The Panhandle towns on this service list, and what being on it means

How was the service list drawn up?

The list was built by straight-line distance from the anchor point in Panama City, using the centroid of each town's postal area, up to a radius of about 60 km. The five Panama City postal areas on the list are included as city areas, and the towns are included as separate places.

The radius reaches the Gulf coast and the inland Panhandle towns on the list. The furthest town on the list is Santa Rosa Beach, at about 59 km, and the radius was set to include the towns that lie in that range.

The list is a service map, and it is not a claim about the local government or the boundaries of any place. It places each town by its distance from the anchor point, and the towns are named as they are commonly known.

Which Panama City areas are on the list?

Five Panama City postal areas are on the list: 32401, 32404, 32405, 32409 and 32411. They are named by their postal codes, because no neighborhood name has been confirmed for them, and each one has its own page on this site.

The postal areas run from the downtown code on the bay to the codes north and north-west of the city center. The 32409 code is about 13 km from the anchor point, and the 32405 code is less than a kilometer from it.

The postal codes are a way of naming the area for the service map. A reader who wants to know whether a particular street is covered should call and ask, since the list does not describe individual streets.

Which towns are on the list, and how far are they?

The 17 towns on the list run from Panama City Beach, about 20 km west of the anchor point, to Santa Rosa Beach at about 59 km, and north to Alford at about 57 km and Caryville at about 59 km. Each town has its own page, with its distance and the conditions a crew meets there.

The beach towns, including Panama City Beach, Mexico Beach, Ebro, Rosemary Beach, Santa Rosa Beach and Port Saint Joe, are on the Gulf coast. Their pages describe surge and storm water, because those are the usual losses on the coast.

The inland towns, including Fountain, Youngstown, Vernon, Wausau, Chipley, Caryville and Alford, are farther from the coast. Their pages describe rain, roof openings, leaks and drainage, which are the usual losses there.

Are the towns in the same county?

This site does not state the county of each town. The towns are in several counties across the Panhandle, and the county membership has not been confirmed against a county source for this site, so no county is given in the text.

Panama City is in Bay County, which is the county this site's primary business information names. The other towns are not described by county on the pages, and a reader who needs the county should check it with the county's own office or its published map.

A county is not the same as a service area. Being in a county does not decide whether a town is on this list, and being on this list does not state anything about the town's county.

What does being on the list promise?

Being on the list means that calls from that town are taken. It does not promise that a crew will be at the address at a given time, and it does not promise a particular outcome for the work. The operator can say on the phone whether a visit can be arranged.

Calls are taken at any hour, and a crew is dispatched as soon as one is available. The timing depends on the open calls, the distance and the state of the building, and no arrival time is promised on any call.

A town on the list may take longer to reach than one closer to Panama City. The first call should include the address, the road and the source, so the operator can plan the visit and tell you what to do in the meantime.

What do the town pages describe?

Each town page describes the kind of water loss a crew sees there, the conditions that shape the work, and the steps a homeowner or a business can take before the crew arrives. The pages do not describe particular streets, houses, neighbors or local statistics, since none are sourced for the towns.

The page for a coastal town describes surge and sand, because the storm record on the coast is the reference for those towns. The page for an inland town describes rain, roof openings and drainage, because those are the usual losses inland.

If a town page does not mention the place you live, the work described there still applies to the building. Read the page for the kind of loss that matches yours, and call with the address.

What should I do if my town is not on the list?

Call and ask. The list is a service map drawn for this site, and a town that is not on it can still be asked about on the phone. The operator can say whether a crew can reach the address, and what to do in the meantime to limit the damage.

Do not assume a town is covered or not covered from its name alone. The phone call is the way to confirm the address, and it is quicker than working out the distance from a map.

Whatever the answer, the first steps are the same: turn off the power to the wet area, stop the water if you can, keep people out of the water and photograph the damage before anything is moved.

How does a town's page relate to its distance from the city?

Each town page gives the distance from the anchor point and describes the conditions in that place. The distance tells you how far the crew travels and how long the first visit may take to arrange, and the conditions tell you which losses are most common there.

The distance is not a measure of how much a loss will cost or how bad it will be. A town close to the city can have a severe loss, and a town far away can have a simple one. The page is a guide to the place, and the readings on the building decide the work.

What if I live near the edge of a town on the list?

A home near the edge of a town may sit on either side of the list's line in practice, and the simplest way to know is to ask. Give the operator the exact address, and let the operator confirm whether a visit can be arranged for it.

Do not assume that a home across the road from a listed town is covered, or that a home a short distance outside it is not. The operator checks the address, and the first step in either case is to shut the water off, turn off the power to the wet area and photograph the damage.

How do the coastal and inland towns differ in the losses they see?

The coastal towns see surge and sand, and the storm record on the Gulf coast is the reference for them. The inland towns more often see rain through a roof or an opening, leaks inside the building and drainage across the lot.

The difference shapes the first visit. A coastal loss begins with the outside of the building and the tide line. An inland loss usually begins with the roof, the attic or the source inside the walls. Both end in the same steps of removal, drying and written records, and each town's page says which kind of loss is common there.

What should I do if my town page does not describe my kind of building?

The town pages describe the usual losses and conditions in each place, not every building in it. If your building is different, such as a commercial space in a town described mostly for homes, read the page for the kind of loss that matches yours, and call with the details.

The operator can plan the first visit around the building type, the source and the access. The page is a starting point for understanding the loss, and the crew's readings and scope decide the work for your particular building.