FORT PICKENS NATIONAL PARK STORM CLOSING

[NORM_WADDELL]

Fort Pickens, a national park campground south of Pensacola FL,
is closing due to a storm forming in the gulf. Campers are
being asked to leave by 5 p m today. This is because of fears
of the 7 mile road leading into the park being flooded, or
being covered by sand, which is an almost normal event in
that area. It may be closed for several days.

[MegaJohn]

jspringator wrote:
Does the Walmart on Blue Angel Blvd and the road to Perdido Key still permit overnights?

I don't know about the one on Blue Angel Blvd, but we've overnighted at the WalMart Supercenter on Gulf Breeze Pkwy (Gulf Breeze Marketplace) once and had no problems... of course we arrived after mid-night and pulled out before 9 the next morning.

The parking lot at the Walmart Neighborhood Market on Gulf Breeze Pkwy seemed kind of small for us to overnight.

Happy Camping!
John.

[reubenray]

Yep - we got the call after we decided to cancel. We did not want to be without a place to stay if they did not open until Sunday. One person we talked prior to canceling advised us to find an alternate place to stay.

[NORM_WADDELL]

Fort Pickens campground reopened to campers at 4 p m today,
according to T V Channel 3 news.

[reubenray]

Being we have not been able to talk to a real person we have decided to cancel out trip to Ft. Pickens. We was able to extend our stay at GSSP 4 more days.

[jspringator]

Does the Walmart on Blue Angel Blvd and the road to Perdido Key still permit overnights?

[reubenray]

I have been checking the update line all morning, but it still has not been updated. We are to be heading there tomorrow, so I need to find out something that is definite today. If it will be on Sunday I need to see if we can stay one more night at GSSP.

I will watch the Noon news on WEARTV to see if they mention it. I watched it this morning, but did not hear anything.

[travelnutz]

NORM WADDELL,

Hopefully they are moving the ferris wheel by truck to Atlanta and it's not the wind delivering it "immediately" to Atlanta. haha jk

[NORM_WADDELL]

Pensacola's newspaper has a photo of the road covered with
salt water......looks to be about 6 inches deep, for a
short distance. The newspaper states that the
road may be open by Sunday......t road
cleaning equipment is on site, waiting. Pensacola had
some winds of about 25 m p h, little rain, but high surf
of about 4 feet. Swimmers were being kept out of the
Gulf. (For those familiar with the beach area........the huge
Ferris wheel, which has been on the beach about a year,
is said to be moving immediately to Atlanta's Cetenial Park.)

[jspringator]

They haven't updated it since yesterday. The road remains closed.

[reubenray]

This is all good news. I will call the road info number tomorrow. I originally planned to going early Saturday morning, but may have to head there a little later (I hope).

[travelnutz]

We are not going to Fort Pickens but the OP should be commended for this thoughtful thread posting. I wish other members would be as helpful on this forum as to negative need to know and/or safety issues in their local areas. Thank you NORM WADDELL!

[Floridafrances]

I live about 2 miles East of the Park entrance. So far everything we've heard indicates they expect to be able to re-open the road by the weekend.

That one section of the road overwashes even with the really high tides of winter. They re-designed it after the last time it was washed away and so far it has held up well. The washing over leaves behind sand, but the road itself has been undamaged.

They will have equipment standing by to clear the road as soon as the water is gone. They don't want to keep things closed any longer than necessary.

Hope you all get to enjoy some of our beautiful weather as you had planned.

[NORM_WADDELL]

Fort Pickens has an information telephone number.....
giving updated recorded information about the road to
the campground..........850 934 2656.
The most recent recording says there is some sand on the
road.

[fla-gypsy]

It should not seriously impact that area. I would expect it to reopen quickly