- 5,071
- Panama City, FL
Everyone heard about Hurricanes Andrew, Katrina, Hugo, Wilma, Ivan, Irma, Harvey, Florence, and the list goes on. Now we've had Hurricane Michael, just shy of a category 5, some reports saying it was a cat 5 at landfall, with a barometric reading of 918 millibars, lower than Andrew, which destroyed so much of the Miami/Dade Co. area, and lower than Irma, which was so vicious to Central Florida (Orlando) last year. Yet how many of you have even heard of it? Here we are, nine days after, and there's no thread on it. It was so bad that I'm just now getting reliable (but slow) Internet service on my phone. The cable providers say they are weeks from restoring service. I had no power or running water until yesterday, eight days after the storm, and the water is still not drinkable until boiled.
The largest mobile carrier in the area, Verizon, has been completely shut down until this past Wednesday, and it still goes up and down. They've brought in temporary tower trucks to replace destroyed infrastructure. AT&T service remained uninterrupted, and AT&T even went so far as to provide free prepaids to customers of other carriers such as Verizon. And even though my Verizon now works, it still drops or refuses to make about half the calls I try, and it shuts off data while making a voice call. How long has it been since you've seen the message, "Mobile data unavailable, voice call in progress?" Apparently, Verizon's fiber links are on poles, not underground, which seems a serious design flaw. Might be cheaper, but they don't work when the poles blow away and the trees fall on the lines.
This is a heavily forested area, although not any more. People were trapped in their homes by trees that fell across doorways, or trapped on their lots by trees that fell across driveways and roads. I've been lost several times driving around because landmark buildings or vegetation are simply not there any more, especially at night with no power. Thousands upon thousands of business and homes are destroyed or seriously damaged.
As for myself, I was planning on riding it out at home. Forecasts the day before predicted a cat 3 diminishing to a 2 at landfall, headed directly for us in Panama City. I've sat through a Cat 2 before, Opal, back in 1995. You can just about walk around in a cat 2! The only part of the forecast that was correct was the destination. The eyewall came across just east of Panama City. I moved myself and my animals (three cats and a small dog) to my place of employment when the tracking showed it strengthening rather than weakening, and I did not trust my house to a 4 or 5 storm! The building I was in survived fairly intact; It had a large tree fall on it, but stood up to it with minor roof damage. There was water intrusion, again minor, from the roof, and along the front of the building at the windows and front door.
As for my house, part of my roof is gone, with my laundry room open to the sky. The ceilings are separated from the walls throughout my house because of the wind trying to lift the roof. My house has extreme water saturation because of the open roof, and I have ceilings down in three rooms and the garage, with two others bowed in. The eastern side of my house is pretty much OK, except for carpet wicking water from the west side, but the furniture there is OK, and my electronics seem to be OK. The west side of the house developed several openings as the roof deteriorated, shingles disappeared, and the space between sheets of decking allowed rain into the house. As the attic insulation soaked up the water and got heavy, those ceilings gave way, and I have wet drywall and loose fiberglass in the laundry area and my master bedroom. Globes on ceiling lamps where the ceilings still exist are full of water. The drywall on the back side of the house is molding already, and there aren't enough contractors to go around for everybody. My insurance adjuster was here, told me to make sure I get water removal people in ASAP. It was my impression that the insurance company had those people on retainer and would send them. Why is it my responsibility? I have no communications! The only way the adjuster got here is that I have access to a customer's working landline, but it's 12 miles from where I am, which takes about 90 minutes one way with these road and traffic conditions (trees and power lines blocking roads, intersections all unmanaged.) All I've been able to do at the house is start packing stuff that's OK to keep. I had clothes hanging in the laundry room that are under pounds of drywall and fiberglass now. I can't get to my stuff in the bedroom to check on it, as the debris is piled up at the door, I can open it only far enough to take a peek in. Still working on finding storage for my stuff, and a place to live for a while. My homeowner's policy has a decent-sized "loss of use" section, so I should be OK in that regard, but there isn't any place to go to.
As for positives, the response from the power companies has been amazing. Initial estimates for 95% restoration were up to two months. They've got crews here from all over the country, and you see bucket trucks by the thousands working to put poles and lines back up. The long estimation was because the power company said it was infrastructure damage, not just poles and lines. I rather thought poles and lines was their infrastructure, so I didn't understand that. Apparently what they meant was that substations were wiped out, and those huge towers with the 500,000-volt lines were gone. Can't distribute power that can't even get here. Anyways, truckloads of transformers, and flatbeds of cranes have been brought in, and that stuff is getting fixed.
So for now I'm still living at work, which is not open for business, yet. We're an IT support company, and we have no phones or Internet... Customer support is extremely difficult to provide when you're not connected to anything.
Across the bridge and in Panama City Beach, things are almost back to normal. Still no drinkable water, so most restaurants are still closed. Groceries are readily available, and gasoline is available too, although with probably a 30-minutes or so line. Not enough stations are back in business yet, due to damage sustained. It's amazing what a difference ten miles makes! During the height of the storm, I had wind from due north, with debris flying by, and rain pretty much horizontal. As the afternoon progress, the wind moved around to the northwest. This told me I was west of the eye, on the "good" side, as it moved in from landfall just a few miles east of me. The town of Lynn Haven, where my office is, is severely damaged, yet places farther east, such as Tyndall AFB and the town of Mexico Beach, are all but wiped out. I encourage you to do a Google search for "Hurricane Michael before and after." My Internet is so bad I can't even get those searches to load right now, so I can't post the links.
