Hurricane Michael 10-10-2018

On October 10th 2018 it landed in NWFL at Crooked Island East of TAFB-West of Mexico Beach. Reported lacking 5 MPH of a CAT5 but ('Weather stations in Mexico beach measured 160 sustained winds with gusts of 201, the black boxes had to be located to retrieve the info. The water tower was blown down, they have no infrastructure. It was a cat 5. ' ). Mexico beach is called ground ZERO.

I and Irene left on 9th and went to Dothan, AL and returned on 11th about 1 PM with a generator. We did not have any damage, just 1 small tree & limbs. We saved the Freezer & Refrigerator but 12 had to drive to Destin to get gas for it as the lines here were 3 hours long.

I have volunteered several days at Woodlawn UMC at 219 N. Alf Coleman Road in the Children’s Building . As of 10-29 they are no longer taking donations as we have to much and running out of space. They hope to shut it down by Thanksgiving.

THIS IS AMAZING STORY of a Home owner Keith Vargo in Mexico Beach:

As I was digging through the rubble, a man walked across the street and came up to me and extended his hand to shake mine and said, ‘thank you for saving my life…” Some background: Beth and I took the kids to the beach house for fall break and left on Monday morning as the storm had been upgraded to a cat 1 and gaining strength quickly. I tried to board as many windows and doors as possible, secure outdoor items, and get out quickly to return back to our home in Atlanta. In the rush, I was flip-flopping on whether to trailer the boat back to Atlanta or not ... I had come to terms with the fact that the house was destroyed and there was nothing I could have done to save it; yet, I was upset with myself for the decision I had made to leave the boat and put it in harm’s way – something I could have prevented.

As the neighbor continued his story he told me that he and his wife and his parents - the neighbors across the street - had decided to ride out the hurricane in his parent’s one-story beach home. Yes, a very bad idea. His parents are in their 70s and his dad a Vietnam vet in a wheelchair. As the storm surge continued, the entire front of the home was ripped away, and 2 of them were floating on a vinyl mattress and the other 2 on an insulated hot tub cover inside the home, pinned against the back wall of the living room. As the storm surge water pushed to 8 feet inside the home, they only had 12 inches of airspace left to breathe before all would drown. There was no escape. The incredible power of the storm surge, the sounds, and sheer force of the hurricane were unimaginable. They had given up and realized all were going to drown within minutes. In those last minutes as they were saying their goodbyes, they saw something large coming at the front of their home. It was my boat. It had broken free from the trailer that had wedged under the pilings, and floated across the street straight towards their home, and just before it impacted their house, it turned sideways and slammed into the home, wedging itself into the front wall. The boat became the new front wall of the home and acted to divert the majority of the incredible storm surge around the middle of the home to the sides of the home. Once that happened, the storm surge remained steady at 8 feet deep in the home rather than continuing to increase as it should have (the surge was 10+’ from the storm at my home), giving them those precious few inches of air to breath, and remained that way for the next 5 hours as they rode out the storm, literally inches from death. As the storm surge eventually receded, the boat un-wedged itself from the home and gently floated 20 feet to the side of their home and eventually lay on its side in their front yard. Click here for a link to his Facebook page. Find the October 20 2018 post.

Links:

• Mexico Beach during the storm
• 10-17 Some pictures at our church Distribution
• Info on one of the few homes still standing Mexico Beach
• Many line workers in MB & PSJ what a site
• The weather station info at Pier Park
• 394 Images From the Hathaway Bridge to Port St Joe, up through Wewa and back to Callaway. Every home, every business, every street, every thing damaged. People's lives scattered on the streets and in the trees! HEARTBREAKING!
• Above in Video 2018 Hurricane Michael Lands in NWFL 15 Min Video