Hurricane Earl (1998)

Earl, which formed over the southwest Gulf of Mexico on August 31, 1998, made landfall near Panama City, Florida, around 1 a.m. CDT (0600 UTC) on September 3 as a Category 1 hurricane with 70-knot (81 mph) winds and a pressure of 987 mb.¹ Its strongest winds stayed well east and southeast of the center, so the highest storm surge struck Florida's Big Bend, far from the landfall point.¹

NHC estimated surge near 8 feet in Franklin, Wakulla, Jefferson and Taylor counties and 6 to 7 feet in Dixie County.¹ The Cape San Blas C-MAN station near Apalachicola measured gusts to 61 knots (70 mph).¹ Rain totaled 16.38 inches near Panama City and 12.46 inches at the Panama City airport.¹ In Bay County, freshwater flooding damaged 1,049 homes, three businesses and 50 other structures and destroyed three homes, with up to 5 feet of water inside homes in one Panama City Beach subdivision.² Wind and flooding damaged 300 homes in Gulf County, and surge flooding damaged 14 businesses in Port St. Joe.² Surge flooding affected 136 homes and 15 businesses in Franklin County, wind and coastal flooding damaged 216 homes and businesses in Wakulla County, and coastal flooding destroyed five homes and damaged 39 in Dixie County.²

On September 3, an F2 tornado from an outer band of Earl, starting 6 miles northeast of Crystal River in Citrus County, destroyed a house and seven mobile homes, caused minor damage to 24 more homes and mobile homes, and injured two people.³ NHC counts three direct deaths, two in a boat that capsized off Panama City and one from a tornado near St. Helena, South Carolina, and estimates total US damage at $79 million.¹