Troy native no worse for the wear after Hurricane Michael

Oct. 21--Harry Giles was at home in Panama City when the trees began falling.

The Troy native, who has lived in Florida since the 1970s, hunkered down with his wife, Connie, as Hurricane Michael made landfall Wednesday, Oct. 10.

"We heard the trees fall on the house," Giles, 84, said. "Then part of the roof ripped off."

A bayside community of about 37,000, Panama City is on the Florida Panhandle, where Michael came ashore. The hurricane was responsible for widespread damage and, as of Saturday, at least 36 deaths in Florida and elsewhere, CNN reported. Hundreds more were missing, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Despite the hurricane's ferocity, Giles said he wasn't worried for his life. "I felt the house was secure enough," he said in a phone interview Saturday morning.

He and Connie made it through the storm unscathed. But they remained in the house until Giles' son came to pick them up about two days later, Giles said. They are now staying with his son in Tallahassee.

Giles grew up in Troy and graduated from Troy High School in 1951. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1953, eventually becoming a commissioned officer and commanding an Air Force unit in California, he said. He left the military after 25 years and then ran a secondhand retail business.

Though he hasn't lived in the Monadnock Region for decades, Giles has returned occasionally to visit and still has friends and former classmates here. He first contacted The Sentinel through a local acquaintance, hoping to reassure readers who know him that he survived the storm.

After the hurricane, in addition to the roof damage, fallen trees blocked Giles' driveway. The power and water were out, but he and Connie had drinking water and nonperishable food like granola bars.

They had no way of communicating with anyone, though -- the phones, including his cell phone, weren't working, he said.

Giles spent parts of the next two days cleaning up -- sweeping, moving branches out of the way of the door, straightening up the garage. On Friday, Oct. 12, he said, his son, an insurance adjuster, arrived.

Giles and his wife are now staying in a room in his son's Tallahassee home -- a good thing, he said, because hotels in the area are full.

He doesn't expect to return home for months. The roof will need work, and power will have to be restored.

That's still an issue in Panama City and other places in the Panhandle. The AP reported on Saturday more than 100,000 customers in Florida were without power. More than half of those were in Bay County, which includes Panama City.

Meanwhile, Giles said he has heard reports of price gouging. "It's a catastrophe down there," he said. "... Somebody wanted $40,000 or so to pick up trees."

Still, he's grateful it worked out as well as it did for him and Connie.

"We couldn't ask for anything better," he said.

Paul Cuno-Booth can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1409, or pbooth@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PCunoBoothKS

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