PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — Gov. Rick Scott says the Florida National Guard got into Mexico Beach and found 20 people who survived a direct hit from Hurricane Michael. RELATED: Hurricane Guide | PHOTOS | Local linemen ready to restore power | FSU, FAMU closed until Oct. 15 | Donate to victims | Deputies pray ahead of storm | Storm chaser drives into eye The town where the hurricane made landfall Wednesday remained very difficult to reach by land a day later, with roads covered by fallen trees, power lines and other storm debris. Overhead video from a CNN helicopter Thursday morning reveals widespread devastation across the town of about 1,000 people. Entire blocks of homes near the beach have been washed away, leaving nothing but concrete slabs in the sand. Rows and rows of other homes are smashed to pieces or crunched to the ground and leaning at odd angles. The town was under a mandatory evacuation order as the rapidly developing storm targeted the coast, but some people were determined to ride out the hurricane.<doc-sep>MEXICO BEACH — Walking around his shattered beachfront town, Mayor Al Cathey repeated the stunned refrain of many residents along the sleepy Florida coast: We didn't know it would be this bad. On Thursday, dawn broke over total wreckage. Splintered wood, mangled cars and washing machines littered the streets. Attics were torn from their frames and deposited hundreds of yards away, with totes still stowed in the eaves. "We're broken here," said Cathey, 71. "This devastation is beyond. I think it's sort of obvious we need some help." The mayor said he had a list of phone numbers for emergency management officials, right up to Gov. Rick Scott's office, but there was no cell service or power, so he couldn't communicate with the outside world. Mexico Beach was totally cut off. About 1,200 residents live here full time, Cathey said, and roughly 280 stayed. The police chief had the list of names, but he was in Panama City — miles away on a good day, now totally out of reach. DAY ONE: Hurricane Michael thrashes Florida Panhandle with historic fury "We don't know if they're accounted for or not," Cathey said. He walked down U.S. 98 with his son, Lee, and friend, Charles Smith, owner of the Gulf View Motel. Lee carried his shotgun, which he found in the street, plucked by wind or water and thrown from the family's hardware store. They grabbed bottles of water from a refrigerator left in the middle of the highway. "We can't do anything until we clear this road," Cathey said of the highway, one lane in either direction. "This is our Main Street." • • • Large chunks of pavement were washed out or covered by broken wood, metal, kayaks, boats, sofas — pieces of lives altered by the storm. Sand had blown ashore in huge, wet banks. Overnight, a building burned to the ground, with no one there to fight the fire. The flames sizzled above the sound of waves crashing across the street. Up the road, two people waved flashlights into the black, searching for help for an elderly woman suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Early Thursday, the smell of smoke still hung over a section of Mexico Beach, mixed with the stench of leaking natural gas. With a population that swells as large as 6,000 during tourist season, the city only has 36 employees to work cleanup, Cathey said, and just small pieces of machinery meant for scraping the scenic beach — not for cleaning up piles of rubble as high as stilt homes. "We're a throwback community," Cathey said. "There's no corporate America here. There's no McDonald's. There's no Walmart." DAY TWO: 'There are no words.' At least six dead as rescue crews search through Hurricane Michael's wrath Now the Mexico Beach staircases go nowhere, lying sideways in the street, and the colorful doors to beach cottages are 10 feet up with no way to reach them. Homes along the highway look like doll houses torn up in a tantrum — bedframes, hutches, toaster ovens and sitting chairs stacked in soggy piles. The pine trees that weren't snapped in half are bent away from the water as if in fear. They point like arrows, showing which way the wind blew. Cathey and his family rode out Hurricane Michael in their home, retreating to the interior when the wind and rain got so bad they couldn't even see out the window. "We just huddled in the bathroom and said a prayer," Cathey said. His friend Smith rode out the storm in the motel, where the storm surge rose fast. "You couldn't see the water," Smith said. "You could only see the debris." GROUND ZERO: See the damage Hurricane Michael inflicted on Mexico Beach The flood sent him off his feet and briefly under water with his cat. "My refrigerator hit me," Smith recalled. "Queen-sized bed tried to run me over." • • • From Mexico Beach to Port St. Joe, further east on U.S. 98, everyone recalls the same terrifying timeline. They awoke Wednesday to word Hurricane Michael was a Category 4. That was unexpected. The wind picked up about 11 a.m. growing stronger and stronger. The power went out. And then the center of the storm came ashore, just to their west, leaving them under the powerful top right quadrant. "The wind and rain, it took turns," Fran Boaz said. The gusts were "just relentless," nearly matching the fiercest tornadoes she lived through in Tennessee. Half a mile inland in Mexico Beach, Boaz said, her townhome saw 4 feet of water. "It was just like somebody created a river," she said. Danny Gabriel, 18, recalled panic coming on fast. RELATED: Wind shear weakens storms. Hurricane Michael just shrugged it off. "Once noon came around, it was just pure chaos," he said. The wind shook the first-floor condo where he and his family took shelter. He feared the walls would collapse. "I thought: This is it," he said. "I'm going to die." Gabriel walked down the main drag of Mexico Beach alone Thursday morning in a cutoff shirt, carrying a carton of cigarettes. The community pier was wiped out, the pumps at the nearby gas station gnarled into knots. Emergency crews, from as far as New Orleans, staged at the western edge of town. Later, they picked over broken buildings with axes, hammers and search dogs, looking for people hurt in the storm. • • • Just beyond the eastern edge of Mexico Beach, at