The watch area for Hurricane Michael includes the Florida Panhandle and the Big Bend area. Where are they?
The Panhandle is better known as the long portion of western Florida between the Alabama border and the Gulf of Mexico, from Pensacola to Tallahassee.
The Panhandle overlaps with the Big Bend area, which extends from the Gulf Coast near Apalachicola over to Lake City near the Georgia border and I-75. The coastal area of Big Bend largely follows U.S. 98, from just east of Apalachicola to just north of Tampa. It extends, according to Visit Florida, from the Ocklockonee River near Apalachee Bay, then southeast and down the west coast of Florida to Anclote Key.
The Florida Panhandle, the northwestern portion of Florida so-named, according to tradition, because it's shaped like a handle, such as a handle for a pan. The region includes the part of western Florida that is in the Central Time Zone. Tallahassee, the capital, is the Eastern Time Zone. Panama City is Central time. It’s also home to popular and scenic beaches, including Destin and Panama City Beach, and the 30A tourist region, along Scenic Highway 30A.
Big Bend, aptly named for its long curved coast, may get particular attention as Hurricane Michael approaches. The curved coastline in the Big Bend area may be more likely to have higher storm surge, according to an Associated Press article.
Longtime AJC readers may know the Big Bend area for its proximinity to Dog Island, the favorite coastal escape of Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist and writer Celestine Sibley, who had a beach home there. Dog Island is just off the coast between Carabelle and Apalachicola in Franklin County. Sibley was buried on Dog Island after she died in 1999.
Further southeast, the state of Florida operates the Big Bend Seagrasses Aquatic Preserve, which was established in 1985.
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