Residents return home to debris
Many in tears after seeing destruction in Fla. beach town
Residents of Mexico Beach find pieces of their lives scattered across the sand and a community altered.
MEXICO BEACH — With stunned faces and tears, residents of hard-hit Mexico Beach returned home for the first time Wednesday about a week after Hurricane Michael hit to find pieces of their lives scattered across the sand and a community altered.
Nancy Register sobbed uncontrollably after finding no trace of the large camper where she’d lived with her husband.
She was particularly distraught over the loss of an old, black-and-white photo of her mother, who died of cancer.
Taylor Register said he found nothing but a stool that he uses for cutting his hair, a hose and a keepsake rock that was given to him by a friend 40 years ago.
“That’s my belongings,” he said, pointing to a small pile beside his red pickup. Choking up, he said: “I appreciate God humbling me. Everybody needs it.”
Just up the road, tears ran down Lanie Eden’s face as she and her husband, Ron, sifted through sand in search of items they left before evacuating from the small beach house they’ve rented each October for years. They didn’t find much — just a large pack of toilet paper that somehow stayed dry and a son’s camp chair.
The Edens, who are from Fort Knox, Ky., and are temporarily staying in Alabama, were stunned to see mountains of debris and countless destroyed buildings as they drove into town for the first time.
In a state of condominium towers, Mexico Beach was one of the few remaining places with small houses and a 1950s feel.
“Basically, we lost ‘old Florida.’ It’s all gone,” said Lanie Eden.
Residents among the community of about 1,200 people who rode out the storm at home have been in Mexico Beach since Michael hit.
But officials used the city’s Facebook page to tell others to stay away for a week after the Category 4 storm ravaged the beach town with 155 mph winds and a strong storm surge.
State emergency management officials said some 124,500 customers across the Panhandle were still without power Wednesday and 1,157 remained in shelters.
In Bay County, home to Mexico Beach and Panama City, more than half of the households and businesses remained without electricity.
Inland, in Calhoun County, 98 percent of the customers didn’t have power Wednesday, according to the emergency management website. And in Jackson County, which borders Alabama and Georgia, about 83 percent were without power.
In the meantime, in many areas devastated by the hurricane, law enforcement officials are battling looting of homes and businesses.
Bay County Sheriff ’s Maj. Jimmy Stanford said deputies have arrested about 10 looters each night since the storm hit.
In some parts of the county, residents have spray-painted signs warning that “looters will be shot.”