In Panama City, Ida practically a non-factor

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. – It wouldn’t be accurate to call the Gulf angry as what used to be Hurricane Ida made its presence known here Monday afternoon.

“Mildly annoyed” may have been a more apt description.

The wind and the push from the storm was enough to kick up the surf off Front Beach Road and bring out the double red flags. A handful of adventure seekers with surfboards ventured into the ocean at their own risk while a few onlookers watched them paddle through the crashing waves.

Meanwhile, news of Ida barely registered on the radar of the locals here and in nearby Panama City.

“It’s hard for me to get excited about a storm in the middle of November,” said Mitch Holman, who owns the Capt’s Table restaurant on Beck Avenue in Panama City.

Hurricanes aren’t impossible in November, but they are rare. However, according to the National Weather Service, only four November hurricanes have made landfall in the continental United States since 1900, the last one being Kate in 1985, a major storm that caused more than $300 million in damage.

But usually, the Gulf waters aren’t warm enough to fuel a major storm, and Ida appears to be another example. The television inside the Capt’s Table stayed on ESPN during the lunch hour. Ida didn’t even merit a turn to the Weather Channel.

“I saw there was a big line at the gas station this morning and I thought ‘Am I missing something? Everyone is getting gas’,” he said.

Holman has owned the restaurant for eight years. His parents owned a beachside restaurant for 30 years before that and weathered some doozies. Holman said Hurricane Opal, which made landfall in early October of 1995, was the only storm that ever flooded their Panama City Beach home.

John and Myrtle Holloway of Panama City Beach finished lunch at the Capt’s Table and said they didn’t expect much from Ida.

“We’re always the last ones out if we have to leave,” Myrtle Holloway said. “John hates to fight the traffic.”

But no one expected to leave town for Ida, a welcome relief for a panhandle battered by storms for three years in a row. Then, as the area tried to build back, it suffered another blow when the economy tanked last year.

“We’ve been fortunate,” Holman said. “Our customers are both locals and tourists. A lot of folks, though, on the beach, are not seeing as much traffic.”