Gustav swats Emerald Coast from afar with flooding, tornado

The usual relaxation of Labor Day was overshadowed Monday as the outer bands of Hurricane Gustav reached the Emerald Coast.

Portions of Okaloosa County were under tornado warnings until just before 1 p.m. The area also received about two inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service.

Around 9:46 a.m. Eglin Air Force Base officials spotted the first of three funnel clouds moving from Choctawhatchee Bay and touched down on the runway at Okaloosa Regional Airport.

The funnel cloud tore through base housing, downing trees and power lines. One giant tree landed on a house.

No injuries were reported in the incident.

Eglin's Child Development Center sustained damage to its roof and to the playground.

"There were no children at the CDC," said Lois Walsh, base spokeswoman.

Numerous funnel clouds were reported across the area.

"All these funnel clouds we're seeing, they've mostly stayed aloft," said Lt. Joe Moffitt with Okaloosa County Emergency Medical Services. "I hope they continue to stay up. They're moving so fast, they just don't touch down."

The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Department and county emergency management placed double red flags on the beaches to keep swimmers out of the rough surf.

Water from the Gulf of Mexico lapped over U.S. Highway 98 Monday morning, closing an eastbound lane until around 1 p.m.

By mid-morning, public safety crews were busy locking down and taping off all of the beach accesses on Okaloosa Island. Many of them had been breached by the surf and were too dangerous to use, said Dino Villani, the county's public safety director.

"If you stepped off the boardwalk, you stepped into water," he said.

Villani said the closures were also in place to urge people to stay away from the water.

"They're down here to have fun or they've evacuated and they want to see the storm," he said. "We get concerned about the ones who ... get themselves into an area where they get in trouble."

The passing storms downed power lines and left some residents without electricity, but the outages were not widespread.

Around mid-day Monday, 506 Gulf Power customers in Okaloosa County were without electricity and 614 Santa Rosa customers were without power.

In Santa Rosa County, Madura Road near Tiger Point and Springhill Road at Coldwater Creek flooded and were barricaded by public works crews.

By mid-afternoon, weather conditions began improving.

"It's what we expected, being on the outer fringes of the storm," Villani said. "It's certainly nothing compared to what they're getting in Louisiana."