Debris cleanup ongoing at Panama City Marina

PANAMA CITY — Ten months after Hurricane Michael, debris cleanup is ongoing at the Panama City Marina.

City Manager Mark McQueen spoke about marina recovery on Friday while H.G. Harders & Son Inc., which won a contract from the City Commission for debris removal, removed remaining piles.

“The marina sustained significant damage,” McQueen said. “This is the first step, cleaning up the basins and getting the marina cleared.”

An underwater crime scene team from Florida State University also went underwater to map the bottom of the basin.

“We know where all the debris is on the bottom of the basins of each of the marinas and this is an opportunity for us to now harvest that back, clean up our marinas so we don’t have any debris that comes up and damages boats and propellers,” McQueen said.

The second step is repairing bulkheads.

The marina has been a long-time popular spot for boating, fishing, hanging out and Fourth of July celebrations. Some cleanup at the marina has already begun. Right after Hurricane Michael, wreckage was scattered throughout the marina, where it looked like a bomb went off. Boats were toppled over.

Now people can walk around the boat ramp area, which is mostly clear.

“There’s been a great outpouring of volunteerism in our community and we saw a lot of it where citizens came down and helped our employees,” McQueen said. “We cleaned a lot of it around the concrete space from nails and glass and other sharp objects.”

While the boat ramp at the marina reopened in May, the rest of the marina is still closed to the public due to hazards from damaged buildings. There is currently no timetable on when it could open.

“Not only do we need to repair the marina, then we need to come back in and start installing the wet slips, which is phase three,” McQueen said. “Then we’ll look at the facilities in terms of the park, creating more green space and then the rebuilding of the marina storehouse where we had the shops.”

McQueen said the city is taking steps to become “bigger, better and stronger.”

“We’ve had a lot of our debris removed. We’re on our last pass for our debris removal in our communities, our neighborhoods,” McQueen said. “We’re seeing now demolition of deteriorated structures, structures that maintained significant damage.”