Ten days after Hurricane Michael roared ashore near the town of Mexico Beach, Florida the official death toll remains uncertain and rural communities in both Florida and Georgia are still waiting for the promised aid. As of October 18, the US death toll for Hurricane Michael stands at 35. However, officials have acknowledged that the number doesn’t include some people known dead in areas severely hit, particularly Bay County in Florida, and doesn’t account for hundreds of people still listed as missing. Meanwhile, in towns well away from the shore where hurricane force winds brought down trees that had never seen such a storm and destroyed buildings not constructed to meet 140 mph winds, survivors are wondering what happened to FEMA
As the Washington Post reports, residents in towns like tiny Alford, Florida have watched supply trucks pass through as officials reestablished transportation lines to the coast. But those supply trucks are not stopping. Alford is just one of many communities still without power, food, or clean water as efforts focus on more visible areas along the shore. Seventy percent of rural roads in the region remain blocked, washed out, or are missing bridges, meaning that residents of Florida and south Georgia who don’t live in towns have seen little, if any, assistance so far.
“People live miles apart, and that makes it much harder in a situation like this” to provide aid and rescue services, Garling said. “This is just a massive, massive area, and the cleanup and removal of huge trees and debris all has to happen in stages.”
With both power and cell service still out in many areas, its hard to determine how many people are experiencing serious issues. Even in areas where 911 calls can go out, all but the calls being identified as immediately life-threatening are being ignored. The Miami Herald reports that in towns 50 miles from the coast the destruction from Michael is still massive, and mostly unseen on either news reports or by emergency officials.
The inland areas affected by Michael are much poorer than the sites along the coast. While destroyed beachfront homes in Mexico Beach and Panama City often belong to people who have other homes outside the area of destruction, that’s not true of those whose homes were lost inland. In inland counties, many homes were older and smaller, and less likely to have been constructed after new requirements were issued following destruction from Hurricane Andrew. As of Saturday, 124,000 homes reportedly remain without power, though it’s not clear how many of those homes no longer exist.
In Jackson County, Florida—where Michael’s eye carved a path “like a ten mile wide tornado” on its way to points north—the median family income is just $35,470. One of the poorest regions of the state, it’s also an area with older homes and more mobile homes that folded in the face of the high winds, driving rain, and blowing debris. It’s an area that feels abandoned after the storm. Isolated by damaged roads and by the lack of internet or electricity, residents there have little information about what’s going on, or when they can expect help. Those who left in advance of the storm are only now getting back to their homes, with little idea of what to expect.
“I’m hearing on the radio about the coast, but nobody’s talking about Marianna,” said Mike Purvis, who was preparing Friday morning to examine just how badly the hurricane had damaged his home.
Initial polls have reported that Florida residents feel that current governor Rick Scott has done a good job in responding to the storm. It’s a fair bet those polls don’t include the people who live in Jackson County or other areas still waiting for relief.
According to Reuters, more than 1,000 people remain missing, and many of the missing are “elderly, disabled, or impoverished.” Florida officials note that many of these people may have escaped the area in advance of the storm, and may have remained with relatives or friends.