Michel's Birthday

[Rapier]

Today 10/10 Michel is 5 years old. On October 10, 2018 Michel came, with its huge storm surge and 165 mph sustained wind, gusting to 190-200. The damage was more akin to a huge tornado than a normal hurricane. It cut big trees off 2-3 ft above the ground, made thousands of acres of timber look like it had been Bush Hogged by a giant mower, left slabs instead of buildings, twisted poured reinforced concrete building off their foundations, leaving them to be demolished, eliminated miles of coastline and destroyed miles of roads, all communication was down, no cel, radio or TV towers and no telephone poles, no street signs, no stop signs or stop lights or street lights. Hospitals and six schools were destroyed.
Many builders went in to the area to appraise loss for various customers and then refused to go back, said the devastation was so bad, they would loose their crews if they took contracts within the area of destruction.
When Michel crossed into Georgia it was still a category 2 hurricane, destroyed hundreds of housands of acres of crops ready to harvest.
I talked my Daughter and her family into coming up to the AL border to stay with us, lucky, as their house in East Panama City was destroyed. So they stayed with us for a few weeks until we could get them a travel trailer big enough for four people to actually live in. I went in to setup the trailer for them, so had a good look at the area.
There are still areas in Panama City that have not yet been repaired.

[Bmi48219]

We camped in the P C area a few days in May of 2018. Liked it enough to consider moving in that direction. Especially the beaches and small towns. According to post-Michael news footage many of the places we visited were wiped off the map.

After weathering a few hurricanes I pay more attention to the potential for storm damage and how difficult it would be to get to a safe location. We are on the East coast five hours drive from the Georgia state line. In the event of an emergency evacuation the few North bound freeways would be jammed all the way. Panama City is closer to safe ground. But it is at the top of the Gulf. An Atlantic hurricane might miss Florida altogether, a Gulf hurricane can’t help but hit someone.
Nothing is perfect.