Hurricane Michael slams panhandle:
Rebuilding to cost billions
Florida Construction News staff writer
Hurricane Michael, the third strongest storm to ever
hit the continental United States, has slammed into
Florida's panhandle with surprising speed and intensity.
The storm's extreme 155 mile-per-hour winds at
landfall, and the lack of time to prepare for the cata-
clysmic wind and rain, magnified the disaster's scale.
Compared to last year's Hurricane Irma, the panhandle
areas hit by the storm had relatively small populations
(and the state capital Tallahassee was spared the
storm's worst effects), but communities – especially on
the coast – were completely decimated.
At press time, the death toll had reached 17, though
rescuers were still combing through the rubble and de-
struction, and officials expect the overall numbers will
increase. The Insurance Journal reports that CoreLogic be-
lieves insured storm losses could range from $2 to $4.5
billion (not including National Flood Insurance Program
(NFIP) losses). Of that, residential losses could total
$1.5 to $3 billion and commercial losses could be as
much as $500 million to $1 billion.
Coastal communities such as Mexico Beach,
Apalachicola, Panama City Beach and Marianna were al-
most obliterated, and Tyndall Air Force Base was ruined
(though the Air Force flew its extensive fleet of expen-
sive military jets away from the base before the storm
blew the base apart.)
"We're kind of getting crushed," Franklin County sher-
iff A.J. Smith said, describing the situation in
Apalachicola. "It's horrific," he told the Washington Post.
There certainly was extensive damage in Tallahas-
see; however damage wasn't as great as feared. "Do
we feel a little lucky about where we are now," Leon
County administrator Vince Long told the Tallahassee
Democrat. "I think given the magnitude of this storm,
the answer is a resounding 'yes'."
The storm had sustained winds of 155 mile per hour
when it made landfall at Mexico Beach, making the
storm more powerful than Hurricane Andrew, which
devastated south Florida in 1992, and far more severe
than last year's Hurricane Irma.
However, because Irma lashed highly populated
Southern Florida communities, the costs will prove
much higher than from Michael. Irma cost an estimated
$50 billion in damages in the US, with 92 fatalities.
Video from a US Coast Guard flight assessing
Hurricane Michael’s damage
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Florida Construction News — FALL 2018 – 3