Survivors of Hurricane Michael in the Florida Panhandle fear they have been forgotten
Source: Washington Post
Survivors of Hurricane Michael in the Florida Panhandle fear they have been forgotten
By Patricia Sullivan and Joel Achenbach April 6 at 7:00 AM
MEXICO BEACH, Fla. — The towering debris piles that lined Highway 98 are gone now, six months after the 16-foot storm surge from Hurricane Michael pulverized this town. But smaller berms of waste remain: concrete blocks, rebar, pipes and planks, mounded like artificial dunes on the side of the road.
The landscape is still scraped to bare sand and dirt, denuded of trees and plants. The few longtime residents who remain talk about losing their way because they have no landmarks. The occasional tourist passes through, astonished by the lingering destruction from the storm, which made landfall on Oct. 10, with wind speeds of up to 155 mph.
“You kind of want to believe it’s all okay now,” said Priscilla Moore, 51, of Powder Springs, Ga., who has vacationed here for 47 years. “But oh my goodness, it’s gone, it’s just all gone.”
The stretch of the Florida Panhandle east of Panama City is known as the Forgotten Coast, because it’s so rural and undeveloped — a remnant of a wild, pre-Disney, pre-air-conditioned Florida. That moniker has become more searing in the aftermath of the fourth-strongest hurricane, as measured by wind speed, ever to hit the mainland United States.
Government agencies have cleared the roads and utilities have restored power, water and communications, but thousands of people are still desperate for permanent housing, competing not only with one another for the scarce supply of rental units, but with construction workers who have come into the area.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/survivors-of-hurricane-michael-in-the-florida-panhandle-fear-they-have-been-forgotten/2019/04/05/793ab5ce-563b-11e9-8ef3-fbd41a2ce4d5_story.html
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