‘A journey into total destruction’
The city is in disarray nearly two weeks after Hurricane Michael, but thousands of workers and volunteers have moved in to help.
PANAMA CITY — Michael and Jennaway Knowlton don’t know what happened to their shrimp business at Panama City’s St. Andrews Marina.
They’ve been to the marina, but the boat where they sold shrimp from is gone — as is the livelihood that has sustained them for 18 years.
Back home, conditions aren’t much better. Winds from Hurricane Michael blew down a garage brick wall and crushed their pickup truck.
“I don’t know what we’ll do,” said Knowlton, 63. “We were thinking about one day selling our business and retiring. Now, there is nothing to sell.”
Driving into Panama City is a journey into total destruction, nearly two weeks after the storm struck Florida’s Panhandle.
This past weekend, I spent two days in Panama City with five Orlando-area friends from my church, cutting down trees, tarping roofs and dragging debris from yards to curbs. We were just a few of the 3,000 or so volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who came from as far away as Utah to help.
It wasn’t a professional crew, but we had chain saws, wheelbarrows and healthy backs. While there are thousands of volunteers from our faith and others in Bay County, many locals were surprised we offered free help to anyone who asked.
Contractors, particularly tree companies and roofers, have descended on the city. It’s such a lucrative business that a small plane circled the city for most of Saturday and Sunday advertising tree-trimming businesses. Local officials are warning residents to watch out for people looking to swindle the desperate.
It’s the seventh time I’ve left my family for the weekend to join in one of these cleanup efforts. The first time was seven years ago when a powerful tornado touched down in Joplin, Mo., and carved a mile-wide path of de-
“A lot of bad has come from this hurricane but a lot of good, too. I can’t believe that so many people have come here to help out. All those cars out on the roads, they are here for us.” Lauren Perce, Panama City resident
struction. The Joplin twister, one of the strongest ever recorded, turned concrete houses, churches and schools into piles of kindling and dust.
Hurricane Michael’s impact on the Panhandle is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to that.
The storm’s 155-mph winds took out most of the area’s tall trees and snapped thick trunks 12 feet off the ground. Boats in marinas were destroyed, and beaches are littered with debris.
Hundreds of homes are a total loss just from trees that have fallen and sliced their structures clean in two. Others had roofs ripped off and now sunlight shines into interior rooms.
At one home a boat was lifted off the ground and the nose rested on the roof. Elsewhere, trampolines and carports flew high into the air and impaled on the broken limbs of trees.
More than 44,000 customers are still without electricity Monday. Most of the area doesn’t have drinkable tap water. There were curfews from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. to discourage looters.
One of the first homes we visited had a massive maple tree lying across the front yard. Inside, ceilings had caved in, and insulation was piled on the floor. The homeowner said they were hoping to get power back Wednesday, two weeks after the storm.
We grabbed chain saws and got to work. It took two hours to cut up the tree and pile it on the curb. It didn’t fix all their problems, but we were glad to do something.
“A lot of bad has come from this hurricane but a lot of good, too,” said Lauren Perce of Panama City. “I can’t believe that so many people have come here to help out. All those cars out on the roads, they are here for us.”
Some of the homes we visited belonged to first responders who had been working long hours and didn’t have time to take care of their own properties.
At the home of a veteran amputee, we chopped up palm trees and removed a mangled carport awning. Somehow, his roof avoided tree damaged. But 2 inches of water had bubbled up into his house and destroyed floors and walls.
Many asked help we simply couldn’t provide. Massive trees still sit precariously on homes. Downed power lines are strewn like spaghetti throughout neighborhoods. Electric crews are working fast, but they are essentially rebuilding the entire grid.
The number of workers and volunteers have clogged the streets of Panama City and turned a 15-minute commute across town into a two-hour slog.
While we had 14-inch chain saws and matching yellow shirts, we were a team of amateurs. Our crew had a lawyer, a dentist, a school consultant, a student pilot, a circuit court employee and me, a newspaper reporter. Men, women and teenagers were on other crews doing similar work.
Still, residents were overjoyed to see volunteers. They offered food and water and came out to assist in the cleanup.
We stayed in a vacation home volunteered to us through social media. The owners stocked the fridge with a month’s worth of food for twice as many people. Other volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints camped in a field near the local chapel.
Across the city, signs warned that “Looters will B shot,” and residents said the storm’s destruction had brought out an ugly side.
But at the same time, Bay County’s weary residents were uplifted by the thousands of people who had heard of their plight and came to help, spending their own time and money, sleeping in tents and enduring cuts, bruises and sunburns.
We’ll be back next weekend to do the same thing; this kind of service is the essence of our faith. Based on all the volunteers I saw in Panama City, many others feel the same.
Panama City needs the help.