power line at their home on 77th Avenue in Myrtle Grove causing a small fire before power could be turned off and the fire put out by Escambia County Fire Rescue.

Cox said they are now trying to figure out a way to remove the tree from their totaled cars.

"We just moved here, and we don't know anybody," Cox said. "I don't know how we're going to get rid of this tree."

As of Tuesday morning, there were no reports of any serious injury in the two counties with only two minor injuries reported to Escambia County officials from a tree falling on another home in Myrtle Grove.

Other major damage in Escambia County included a home along Gulf Beach Highway that had its roof completely ripped off, landing on a neighbor's house.

In Santa Rosa County, the Navarre Fishing Pier was closed Tuesday because of "extensive storm damage" caused by the wind and high surf.

Escambia County Emergency Manager Travis Tompkins told the News Journal on Tuesday morning that they were still assessing damage reports.

"We're going to have our damage assessment crews scouring the area and looking at the different reports that we get in from the Red Cross, from self-reporting, and calls that, if they come through dispatch, we'll check those out as well," Tompkins said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for nearly all of the counties in north and central Florida, including Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, as the line of storms continued eastward. The declaration allows for a faster state response to the situation.

Despite the damage, the Pensacola area came out well compared to the damage the storm caused in other communities like Panama City and Walton County.

"We really fared well with this," Tompkins said.

Related: Navarre Beach Fishing Pier closed due to 'extensive storm damage'

As the storm moved through, the National Weather Service issued two tornado warnings and five severe thunderstorm warnings for Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.

In the city of Pensacola, only minor damage was reported and no injuries, according to Pensacola Deputy Fire Chief Brock Jester.

"It was fortunately not near as bad as we thought it could have been," Jester said.

In an abundance of caution, K-12 schools in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties were closed Tuesday and many municipal offices, as well as the University of West Florida and Pensacola State College, opened in the afternoon. Normal operations are set to resume Wednesday.

While the weather will clear up for the next two days, Pensacola will be under the gun again as another round of severe weather is expected Friday.

Tompkins said they are preparing for that event as well.

"We've still got a couple of days, and we're looking at the weather reports," Tompkins said. "... As for this (Tuesday's) event, the timing was not quite where they thought it was going to be, but still, the School District made the definite right call on canceling schools. We would not have wanted buses and people out during those high gusts and everything else that we had coming in at five o'clock this morning."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia, Santa Rosa storm damage minimal despite high winds, surf