Flood damage widespread at PCB apartment complex // PHOTO GALLERY

PANAMA CITY BEACH — Jim Speer pointed to a line of grass clippings stuck on his front door at the Gulf Highlands apartment complex in Panama City Beach. The line was nearly one foot high.

“Right there,” he said. “You can see how high the water came up.”

Sunday at the apartment complex off Hutchison near Hale, cleanup efforts continued for Speer and dozens of other residents whose homes flooded during recent heavy rainfall in the area. Gulf Highlands management could not be reached for comment Sunday, but several residents said about 70 percent of homes in the complex had major flood damage.

PHOTO GALLERY: CLEAN UP AND SUNSHINE

Except for a few inches of water near the entrance of the complex, floodwater had completely receded from the apartments Sunday. But sidewalks and roads were cluttered with discarded furniture, sheets of drywall, and trash bags stuffed with residents’ personal effects, as if the complex was being cleared for demolition. Carpets were removed from homes, rolled up and stacked on the sidewalk.

“You tear up the carpet and that helps to avoid some of the mildew,” said Barbara Speer, Jim Speer’s wife. Many dumpsters at the complex were overflowing, which forced Gulf Highlands to rent several additional — and larger — dumpsters.

The rain also tore a three-foot hole in the ceiling of the Speers’ apartment, exposing wooden beams and peppering a guest bedroom with pink insulation fiber.

“I guess the insulation just got soaked with water and got heavy, then caved in,” Jim Speer said.

Across from the Speer residence, Joyce Holcomb waited on her porch for an insurance claims adjuster to arrive. A water canal snakes through the apartment complex, and when it flooded, water began flowing through Holcomb’s back door.

“It was up to here,” she said, pointing to her calf. “And the street was flooded, too. But what made it worse was when people would drive by, it made a wake and kind of forced more water into the apartment.”

Sunday, Holcomb’s carpet and half the drywall in her living room had been stripped. She hired a cleaning crew after the water subsided. Many other Gulf Highlands residents hired property restoration contractors. Among the contractors at Gulf Highlands on Sunday was Patrick James with Southern Cat, Inc.

James said that most of the floodwater at Gulf Highlands was “black water” contaminated with bacteria, fungi or other extremely unsanitary agents.

“You really can’t compare the damage to other storms because every storm is different. But we’ve got a lot of work to do,” James said.

In slightly more than a week, about 20 inches of rain fell in some areas of Bay County, according to the National Weather Service, and widespread flooding occurred. The Central Panhandle Chapter of the American Red Cross initially said that unlike Gulf Highlands, most residential damage caused by the flooding appeared minor. A spokesperson for the group — which visited Gulf Highlands on Saturday to provide residents with food and water — could not be reached Sunday for an updated damage assessment.

Partly sunny conditions with intermittent showers and thunderstorms are expected Monday in the Panama City area. Tuesday, mostly sunny conditions with a 20 percent chance of isolated showers and thunderstorms is forecast, which NWS notes is a normal daily outlook in the summer.

For the Speers, calmer weather is welcome. Six months before their Gulf Highlands apartment flooded, a tree fell on their home in Douglasville, Ga. during a storm.

“It’s like, ‘Ok, God. If you’re trying to tell us something, you’ve got our attention,’” Barbara Speer said.