Seven months have passed since Hurricane Michael became the first Category 5 storm to hit the United States since Hurricane Andrew.
PANAMA CITY (CBSMiami/AP) — Seven months have passed since Hurricane Michael became the first Category 5 storm to hit the United States since Hurricane Andrew.
Both caused catastrophic damage to parts of Florida.
Residents in parts of the Florida Panhandle devastated by Hurricane Michael hope President Donald Trump gets a glimpse of the continued suffering in the region when he arrives for a campaign rally this week.
Area officials said the communities that were in the storm’s bullseye— Panama City, Mexico Beach and surrounding Bay County — had received about $1.1 billion in federal aid through mid-April. Mountains of debris have been removed, traffic lights work again and countless homes and businesses have been repaired.
Yet disagreements in Washington have left communities still waiting on other funding and many structures and neighborhoods appear much as they did the day after the storm with trees still atop splintered homes and blue roofing tarps flapping in the breeze. Tent cities have sprung up in some places. In others, people are living in fractured houses or mobile homes.
For some, recovery has been slow in arriving.
Her home in Panama City destroyed by the Category 5 storm, Jessica Manson said she lived in a tent for 64 days before moving into a donated camper. She now lives there without running water on a small plot she’s renting for $160 a month in neighboring Springfield. A 5-gallon (19-liter) bucket serves as the toilet.
Manson, 42, said she used to earn money cleaning condominiums in nearby Panama City Beach, where Trump’s rally is planned Wednesday.
