24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Panama City, FL

Panama City was incorporated on February 23, 1909, after developer George Mortimer West renamed the settlement of Harrison in 1906 to ride the worldwide excitement over the Panama Canal, noting the town sat on a straight line between Chicago and Panama City, Panama.

Panama City is the county seat of Bay County and the largest city on the Florida Panhandle between Pensacola and Tallahassee.

Panama City grew out of five separate 19th-century settlements along St. Andrews Bay - Floriopolis, Harrison, Millville, Park Resort and St. Andrews - with St. Andrews and Millville formally merged into the city in 1927.

Panama City sits on St. Andrews Bay, a large, deep-water natural bay on the northern Gulf Coast, sheltered from the open Gulf by the uninhabited Shell Island.

Hurricane Michael made landfall on October 10, 2018, near Tyndall Air Force Base just east of Panama City as a Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds, the first Category 5 hurricane on record to strike the Florida Panhandle.

Panama City and nearby Mexico Beach suffered the worst of Michael's roughly $25 billion in U.S. damage, and nearly every structure at Tyndall Air Force Base, established in 1941, was damaged by the storm.

Panama City's population fell from 36,484 in 2010 to 32,939 in the 2020 Census in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, before rebounding to an estimated 37,806 by July 2025.

Panama City has about 15,169 households averaging 2.25 people each, with an owner-occupied housing rate of about 56.3%.

Gulf Coast State College, founded in 1957, has its main campus in Panama City, and Florida State University operates its FSU Panama City campus in the city as well.

The U.S. Navy's Naval Support Activity Panama City, a research and training center on St. Andrews Bay, is one of the area's signature military installations alongside Tyndall Air Force Base.