gracie

You can check out my posts-- I have been a member since 2003 and I don't own any vacation property. I don't work in the tourist industry. (I am an assistant public defender. I have no dog in this fight. But, I do LIVE and WORK in Bay County, near Panama City Beach, Florida . I have lived in the Northwest Florida area since 1976.
As of today, May 14, 2010, we have no signs of oil spill, tar balls, or even a sheen in our area.
I went out on our boat in the Gulf of Mexico this past Sunday and drove for about 15 miles up and down the coast. My nephew was about 50 miles away in Destin this weekend. He took photos of the Gulf and the beaches -- no signs of oil in Walton County. Our water in Bay County is as crystal clear as ever and our beaches are as white as ever. My family ate fresh seafood from a local restaurant.
I cannot say what will happen two weeks from now, but for now, our beaches in Bay County remained undamaged.
If you want to read local news for Bay and Walton County, go to WJHG.com, WMBB.com or the Panama City News Herald. If you want news of Escambia and Okaloosa County, which are west of us, go to Pensacola News Journal.com or WEAR.com.

padams421

btt

Thanks Gracie.

Floridafran

Like gracie, I've been a Fodor's member for awhile (February 2004) and am not in the tourism business and don't own vacation property. (Unless you count my personal home which a number of friends and relatives treat as a free hotel which is fine with me.) I'm a licensed residential contractor. With business down and my husband newly retired we've had time to turn a hobby into second careers in art for both of us. And, like gracie, all I've tried to do is give people who have posted questions about how my area - Pensacola Beach - has been affected by the oil spill some honest answers.

As of today, we haven't see a tarball, an oil sheen, or any dead sealife. How long that will last is, to quote our governor, in God's hands. I spent over 2 hours walking along our beach yesterday, wading in the edge of the water while my husband surfed. I won't have a chance to do that this weekend since we're showing in a local arts festival. (I won't name it lest I be accused by some of advertising.) But if anything changes - such as tarballs suddenly washing ashore here - I'll post that. Right now, however, our beach is the same beautiful paradise that I fell in love with 30 years ago.

Gracie's advice on where to go to find local news is spot-on. Also NOAA has prediction maps on their web site that may be of interest.

Keep sending good thoughts that BP will get this leak stopped. Soon!

PeaceOut

I hope your lovely beaches can stay that way. Let's hope they can control this disaster.

321go

I'm over on the east coast. I'm also unaffiliated with the tourism industry, but I'm joining my fellow Floridians in promising to post if anything shows up in our area. The NOAA map that FloridaFran refers to is here:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/noaa-oil-map

askias

Thank you for keeping us all updated. If anyone has any information about Marco Island, I'd love to hear it. Thanks.

bkluvsNola

askias, Marco Island isn't forecasted to have any oil of any kind (including tarballs) for the foreseeable future. I believe Key West would get the effects prior to Marco Island due to the currents, but I'm not an oceanographer.

Florida Panhandle is clear until at least Wednesday of this week. Keep checking the noaa website to see where the current spill trajectory is forecasted.

Florida has dodged the bullet thus far, not so much in Louisiana. Heavy oil has been washing up in Grand Isle, LA for the past few days. They've been actively cleaning it as it washes up, but since the source hasn't been stopped, it's somewhat futile.

Winds are light and variable now so the spill will be guided not by the wind but by the currents, which are westerly along the Louisiana coast towards Texas.

askias

Thanks very much for the reply. We are going on our vacation and hoping for the best!

MomInFl

I'm checking in from the Clearwater area. Our family spent a great day boating in the beautiful waters of the gulf on Sunday. Interestingly, we watched a coast guard helicopter pass directly over us and later saw on the news that they were transporting "cleaned" birds from the oil spill to our area for release. I'm happy to report everything is still looking good here (for now?) but am deeply saddened by the damage elsewhere. Let's hope they get this nightmare under control soon.