Still-suffering Floridians piece lives back together
MEXICO BEACH, Fla. — Crews with backhoes and other heavy equipment scooped up debris in hurricane-flattened Mexico Beach on Sunday as the mayor held out hope for the 250 or so residents who might have tried to ride out the storm.
The death toll from Michael’s destructive march from Florida to Virginia stood at 17, with just one confirmed death in this Florida Panhandle town of about 1,000 people that took a direct hit from the hurricane and its 155 mph winds last week.
Crews worked to clear building debris along with the rubble from a collapsed section of the beachfront highway.
Mayor Al Cathey estimated that
250 residents stayed behind when the hurricane struck, and he said he remained hopeful about their fate. He said search-and-rescue teams in the beach town had already combed areas with the worst damage.
“If we lose only one life, to me that’s going to be a miracle,” Cathey said.
STORM
He said enough food and water had been brought in for the residents who remain. Even some cellphone service had returned to the devastated community.
Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Brock Long called the damage left by Hurricane Michael some of the worst he has ever seen.
Long toured several towns in Florida’s Panhandle on Sunday with Gov. Rick Scott. Long said afterward that the storm damage will require officials to help meet housing needs of displaced residents for the next several months.
President Donald Trump plans to visit Florida and Georgia on Monday to see the damage.
Four days after the storm struck, a large swath of the Panhandle was suffering, from little beach towns
to the larger Panama City to rural communities miles from where the hurricane came ashore.
More than 190,000 homes and businesses in Florida were without electricity, along with about 120,000 in Georgia.
In downtown Marianna, Florida, the facades of historic buildings lay in pieces on the ground across from the courthouse.
Some victims stranded by the storm managed to summon relief by using logs to spell out “HELP” on the ground, officials in Bay County, which includes Mexico Beach, said in a Facebook post. Officials said someone from another county was using an aerial mapping app, noticed the distress message and contacted authorities.
Meanwhile, Sen. Bill Nelson said Tyndall Air Force Base on the Panhandle was heavily damaged, but he promised it would be rebuilt. The Florida Democrat and member
of the Armed Services Committee said older buildings on the base were demolished, while newer ones will need substantial repairs.
The base is home to some of the nation’s most advanced fighter jets, and Nelson said some hangars were damaged severely. But he gave no information on how many planes were on the base during the storm or how many were damaged.
For the few residents remaining in Mexico Beach, conditions were treacherous.
Steve Lonigan was outside his home, talking with neighbor Jim Ostman, when a loud cracking sound made both men jump. It was just a small wooden block shifting in the sand beneath the weight of Lonigan’s camper trailer.
“All this stuff is just dangerous,” Ostman said. “It’s so unstable.”
Lonigan and his wife returned Sunday after evacuating to Georgia. Seawater surged into his home,
leaving a soggy mess of mud and leaves, even though the house stands 12 feet above ground on concrete blocks.
In hard-hit Panama City, pastor John Blount held Sunday services at St. Andrew United Methodist Church outdoors, in front of a wall demolished by the storm. Afterward, the church held a large cookout for the storm-weary.
More roads were becoming passable as crews cleared trees and power lines, but traffic lights remained out and there were long lines at the few open gas stations.
Florida officials evacuated nearly 3,000 inmates from two hurricane-damaged prisons, the Gulf Correctional Institution and Annex and Calhoun Correctional Institution. They had damage to the roof and the infrastructure critical for security, authorities said. No inmates or staff members were injured.