Hurricane Michael - October 2018

[Gardener1850]

"I decided to stay because my family decided to evacuate, but the pets had to stay here," Panama City resident John Pandullo said. "They didn't have a place to go. So I wanted to protect them or be there for them in case something like this happened -- and it did."

Pandullo rode out the storm in a closet with his dog, Rosie, as the house literally collapsed around him. The roof caved in and the living room and garage of his parents' home no longer exist.

"It was just so crazy and it's just so bad," he said. "The dog was right here and she would not leave my side and she would not move. She was shaking extremely bad. And the winds were coming in and the rain was all pouring down on us and basically, I waited for over an hour.

"I managed to make a phone call actually at the peak of the storm, and I was actually able to talk with my parents at the time," Pandullo continued. "And my mom was praying with Jesus on the phone about it the whole time you know -- 'Please let him be alive.'"

Hurricane Michael survivor: 'It's going to be forever before we get back to normal'

 

[Gardener1850]

WEAR spoke with FEMA Media Relations Specialist Renee Bafalis, who said they are trying to make registering for help as easy as possible.

If you’re in a position to make repairs to your damaged home now, make sure to document all the repairs you make.

See Video: VIDEO: How you can register with FEMA

 

[mickey2942]

The issue regarding evacuations is a tough one, I learned that surviving the hurricane is just part of it, the rest of it, is surviving until there is help available, services are back up, electricity, water, and stores are open.

Often, if you did not evacuate, you are a "first line" responder, for others that did not evacuate, but need medical help or other care. It is such an impossible situation. I am amazed that only 18 have been confirmed dead so far. I found out years ago, that the most important item you need for hurricane preparedness, is work gloves, heavy boots, contractor garbage bags, and a chainsaw.

 

[Jax49]

Among the Ruins of Mexico Beach Stands One House, Built ‘for the Big One’

As they built their dream house last year on the shimmering sands of the Gulf of Mexico, Russell King and his nephew, Dr. Lebron Lackey, painstakingly documented every detail of the elevated construction, from the 40-foot pilings buried into the ground to the types of screws drilled into the walls. They picked gleaming paints from a palette of shore colors, chose salt-tolerant species to plant in the beach dunes and christened their creation the Sand Palace of Mexico Beach.

 

[Jax49]

Hurricane survivors band together after entire Florida towns flattened

For a grueling 55 minutes, Mayor Margo Anderson didn’t know if they were going to survive Hurricane Michael.

She rode out the storm in the police headquarters building here with about 40 other people, including police officers, their families and their pets.

The group went room to room, dodging falling debris until the eye came through. Then, silence.

“I looked over at my husband and I took his hand and I said we're not going to make it,” said Anderson. “We are not going to make it.”

 

[MimosaMornings]

2016 population of Mexico Beach was 1190.

And 285 people decided to stay.

 

[MsFacetious]

Okay I don't have time to read 26 pages and we can no longer search a thread. So, has anyone heard from flordiamomma? She let us know she was evacuating Monday evening in the Maddox thread but we haven't heard anything since.

 

[Jax49]

Okay I don't have time to read 26 pages and we can no longer search a thread. So, has anyone heard from flordiamomma? She let us know she was evacuating Monday evening in the Maddox thread but we haven't heard anything since.

I checked her profile and she hadn't been on the site since Oct 8, after she said she was evacuating.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Among the Ruins of Mexico Beach Stands One House, Built ‘for the Big One’

Good story. After Sandy and our rebuild, they also required us to put in Helical Piles, basically screws that go down 25 feet that are anchored somehow to the concrete footing or something like that. Because our soil is sandy and we live on the bay, any flooding (or worse, wave action) to our home won't shift the house.

 

[Gardener1850]

About 4,000 members of Florida’s national guard have been called up to deal with the storm, including 500 added on Saturday. Nearly 2,000 law-enforcement officials have been sent into the Panhandle.

