Recovery continues
The beachside devastation of Mexico Beach, FL from Hurricane Michael, October 2018. Courtesy NOAA
It was three years ago last Sunday that Florida’s biggest storm to date, Hurricane Michael, struck the Panhandle, its Category 5 winds and storm surge creating a visible path of destruction all the way to the Georgia state line. The storm was blamed for 49 deaths in Florida and the Southeast. Recovery has been slow, but steady – and is ongoing.
Winds topped out at near 160 mph with a 14-foot storm surge at landfall in Mexico Beach, where four people died. Entire blocks of homes in the small community were leveled. In nearby Panama City, FEMA estimated 90% of structures were damaged or destroyed. In the long days, weeks, and months that followed, the city collected 5.7 million cubic yards of debris, more than the 50 counties impacted by Hurricane Irma, a year earlier.
A $28 million beach renourishment project is underway on Panama City Beach, September 24, 2021. Courtesy, Visit Panama City Beach
Federal aid has poured in over the past 36 months since Michael’s destruction. Mexico Beach has received $110 million in FEMA aid, which has enabled the small beach town to install a new power grid and sewer system, as well as beach renourishment. To date, 260 building permits have been issued. Mayor Al Cathey, whom we met a few weeks after the storm, said last week the town is “making good headway” toward full recovery. Panama City has received $400 million in federal aid to help rebuild. They’ve pulled 134,000 building permits to repair or rebuild homes and businesses. But even more importantly, it’s nearly full recovered its population of 36,000 it had when Michael hit.
While Jackson County and downtown Marianna (pictured here) have made good progress in recovery, some businesses and homes still await repair, October 11, 2021
In all, Florida has distributed about $1.5 billion in relief and recovery money to a 12-county area in the Panhandle, much of it federal money. The most recent was week before last, when Governor DeSantis visited Bay County to announce an additional $3.1 million in matching grants to Bay and Wakulla Counties, the city of Chattahoochee, and Talquin Electric Cooperative. It’s federal money from FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program with the state covering the 25% match required from local agencies receiving the money. It’s part of a $417 million pot distributed to date for recovery and disaster mitigation efforts throughout the region. You can read more in this release.
The latest reported figures on Hurricane Michael from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation are dated November 2, 2020, and at that point showed nearly 160,000 claims with total estimated insured losses of $9.1 billion, with about $8.5 billion paid. OIR reported 95% of claims as closed with a paid to unpaid claim ratio of 6:1.
As we’ve seen at ever disaster recovery operation we’ve been a part of, money is necessary to rebuild. But it’s the residents and their vision and determination and self-sacrificing hard work that brings a community back – better than ever!
LMA Newsletter of 10-18-21
