People in Areas Devastated by Hurricane Michael Desperate for Supplies
Days after Hurricane Michael devastated the Florida Panhandle people in the hardest-hit areas are desperate for supplies.
At a Glance
Many areas in Florida have no power or phones and roads remain blocked.
State and federal assistance has yet to reach these isolated areas.
The FEMA administrator says "the system is working."
Days after Hurricane Michael devastated the Florida Panhandle, residents are finding themselves isolated in communities with no electricity, no phones, no water, no food and no idea when help might arrive.
During the storm, Barbara Sanders hunkered down in her daughter's apartment in downtown Panama City. The complex was badly damaged. However, Sanders told The Daily Beast that not a single relief agency has come by to check on them.
“We’re not getting any help,” she said. “We need food. It’s just crazy.”
Outside the city limits, residents of the working-class community of Millville also were searching for basic necessities, the New York Times reports.
Chunks were ripped from the roof of the home Eddie Foster shared with his 99-year-old mother. With no electricity, the food they had in the refrigerator spoiled. They had no running water. Even if the roads were cleared, Foster, 60, had no car. So they waited for help that still hadn't come by Friday afternoon.
“What can I do?” Foster asked. “I’m not angry. I just want some help.”
Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said, "There are a lot of inland areas, some of these poor rural counties to the north of there. These counties took a devastating hit. And we are talking about poor people, many of them are older, miles from each other, isolated in many cases from roads, including some dirt roads that are cut off right now. We haven't been able to reach those people in a number of days."
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long, left, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott talk with the media in Mexico Beach, Florida, on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018.
(AP Photo/David Goldman)
On Sunday, Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, toured Mexico Beach and Panama City with Florida Gov. Rick Scott.
“The system is working, but it takes time when you see devastation like this, and we have to set the citizens’ expectations,” he said, according to the Pensacola News Journal. “What’s coming next is citizens are going to get frustrated.”
Long said FEMA already had 23 distribution points where residents could get food, water, and other essentials.
“As time passes on, eventually what we’ll do is work with the state and local governments to set up disaster recovery centers that will stay in the communities for months at a time to make sure that people receive case management,” Long said.
Craig Fugate, a former FEMA chief, told the New York Times, “This is what disasters look like. Sit tight, help’s coming, but it’s not going to be there 12 hours after the storm passes.”
According to an update from Scott, help is on the way. Food and water are being airdropped into the hardest-hit areas. Three million ready-to-eat meals, 2 million gallons of water, and 2 million pounds of ice are being prepared for distribution. Much of it is headed for centralized Emergency Supply Distribution Centers, or Points of Distribution (POD), where the public can pick up emergency supplies.
A FEMA spokesperson said in a statement Sunday that the agency had sent teams to Florida to help coordinate federal response assistance requests. Other teams are working in shelters in nine counties to help survivors get access to disaster assistance. FEMA search and rescue teams have helped with evacuations, checking on people who had sheltered in place, and structural assessments.
FEMA has released more than 700,000 meals and almost a half million gallons of water to Florida to supplement local resources being distributed by state, voluntary, and faith-based organizations, such as the Salvation Army that has mobilized 48 mobile feeding units.
In areas without electricity and spotty cell service, however, information like that isn't reaching people who need it most.
Lynette Cordeno, 54, a retired Army sergeant, joined others in Callaway looking for something to eat. "I just keep looking for steeples and long lines, but I haven’t found much so far. We are walking around with no internet, no cell service, no way to even ask for help,” she told the New York Times.
“In a case like this, it’s going to take more than FEMA to help Floridians and the state of Georgia overcome this type of disaster,” Long said. “It’s going to take everything like what we see here, neighbor helping neighbor, coming together, all the way up to the federal government.... Hopefully, we’ll learn a lot going through this one so that we get better and as a nation we become more resilient.”
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