Schools will stay closed indefinitely, a hospital halted operations and sent 200 patients to hospitals elsewhere in Florida and in Alabama, and more than 253,000 customers in the Panhandle remain without power.

“Everybody just needs to help each other right now,” Scott said after meeting with emergency responders in the Panama City area.

“You feel sorry for people,” Scott said. “They might have lost their house. They worry about their kids getting into school. You know, people don’t sit and have a whole bunch of extra money in the bank just waiting for a disaster.”

Some residents were packing up and getting as far away as they could.

Jeff and Katrina Pearsey, with a ruined rental home in the Panama City area and no indication of when they could again earn a living, said they were heading to Bangor, Maine, where Katrina once worked as a nurse. Several trees came down on their property, including one that smashed through the roof.
“We’re getting our stuff and we’re going,” said Jeff Pearsey, 48. “We’re probably done with Panama City.”

Searches intensify after body is found in Michael’s wake | News, Sports, Jobs - Minot Daily News

 

[Gardener1850]

It's been five days since Hurricane Michael decimated Mexico Beach, Florida, and dozens of residents are still nowhere to be found.

Search crews are sifting precariously through heavy rubble in search of about 30 to 35 people, the city's police chief said.

More than 250,000 are still without power Monday morning, unable to fend off the stifling heat. Drivers are lining up for hours to get fuel. And residents in the hardest- hit areas are relying on airdropped food and water to survive.

But with dozens of people still unaccounted for, the prevailing fear is that the death toll might rise. The ferocious hurricane has already killed 18 people in four states.

Read more: Hurricane Michael: 30 people in Florida are still nowhere to be found

 

[Gardener1850]

Randy June stared at the flattened houses in Mexico Beach, dazed by what’s left of his neighborhood.
But while his house is destroyed, he says his home is still this coastal town in Florida’s Panhandle.
“We ain’t going nowhere. We’re going to rebuild somehow. I just don’t know how yet,” June told CNN.
“If we don’t get no help … we’ll be living under a bridge somewhere. We’ll still be here.”

Hundreds of people from across the country have called local officials, desperate for news on what has happened to their loved ones.

But rescue attempts have been arduous because of widespread debris and buckled roads that make transportation difficult.

Crews are using bulldozers to move debris and cutting trees with chainsaws to clear highways and hundreds of roads blocked by the wreckage.
“What’s taking up most of your time right now just gaining access to some of these areas,” said Panama City Fire Chief Alex Baird.
The fire department has received more than 200 calls for checks on residents. But Baird said it could take days or even weeks before those checks will be completed. Crews need to go door-to-door because there is no power, and cellphone service is spotty.

Crews are searching Hurricane Michael’s ruins for at least 30 people

 

[Gardener1850]

ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFNS) -- Airmen from the 116th Air Control Wing, Georgia Air National Guard, deployed from Robins Air Force Base Oct. 15, to help distribute food and water to citizens affected by Hurricane Michael in Seminole County, Georgia.

The team of 11 Airmen join other members of the wing who are already working in Seminole County clearing roadways to allow access for first responders and utility companies to begin caring for victims affected by the storm.

116th ACW deploys Airmen to distribute food, water for Hurricane Michael relief > Schriever Air Force Base > Article Display

 

[Gardener1850]

On Monday, President Donald Trump will visit some of the devastated cities in Florida and Georgia.

Over the weekend, he made a disaster declaration for Georgia's Baker, Decatur, Dougherty, Early, Miller, and Seminole counties. That followed his declaration of a major disaster in Florida's Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Jackson, Liberty, Taylor, and Wakulla counties.

These declarations give affected residents and businesses access to federal aid and funding.

FEMA has 14 teams in place in Florida to help people register for disaster assistance. There are also 17 distribution points throughout Florida and Georgia where people can get food and water in places where stores remain closed or there are limited supplies.

