My Hurricane Michael Experience

Almost eight months after one of the worse storms to ever hit the US and things are still so out of sorts. I keep thinking that I am better or getting over it and then I see something or someone says something to set me off and I am right back to where I was a week after.

Let me start from the beginning. On October 9th 2018 we were at home boarding up all of our windows, putting all of our outdoor furniture in the dining room, gathering up all of the important documents and staying glued to the TV and me to Facebook. I follow a meteorologist that is in Tampa. Denis Phillips is my go to weather man whenever there is a storm brewing in the tropics. I have found his forecast to be the most accurate and he is never a fear monger. I kept refreshing my feed to see what he had to say and Rob kept the TV on the local news. I felt pretty good about PC and PCB, I don’t know why but I was pretty sure that Michael was going to go farther east. I was also feeling pretty safe in our BRICK home and with the fact that the trees were old and steadfast, that the house was high up off of the canal. See most of the local info was warning of high storm surge, and that was what we were most worried about, especially me. But Rob was pretty sure that we were (are) high enough off the water that we were going to be fine. Panama City Beach was under a mandatory evacuation order and we were on the edge of the evacuation zone for Panama City. Before bed Rob asked me “are you sure you want to stay?” I was. We went to bed a little after 11PM. Michael was a Cat 2 at this time.

We woke up around 8, which is late for Rob and pretty normal for me. By that time the local news were telling people to “shelter in place” the storm was now on track to be a category 4 (almost a 5). Now we were nervous! It was not looking like it was going to veer east as I had thought it would and we were in trouble. It was breezy and rainy and around 11 the wind started to pick up. At 11:08 our power went out and we could see that the huge Oak tree in the front yard was going ot fall. We could tell that it was going to fall away from ours and thank goodness the neighbors house so we were just waiting at that point to hear it hit the ground. I have no idea when it actually fell, the wind by that time was so loud we didn’t hear it fall. Rob and I were in the hallway with our 2 little Italian greyhounds , our phones and important papers, computers and hard drives.

Most everyone lost cell service but AT&T never did and we had service through the whole thing! I was texting my mom and son and trying to check on a few friends. Thank goodness for my mom, she kept me informed and calm (as best she could). As we sat there, our ears kept popping from the pressure. Our big dog, Sandy stayed in the half bath and never made a sound, which was weird because she is terrified of storms and even rain. The little ones, Bella and Bazil were in my lap and fast asleep for the whole thing! I even woke Bazil up once to make sure he was ok. I think that the pressure kept them calm. Rob got up a couple of times to look out the peephole that he left in one of the boards. He said that at the height of the wind, he couldn’t see anything but white when he looked out. I was frozen in my spot in the hall, unable to get up, unable to think straight, I can honestly say that I have never been so afraid in my life. I don’t scare easily and this shook me to my core.

Glass breaking, that was the next sound that we could hear over the wind. I just knew that it was about to be over and we were going to die right there in the hall. Rob got up a few minutes later to see what it was. We thought that it was the windows in the garage. He looked in there and the Sheetrock from the ceiling had fallen in on our cars. He didn’t think it was too bad though. The dining room ceiling had fallen in and the ugly chandelier broke. The globes on the chandelier was the glass that we heard. ( We are renting so we didn’t have a say in that thing, but after, we got to pick out a new one and it looks so much better!) Rob came back to the hall and we continued the ride. It really did sound like a train was rumbling by for about 3 hours. The wind and rain really started about 11 and we walked outside at about 3. We spent 3 hours in the hallway, I’m not one to pray but I’m not going to lie, I was praying. At one point I texted my Mom to take care of my son and grand daughters and to my son to make sure the girls didn’t forget me. I think he was mad at me for staying.

Here is my convo with my Mom Via text:

8:28am

Mom: Y’all alive?

Me: lol yeah. Winds are just now starting to get strong and it’s raining. Water is still below sea wall top in the canal.

10:52am

Me: Wind has really picked up now! Canal water is still not at top of sea wall.

Mom: Y’all have fun.

Mom: I just looked at Pineapple Willy’s beach cam. It hasn’t washed away.

10:55

Me Not sure how much longer we will continue to have power.

Me: Mark (my friend, boss, who evacuated) talked to Brad at Venture Out (where I work) and he said the winds are bad there. (VO is on the beach, we live in town).

