I live in one of the hardest hit areas of Hurricane Michael. From East to West, hardest hit were 1)Mexico Beach 90-98% destruction; 2)Tyndall AFB 80-95% destruction; 3)Callaway/Parker area; 4)Springfield & Panama City; 5)Lynn Haven; 6)Panama City Beach. We finally got our internet fixed yesterday. Here is my story about Michael.
We didn’t evacuate because it was originally predicted to hit as a CAT 3. Plus we have multiple cats. By the time it was upgraded to a CAT 4, it was too late to leave. This is one hurricane that did
NOT veer off course. On the Sunday prior it was on track to hit Panama City.
It never changed course. Most hurricanes will change their course by going more to the east or west or north or south of the original track. Michael didn’t do this.
When Michael made landfall, it was actually a CAT 5 with winds up to 175mph. We watched trees in our back yard being pushed by the wind in one direction, praying that they would not come down on our house. We stepped outside for a couple minutes when the “eye” was over us. A house across the street had a metal roof that was peeled off. Our neighbor’s patio was taken out by one of the trees we were watching through our sliding glass door. When the “eye” passed, we again watched the trees, now being pushed in the opposite direction. The tree that damaged the neighbor’s patio was pushed between our houses. We ended up with one tree on our house. While it did damage the roof, it did not come completely through. We ended up with two small holes over our master bedroom & bath. We lost the ceiling in both those rooms and also in our dining room due to water damage.
The biggest problem for the majority of people in Bay County and the surrounding counties was that most people had Verizon (NO, I can’t hear you now
) as their cell provider. Their fiber optic cables were above ground and were cut. Smaller companies had service but Sprint & Verizon didn’t. By Sunday after the storm, part of Panama City Beach had power and the rest of the beach had power by Monday. Our area were expected to get power by the 24th, two weeks after the storm. We finally got full water pressure on the 19th. We were just taken off the boil water restriction today. It took us almost a week to be able to get gas. One person waited in line for 3 hours only to be told they had run out and then almost didn’t make it back home.
Imagine driving through your own town and not recognizing a single place. Trying to remember what a building was because it is completely flattened. Driving at night is even worse, no street lights, everything just pitch black. Coming home from Elgin AFB one night was very disorienting. Seeing businesses that have been in the area for years, now gone. A brand new gym at a middle school that looks like something just drove right through it. One storage place was almost completely demolished. Some sections, the walls are completely gone, just piles of stuff from the units. Ours had one wall taken off and the roof, but it was still standing. The storage place my daughter has was also damaged. Everyone has to get their stuff out by the 5th of November because of structural damage.
The biggest thing is the trees. They have been either snapped like a twig. These are really tall trees, not small trees. Others were just up-rooted. Tipped over with their roots lifted right out of the ground. Everyone talking about “the new norm”.
We still don’t have power because when the power company came and straightened the pole, they pulled the wires on our house out of place and damaged the electrical box. We have to get an electrician to fix it and then submit a claim to the power company. But until our roof is fixed, we can’t do any thing. One adjuster came out today, but we can expect more adjusters as time goes on.
The only good thing to come out of this entire experience, is that we have become better friends with two of our neighbors. One kept us supplied with well water, another loaned us a work light. Whenever we would go to get supplies or food, we always made a point of getting items for them. Our family of 4 became a family of 7. The neighbor that loaned us the light was by himself because his wife was going back and forth between their house and a friends in Fort Walton. One of my daughter’s co-workers loaned us a generator since they are in a place. Their house was destroyed, but a friend has rental properties and has put them in one of the rentals.
My granddaughter’s school received a donation from another Catholic school that had damage during Florence. They were helped by other Catholic schools and wanted to pay it forward by helping our school. The number of lineman in the area was unreal. Over 14,000 lineman here from so many different places. Working all hours of the day. Then to have some drunken idiot hit and kill three just the other night. Over two weeks with them working and no problems. One of them was only 22 years old from North Carolina, the second was also from North Carolina, the third was a local man.
We are all safe and healthy and that is what matters. We have a long road ahead of us, but as long as we are together we will get through this one day at a time.