Storm disaster recovery plans to be released by Jackson County commissioners

Last week, a tornado ripped through Florida Caverns RV Resort park in Marianna, Florida. Erwin Jackson has owned the RV resort for years and has looked after it while living in Tallahassee.

Jackson says his resort was a popular attraction with tourists. The park sits off U.S. Highway 90 and Interstate 10. It was home to over a dozen RV spots, cabins, cave diving, and lake activities.

WFSU visited the site, just 24 hours after the storm made its passing, and the campground was covered in debris and rubble.

“It’s a terrible feeling,” said Jackson. “To spend five years of your life building something, creating something really neat, for it to take about two to three minutes before it’s all destroyed.”

Traces of the storm continue to affect people in the area

Jackson County commissioners held a meeting on January 12th, to discuss the storm’s damage and the cost to repair it.

“It’s estimated that there will be about 100,000 cubic yards of debris from the storm,” Keith Maddox, the county’s emergency management director said.

Commissioners began exploring their options before the holiday break, whether to take up the job in-house, private companies, or going through the state.

“It is estimated the total debris removal efforts will cost $2.5 million. Of that cost, $1.5 million to $2 million will be debris removal cost and about $350,00 will be monitoring cost.”

The county predicts the removal process will take anywhere from five to seven weeks to complete—but Jackson’s RV park will have to wait. Jackson says he’s still in an uphill battle from another storm that hit six years ago.

“I still haven’t been paid for my damage from Hurricane Michael,” said Jackson. “Maybe they’ll find a way to pay me for my hurricane damage so that I can use that money to pay for my tornado damage.”

In the face of recent events, the community is banding together to get things back to normal. The local Salvation Army went to Jackson County this week to pass out supplies to residents who were affected by the storm.