The largest mobile carrier in the area, Verizon, has been completely shut down until this past Wednesday, and it still goes up and down. They've brought in temporary tower trucks to replace destroyed infrastructure. AT&T service remained uninterrupted, and AT&T even went so far as to provide free prepaids to customers of other carriers such as Verizon. And even though my Verizon now works, it still drops or refuses to make about half the calls I try, and it shuts off data while making a voice call. How long has it been since you've seen the message, "Mobile data unavailable, voice call in progress?" Apparently, Verizon's fiber links are on poles, not underground, which seems a serious design flaw. Might be cheaper, but they don't work when the poles blow away and the trees fall on the lines.
This is a heavily forested area, although not any more. People were trapped in their homes by trees that fell across doorways, or trapped on their lots by trees that fell across driveways and roads. I've been lost several times driving around because landmark buildings or vegetation are simply not there any more, especially at night with no power. Thousands upon thousands of business and homes are destroyed or seriously damaged.
As for myself, I was planning on riding it out at home. Forecasts the day before predicted a cat 3 diminishing to a 2 at landfall, headed directly for us in Panama City. I've sat through a Cat 2 before, Opal, back in 1995. You can just about walk around in a cat 2! The only part of the forecast that was correct was the destination. The eyewall came across just east of Panama City. I moved myself and my animals (three cats and a small dog) to my place of employment when the tracking showed it strengthening rather than weakening, and I did not trust my house to a 4 or 5 storm! The building I was in survived fairly intact; It had a large tree fall on it, but stood up to it with minor roof damage. There was water intrusion, again minor, from the roof, and along the front of the building at the windows and front door.
As for my house, part of my roof is gone, with my laundry room open to the sky. The ceilings are separated from the walls throughout my house because of the wind trying to lift the roof. My house has extreme water saturation because of the open roof, and I have ceilings down in three rooms and the garage, with two others bowed in. The eastern side of my house is pretty much OK, except for carpet wicking water from the west side, but the furniture there is OK, and my electronics seem to be OK. The west side of the house developed several openings as the roof deteriorated, shingles disappeared, and the space between sheets of decking allowed rain into the house. As the attic insulation soaked up the water and got heavy, those ceilings gave way, and I have wet drywall and loose fiberglass in the laundry area and my master bedroom. Globes on ceiling lamps where the ceilings still exist are full of water. The drywall on the back side of the house is molding already, and there aren't enough contractors to go around for everybody. My insurance adjuster was here, told me to make sure I get water removal people in ASAP. It was my impression that the insurance company had those people on retainer and would send them. Why is it my responsibility? I have no communications! The only way the adjuster got here is that I have access to a customer's working landline, but it's 12 miles from where I am, which takes about 90 minutes one way with these road and traffic conditions (trees and power lines blocking roads, intersections all unmanaged.) All I've been able to do at the house is start packing stuff that's OK to keep. I had clothes hanging in the laundry room that are under pounds of drywall and fiberglass now. I can't get to my stuff in the bedroom to check on it, as the debris is piled up at the door, I can open it only far enough to take a peek in. Still working on finding storage for my stuff, and a place to live for a while. My homeowner's policy has a decent-sized "loss of use" section, so I should be OK in that regard, but there isn't any place to go to.
As for positives, the response from the power companies has been amazing. Initial estimates for 95% restoration were up to two months. They've got crews here from all over the country, and you see bucket trucks by the thousands working to put poles and lines back up. The long estimation was because the power company said it was infrastructure damage, not just poles and lines. I rather thought poles and lines was their infrastructure, so I didn't understand that. Apparently what they meant was that substations were wiped out, and those huge towers with the 500,000-volt lines were gone. Can't distribute power that can't even get here. Anyways, truckloads of transformers, and flatbeds of cranes have been brought in, and that stuff is getting fixed.
So for now I'm still living at work, which is not open for business, yet. We're an IT support company, and we have no phones or Internet... Customer support is extremely difficult to provide when you're not connected to anything.
Across the bridge and in Panama City Beach, things are almost back to normal. Still no drinkable water, so most restaurants are still closed. Groceries are readily available, and gasoline is available too, although with probably a 30-minutes or so line. Not enough stations are back in business yet, due to damage sustained. It's amazing what a difference ten miles makes! During the height of the storm, I had wind from due north, with debris flying by, and rain pretty much horizontal. As the afternoon progress, the wind moved around to the northwest. This told me I was west of the eye, on the "good" side, as it moved in from landfall just a few miles east of me. The town of Lynn Haven, where my office is, is severely damaged, yet places farther east, such as Tyndall AFB and the town of Mexico Beach, are all but wiped out. I encourage you to do a Google search for "Hurricane Michael before and after." My Internet is so bad I can't even get those searches to load right now, so I can't post the links.
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