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An 11-year-old boy whose family evacuated from Jacksonville inanticipation of Hurricane Ian’s arrival in Floridais dead after he fell from a condominium balcony in Panama City Beach.
On Friday, Panama City Beach communications director Debbie Ingram confirmed with PEOPLE that police received a call at 1:19 p.m. Eastern time Thursday “about a possible child falling off a balcony” at Sterling Reef Condominiums along the Gulf of Mexico.
Police, firefighters and other emergency responders found the child dead upon their arrival at the scene, Ingram told PEOPLE on Friday.
“His family was staying there at the hotel, at the condos,” Ingram told PEOPLE. “They had evacuated, I’m not sure exactly what day, but they had evacuated from the Jacksonville area.”
“What’s so heartbreaking about this is you have a family who’s already in dire straits and is worried about their home and protecting their family and then they come here for refuge and then this happens,” Ingram said. “So it’s just horrible. All of our hearts are broken.”
Ingram toldPanama City News Heraldon Thursday that no foul play is suspected and law enforcement officials are investigating the incident. The child’s body was turned over to medical examiners for further evaluations, Ingram told PEOPLE Friday.
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“I hate to warn anybody to watch their kids because something can happen in an instant and it’s just a tragedy,” she told PEOPLE.
The city of Jacksonville was not undermandatory evacuation orders that Florida issued to roughly 2.5 million peoplein anticipation of the hurricane, but state officials said that the storm had potential to cause similar flooding to what Jacksonville underwent during Hurricane Matthew in 2016 andHurricane Irma in 2017, according to theNews Herald.
Ingram told PEOPLE on Friday that Panama City Beach, located on Florida’s northwest coast, is “completely safe” after Hurricane Ian battered Florida this week, noting that a cold front appeared to push the storm’s path “further to the south.”
“Because we went through Hurricane Michael four years ago, everybody still has PTSD from that,” Ingram told PEOPLE.
At least 21 people are dead andthousands of people could be missing after Hurricane Ian made landfallas an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 150 mph on Wednesday just after 3 p.m. local time, near Cayo Costa, Fla.,according to the National Hurricane Center.
Hurricane Ianmade its third landfall Friday afternoon, north of Charleston, S.C.,as a Category 1 storm.
source: people.com
