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Hospitals, shelters battered in Pensacola area

Parts of Interstate-10 are missing. Emergency response is curtailed until the storm passes late this morning.

PENSACOLA -- As daylight broke in Escambia County and damage was visible, would be rescuers still could not respond due to hurricane force winds that were expected to last until 10 a.m. local time in Pensacola and until noon through the northern part of the county.

Portions of both the east and westbound spans of Interstate 10 over Escambia Bay were missing this morning, Escambia sheriff's officials reported. The bridge connects Escambia County with Santa Rosa County to the east. Highway 90, near Pace, also had structural damage.

Other damage reports were limited as phone lines to the county Emergency Operations Center as well as mobile communications to the sheriff's department both went out about 8 a.m. Officials did know that the emergency room at Baptist Hospital was non-operational due to the storm.

Gary Straughan, the county's Emergency Management Systems operations chief, said they feared significant injuries based on 900 calls to 911 during the night.

Straughan said the majority of the calls came from the southern end of the county. Call from diabetics and oxygen users afraid of running out of supplies as well as reports of trauma and chest pains went unanswered.

One death, due to a cardiac arrest, had been confirmed as of 10 a.m.

Police and emerency officials stopped responding to calls at 8:20 p.m. last night. When they finally can get out, it looks like county response teams would tackling problems alone for some time. All the bridges into Escambia County are closed.

County emergency operations director Michael Hardin told responders this morning about 8 a.m. ""We're not anywhere near checking on folks, we're trying to unbury ourselves.''

Tropical storm force winds were expected to last in the county until 7 p.m.

""We're all going to stress safety. We're not trying to be cowboys or cowgirls out there,'' Hardin said. ""But the sooner we can get out to assess the better.''

Starting about 8:30 a.m., Escambia County jail inmates in black and white stripes and yellow raincoats began clearing the carpet of roofing debris scattered over the parking lot of the Emergency Operations Center.