Mom: It will pass thru before long. They are telling folks here to be off the streets by 3 (she lives in Columbus, GA).

Me: It’s supposed to hit about 1sh

11:08 AM

Me: Power just went out, 2 big limbs down from our cypress tree.

12:38PM

Mom: Bored yet?

Me: Our big oak tree went down, one of the tress in the back went down and is in the pool. We are in the hallway with the dogs and a mattress. It’s scary as hell and I’m not doing this shit again!! I just hope the roof doesn’t go!

Mom: Dang it. I bet they’re freaking out too. Should lessen soon.

Me: I hope so! It’s really scary! They are fine, Sandy is in her bathroom so she is probably the safest.

Mom: PC has been getting it worse than PCB

1:02Pm

Me: All of our trees are now down, except we’re not sure about the cypress tree. We are not leaving the hall until it’s over now.

Mom: The eye is over y’all so will pick up again on the back side.

Mom: The eye is now headed to Youngstown

Me: Thank you, we can’t get any signal to see anything

Mom: Tens of thousands without power.

1:11pm

Me: Our roof my not hold

Me: Please take care of Bryan and the girls if anything happens to me! I love you!!

Mom: You’ll be ok. Luv u too. Get in there with sandy and take the mattress too.

1:17

Mom: The eye is 5 miles be if (typo?? not sure what she was saying) mexico beach

Me: Go to WMBB Facebook and see what they’re saying

Mom: They have been off air since 12:15

1:30PM

me: try wjhg

Mom: 35 minutes ago they posted their roof was peeling off. The center of eye passed over Tyndall.

Me ok, thanks!

Mom: Have y’all got a radio?

Me: yes but we can’t get it to work

Mom: Miramar looks pretty calm

Me: are all of the pcb beach cams out?

Mom: yep

Mom: Miramar has working traffic lights and streets aren’t flooded

Me: where is the eye now?

1:38

Me: We heard glass about 20 minutes ago I think the garage door windows blew out

Mom: Has the wind let up?

Me: a tad

1:40PM

Mom: The eye should be north of y’all now. And the back side is not nearly as wide as the front was

Me: The garage is ruined, the sheet rock is on top of our cars. Rob just said the ceiling fell in on the dining room.

Mom: Dang it

1:46PM

Me: the roof is compromised after this is over and we get our stuff together i want ot leave!

Mom: Where Y’all going next?

the next few text are not important, I was just a little frazzled and was talking about moving away…..

2:26

Me: power pole is across our driveway

Mom: There is major damage all over down there from the pictures on tv. There are power people and others already deployed so maybe won’t be too long before you can get out.

we continued to text throughout the day.

October 11th 9:023 am

Me: It’s bad in our neighborhood!!! We just walked around the block and it is really really bad!

Mom: All over down there is

Mom: want me to come get you?

I called her.

The text to my son were shorter, he is a man of few words, but I know he was not happy that we stayed. The phone kept ringing. I had owners of the properties that we manage calling and renters that we had to evacuate calling…it was chaos!

Michael was on Wednesday and on Thursday I was going stir crazy! I was desperate to get over to the beach and to Venture Out to see what was going on there. I knew it was bad but I needed to see it for myself and to check on the properties that we manage. Rob managed to keep me as calm as he could on Wednesday evening but he knew how badly I wanted to get out so he made it happen on Thursday. The street we live on is back off the main road thru the subdivision with 2 exits, both had trees across the road. We got out Thursday morning and talked to our neighbors and let a couple of them use our phone to call their families. Rob and a few other men from the neighborhood were able to cut off enough branches from the tree across one of the exit roads so that everyone could get out or emergencies crews could get in. Luckily no one needed emergency assistance.

The houses on the main road were really bad and several had huge tress across them. It was so surreal walking the block. We found that 3 doors down from us one of the 2 stories on the street was majorly damaged. (it has since been torn down) several other houses on our street also had bad damage. We were so incredibly lucky! I just kept thinking and later saying, “why us?” Why were we spared?