President Trump to view Hurricane Michael damage as crews continue to search for missing people

 

[Gardener1850]

Amid the rubble of Beacon Hill in Port St. Joe, one house stood with barely a scratch, a gray beast made from steel and concrete. With only two small, hurricane-proof windows on the second floor, it resembled a bomb shelter more than a home.
"It was an old block house when I bought it in 2002, and I personally built the upstairs," said longtime resident Dave Russell. "I double-strapped that roof. And when I laid there I was pretty happy I'd double-strapped everything."
Russell was one of the few in Port St. Joe who rode out the hurricane as the eye landed Wednesday on Mexico Beach, just a mile or two to the west.

Russell is a character, his neighbors said. He speaks fast and is animated with his hands. He has a boisterous laugh and a natural aptitude for swearing.

He doesn't always get along with everyone in the neighborhood, he said. Perhaps it's something to do with his penchant for behavior that some find odd. When the storm cleared, he showered naked with a jug of drinking water on his upstairs deck, in full view of passersby.

But he cares about them, he said. And he worries they may not be prepared for what's to come.
"The worst is now, after the storm. People like...," he gestured to one of his neighbors standing in the driveway across the street. "They didn't understand, you won't be able to poop! I said, you've got to use seawater! I've got a bucket of seawater, I'm an old salt."

It may be that experience that's helped him keep his sense of humor.

Hurricane Michael Port St. Joe survivor ready to ride out aftermath

 

[JerseyGirl]

46 People Missing in Florida After Hurricane Michael 'Wiped Out' Beachfront City

46 People Missing in Florida After Hurricane Michael 'Wiped Out' Beachfront City

Mexico Beach Mayor said hat 289 people — including 10 children — decided to remain in the city despite evacuation orders as the state prepared for the devastating storm.

46 of those who remained were still missing on Sunday.

 

[Jax49]

Woman finds uncle's SOS in satellite image of Michael's wrath, calls for help

A Florida woman spotted her uncle's SOS in a satellite image showing Hurricane Michael's destruction and alerted authorities over the weekend that he needed to be rescued. Ernest Gee spelled H-E-L-P in fallen trees after the storm made landfall last week as a Category 4, his niece Amber Gee told ABC News.

Amber Gee, 24, of Callaway, Florida, saw the distress signal in an interactive mapfrom the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that uses satellite images to show the devastation in the Florida Panhandle. "I had been seeing this link for the images all over Facebook, and I decided to check it out, and we lucked out," Gee told ABC.

Couple stranded by Michael spells 'H-E-L-P' on their lawn, is rescued after niece finds it on NOAA map

A Florida couple who used tumbled trees to spell out HELP after being trapped by Hurricane Michael were rescued after their niece saw their plea on an aerial map.

The upbeat tale comes as search crews somberly picked through the debris of entire neighborhoods blown apart by the fury of the storm. The confirmed death toll remained at 17 on Monday, but authorities said they expected the number to go higher.

 

[Jax49]

Okay I don't have time to read 26 pages and we can no longer search a thread. So, has anyone heard from flordiamomma? She let us know she was evacuating Monday evening in the Maddox thread but we haven't heard anything since.

I checked her profile and she hadn't been on the site since Oct 8, after she said she was evacuating.

Still no activity. @floridamomma, please check in when you can.

 

[scdiv]

It's such a bad situation in parts of Florida. I'm in a little coastal town in South Carolina so have done the evacuations for Matthew and Florence, but didn't come back to anything like this. I have been following two families in Mexico Beach area that haven't found their family members yet. I keep checking every day hoping for good news - just so awful. Hope everyone is doing okay.

 

[Jax49]

Number of missing in city hard-hit by Michael drops dramatically

Five days after Hurricane Michael roared into the Florida Panhandle, decimating the seaside community of Mexico Beach, rescuers appear to have some good news -- just three people remain missing in the city that was torn apart by the Category 4 storm.

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