Mark Bennett: Aftermath of the storm

April 07-- Apr. 7--Florida Panhandle

Many people experience a metaphorical Category 4 hurricane in life. An illness, financial collapse or lost loved one devastates their normalcy, and life afterward doesn't feel the same.

When an entire community endures a real Category 4 storm, thousands absorb the shock simultaneously. Beforehand, their interaction involved a wave of a hand or honk of a SUV horn. Then, suddenly, the only way to get from what's left of their houses to the street involves crawling through a jungle of fallen trees. Days later, those fortunate enough to still have a habitable dwelling talk to each other in that same spot, with their soggy, ruined belongings piled on the curb.

My wife and I met several of those folks last month on a mission trip to Panama City, Florida, with friends from our church, working with a Christian disaster relief organization, Samaritan's Purse. Hurricane Michael ravaged that town and nearby Mexico Beach last October. Michael claimed 49 lives, damaged or destroyed 40,000 houses and caused $6 billion in damages throughout the Panhandle, according to the Panama City News Herald and CBS News. Homelessness has increased since the storm.

Six months after that storm came ashore with Category 4 force, there's still lots of debris, empty houses and businesses and blue-tarped roofs.

And memories of Michael's effects, including one positive twist.

"We got to know our neighbors," said one resident, whose house was spared but her yard was filled with fallen pines and oaks and shingles. "They're good people. [We] said, 'Hey, we got our water back on. How 'bout you?'"

We heard her story, and similar reflections from other residents between the growl of chainsaws and the thuds of hammers operated by our crew -- a team of people ranging from dozens of energetic University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh students to retired widowers and widows motivated to simply help, however possible. These volunteers came from Wisconsin, Indiana, New Jersey, Michigan, New York, Florida and other states -- just the latest of thousands from relief groups such as Samaritan's Purse, the Southern Baptist Church's Send Relief program, the Catholic Church's Mission850 and others.

Panama City sits across Saint Andrew Bay from the smaller town of Panama City Beach, a popular spring break destination along the Gulf of Mexico visited yearly by millions of Americans, including many from the Wabash Valley. The beach town of 12,757 residents took less of a hit from Michael than fellow Bay County communities Panama City and Mexico Beach. Panama City Beach tourism generates 45 percent of county sales taxes and 65 percent of its lodging taxes, and that town is boosting advertising to attract tourists in hopes of keeping county workers employed and businesses functioning, the Northwest Florida Daily News reported.

Meanwhile, Panama City possesses more of the county's commercial and residential base, as well as its arts and cultural facilities, the civic center and its schools, said Mayor Greg Brudnicki in a phone interview Wednesday.

Aside from Panama City's dominant sunshine, scenic backdrop of the bay and Waffle Houses, the mostly blue-collar community reminded me of Terre Haute.

Like Terre Hauteans, residents of Panama City -- population 36,986 -- receive smaller per capita incomes ($24,732) than other residents of their state ($34,255) and most Americans ($31,177). Before the storm, 21.6 percent of Panama City residents lived in poverty, according to U.S. Census figures, well above the rest of Florida (14 percent) and the nation (12.3 percent). Panama City's population likely has dropped below 30,000 since Michael, because thousands were ousted from their homes and left town, Brudnicki speculated.

Many of the displaced residents, as well as school children, who stayed are "couch surfing," as the mayor put it. They rotate between the homes of friends, relatives, neighbors, coworkers and fellow church members, who allow them to stay temporarily.

"That uncertainty, that upheaval and displacement works on a person's psyche," Brudnicki said.

'I'll never do that again'

The people our church group met were able to remain in their homes. Those folks represent a cross-section of America.

An elderly woman needed the water-damaged flooring and ceiling of her mobile home removed. A middle-age couple needed new tarp to cover a vast leaking roof. An immigrant widow, living with her elderly mother, needed toppled trees cleared from her yard. Two neighbors -- a retired man in a mobile home and a business woman in a one-story brick house -- had trees strewn across their adjacent yards. Broken trees littered the yard of a couple living in a remote neighborhood. A 92-year-old veteran and Caterpillar retiree had fallen pines tangled in his backyard. A veteran and salesman's roof required a fresh layer of tarp, while he awaited permanent repairs. A retired female prison guard needed a snapped tree -- hovering perilously over her back fence -- cut down.

All were forging ahead, despite layers of concerns from finding reputable contractors to insurance coverage. Some still seemed shaken by the hurricane. I'll not forget the dazed look on the face of a man who rode out Michael inside his shuddering mobile home, holding his small dog.

"I'd stayed for other storms, and stayed for Michael. I'll never do that again," he said, staring at the ground outside his trailer as he sat on its steps, shaking his head.

The 92-year-old homeowner said he decided to stay in bed as the hurricane roared through his neighborhood, resigned that there was nothing else he could do.

"We've got amazing, resilient people," Brudnicki said. "I think that's one of the reasons we've kind of fallen off the [national] radar -- we aren't out there whining and crying."

But Brudnicki himself is speaking out on behalf of those resilient residents. He'll travel to Washington, D.C., later this month to lobby lawmakers to release federal disaster funds for Panama City and Bay County. Brudnicki thinks Congress should realize the scope of Michael's impact. Cleanup crews have picked up 3.6 million cubic yards of debris inside the city limits since it hit, exceeding the debris collected over a 50-county area from other hurricanes, the mayor said.

"It's like we had a 40-mile-wide tornado come through here," he said.

Giving people hope

Like many Panama City residents, several homeowners we met said they didn't expect a Category 4 hit, after early forecasts projected Michael to make landfall as a Category 3 and to veer further east. Instead, Michael slammed into the Panhandle on Oct. 10 at nearly Category 5 force, making it the third most intense storm ever to come ashore in the United States. Only a Labor Day 1935 hurricane and Hurricane Camille in 1969 were stronger.

The 64-year-old Brudnicki moved with his family from Chicago to Panama City at age 9. In those 55 years since, he's never witnessed any catastrophe like Michael. It incapacitated both local hospitals, along with all the day care centers, nursing homes and schools except one. "And schools are usually what you use as shelters," he said. The lone unscathed school, west of Panama City Beach, became a shelter, leaving its students with no school, too.

Panama City deeply appreciates the work of disaster relief groups such as Samaritan's Purse and college students on "alternative spring breaks," calling those efforts "nothing short of phenomenal."

"The thing is, they haven't forgotten about us," Brudnicki said.

He wants Congress and the rest of the country to remember Panama City six months after Michael. Its impact remains. Prior to the hurricane, the city had 4,271 rental apartments. Only 1,528 are livable now. "We need to let people know we are still in a state of emergency," Brudnicki said. "We need to let people know there are still lots of blue tarps, lots of people displaced and a lot of structures in a state of disrepair."

Building up optimism also is a priority. That effort goes on daily, the mayor said.

"What we want is, little wins," he said, referring to the opening of a restaurant or a street. "That gives people hope."

Mark Bennett can be reached at 812-231-4377 or [email protected].

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