Rob got the sheetrock off of our cars and was able to force the garage door open (it was heavily damaged). The power pole and line was down across our driveway so we couldn’t get out that way, the tress were all over the yard so we couldn’t get out that way either. The next door neighbor didn’t have any trees so his yard was open. He has a small ditch and power lines were in it. We didn’t want to mess up his lawn so we took one of the boards off of the window and placed it on the power line and drove across it in his yard. That saved his grass and made it better to get across. We weren’t even sure if we were going to be able to get to the beach. We kept seeing post about not being let in PCB or that the Hathaway Bridge was closed. But I wanted, no I needed, to try. We headed that way about 1. We had friends that live on the Bay and friends that live in PCB that we couldn’t reach so we went by their houses first. The friends that live on the bay were going to stay but changed their minds late the night before, thank goodness, because their house was badly damaged and full of water. The street to get to their house wasn’t passable, so Rob parked and walked to the house. They had left a note to warn off looters and Rob could tell by the note that they were ok. We were able to get across the bridge with no trouble and headed to our other friends house to check on them, they were not home, they had some damage but it didn’t look catastrophic. Later we found out that they were out checking on other friends.

The county was under a curfew so we had to be back home by sunset. So we headed over to VO. I went into work mode and grabbed a golf cart and headed out into the resort to look at properties. I would have lost it but I was able to keep it together because I was “working”. The resort looked like a bomb had gone off. There was metal everywhere. Several roads were not passable. I took pictures and video and was making post on our business Facebook page so people could see their properties and know what they needed to do. Most people were appreciative, there were a few that were being unreasonable and demanding but I tried to ignore them as best that I could. We didn’t stay there too long, We didn’t want to miss curfew and we didn’t want to leave the dogs or our house for too long.

That was the then,now my new moto is “it is what it is”. I am a control freak and there was nothing about any of this that I could control. After about 2 weeks I think I lost it. I had not been sleeping, I was worrying myself sick and I just couldn’t take it anymore. I felt like I was walking dead. I lost all patience and quit my job over a stupid text. (I came to my senses). I can’t remember ever feeling so completely out of control as I did the days and weeks after Hurricane Michael.

Here it is a few days shy of 8 months since the horrible storm and things here are still in shambles. Yea many business have reopened, but many many more have not or will not. There are still so many people living in travel trailers, tents, cars and in hotels. Several hundred left. Just about every place you see has a help wanted sign because there are no workers or the ones that are here are getting aid so they don’t want to work. Over on the Beach, on the surface everything looks “normal” but it is far from normal. We are all just faking our way through it. We are trying to keep it together, trying ot look normal for the tourist.

My drive in to work is depressing. I leave my driveway and in front of me is one of the few remaining trees, it has a limb that is sticking in the ground holding itself up. I see squirrels scrambling looking for food. Their main food source (the huge oak tree) is gone. A couple of doors down & across the street, there are workers and dumpsters in the yard of a neighbor. Three doors down, the house that once stood is gone and the family of 5 living there is now living in a travel trailer. I turn to leave my street and the house on the corner to my left is having major repair work done (remember this is 8 months later). The house on the opposite corner is sitting for sale and is damaged heavily. Just down from that is another family living in their travel trailer on the empty lot where their house once stood. This keeps on until I get to the next street that gets me out of the neighborhood. There, there are several houses being gutted or have been gutted, one has been torn down and the lot was just cleaned up yesterday! Two others are needing to be torn down. Finally I get out of the residential area and onto the main roads to get me to work. There is where I pass by the Winn Dixie that is still not fully open, a building that has been torn down, A guy with a truck set up selling work boots. The Carmike/AMC Classic movie theater that is caved in and I’m pretty sure the two vehicles parked there (for months now) have people living in them. Once I get to the Hathaway Bridge (the only way to get to the beach from here) there is major construction going on. They are building new roads, this is not hurricane related. Over the bridge on the Beach side you notice that you can see more of the Navy base than you could before, but after that it’s pretty normal until you get to the bridge by Captain Andrson’’s. There you can see into the condos on the right side of the bridge, and into the marina building on the left. Finally I get to Venture Out and there I see tarps and construction. After work I get to see it all over again, at least 5 days a week. It gets to me sometimes and others I barely notice it except in my neighborhood, can’t help but notice that.

Will I ever get over it? I don’t think so. Will it ever get easier, I hope so. Will we ever “find our new normal”? I don’t know.