the far reaches of Port St. Joe, a trio of residents who rode out the storm awoke to check if their SUV would start. Bob Jones, 49, was able to get the portable lighter to flare up a Marlboro Light. He had stayed behind with his landlords, Cindy and James Murphy. Their two-story apartment building on U.S. 98 was a total loss. They planned to sell in the spring, they said, and now expect to market only a lot. They're insured for $70,000, Cindy Murphy said, but lost much more. 30 IMAGES: The Times eyewitness account to damage inflicted by Hurricane Michael after landfall<doc-sep>Hurricanes A guide to the world's deadliest storms Hurricanes are violent storms that can bring devastation to coastal areas, threatening lives, homes and businesses. Hurricanes develop from thunderstorms, fuelled by warm, moist air as they cross sub-tropical waters. Warm air rises into the storm. Air swirls in to fill the low pressure in the storm, sucking air in and upwards, reinforcing the low pressure. The storm rotates due to the spin of the earth and energy from the warm ocean increases wind speeds as it builds. When winds reach 119km/h (74mph), it is known as a hurricane - in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific - or a typhoon in the Western Pacific. "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. Well, we're about to get punched in the face." Florida Mayor Bob Buckhorn, ahead of Hurricane Irma (2017) The central eye of calmer weather is surrounded by a wall of rainstorms. This eyewall has the fastest winds below it and violent currents of air rising through it. A mound of water piles up below the eye which is unleashed as the storm reaches land. These storm surges can cause more damage from flooding than the winds. "Urgent warning about the rapid rise of water on the SW FL coast with the passage of #Irma's eye. MOVE AWAY FROM THE WATER!" Tweet from the National Hurricane Center The size of hurricanes is mainly measured by the Saffir-Simpson scale - other scales are used in Asia Pacific and Australia. Winds 119-153km/h Some minor flooding, little structural damage. Storm surge +1.2m-1.5m Winds 154-177km/h Roofs and trees could be damaged. Storm surge +1.8m-2.4m Winds 178-208km/h Houses suffer damage, severe flooding Storm surge +2.7m-3.7m Hurricane Sandy (2012) caused $71bn damage in the Caribbean and New York Winds 209-251km/h Some roofs destroyed and major structural damage to houses. Storm surge +4m-5.5m Hurricane Ike (2008) hit Caribbean islands and Louisiana and was blamed for at least 195 deaths Winds 252km/h+ Serious damage to buildings, severe flooding further inland. Storm surge +5.5m Hurricane Irma (2017) caused devastation in Caribbean islands, leaving thousands homeless<doc-sep>PANAMA CITY, Fla. – Federal officials helping Florida and other states dig out from the vast damage of Hurricane Michael said Friday it remains too dangerous to return to areas flooded by storm surge such as in Bay County. Emergency teams are focused on restoring communications and transportation. But Brock Long, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said debris and storm devastation in some areas prevents a safe return yet. “It’s still not safe to return, particularly to Bay County, Florida,” Long said. “There is no infrastructure there to support you and quite honestly it’s a dangerous area to go back into.” About 4,000 had applied to FEMA by Friday morning for financial assistance to repair their homes, said Alex Amparo, deputy assistant administrator for national preparedness. But that number was expected to grow as transportation and communications networks were restored, he said. “We expect that number to continue to increase exponentially as more people have access to communications,” Amparo said. About 2,900 people stayed in Red Cross evacuation centers and emergency shelters in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, according to spokesman Peter Macias. About 1,000 volunteers are helping provide shelter, food and health services in five states, he said. FEMA is working with state officials on housing options such as mobile housing, rental units and retrofitting buildings, Amparo said. “There are many people who evacuated further away or actually went to a hotel,” he said. “The emergency housing for folks right now – it’s either staying with family and friends, or the shelter where they stayed pre-landfall.” Residents have 60 days to apply for financial assistance from FEMA, which is aimed at making dwellings habitable rather than fully restoring their value. If homes are destroyed, FEMA can sometimes use aerial images to assess the damage, Amparo said. But typically inspectors must visit the damaged dwellings with the residents and once the meeting is complete, money is transferred electronically sometimes as fast as within hours, he said. Search and rescue operations continued. By 8 a.m. Friday, FEMA had conducted welfare checks of 654 people who stayed put for the storm, Amparo said. Authorities also assessed 1,000 structures and evacuated 27 people from dangerous areas, he said. But all of those numbers might have doubled during Friday, he estimated. Crews worked to reopen damaged areas. Twisting convoys of bucket trucks and cherry pickers, carrying hundreds of power and tree service workers from around the region, fed in and out of the parking lot of the Walmart in Panama City Beach before dispersing across Bay County. “Anybody who evacuated Mexico Beach who is in a shelter, it’s going to be a long time before they’re actually able to go back and return to those places because it was heavily damaged,” Long said. As blue skies and sun returned to the Panhandle, the roar of chainsaws and generators drowned out chirping birds. In Panama City, the power is out, gas lines are shut down and cell phones couldn't get service. “This is more devastating than I thought it would be,” said Katie Danielson, 38, whose home was damaged but is still livable with a small generator, an electric griddle and a pool to get water for flushing toilets. “I wish that we had left. It’s just kind of miserable right now.” Residents scrounged for food and drinks, and fetching buckets of bayou water to flush their toilets. The Sam’s Club opened to sell gas, but almost no other stores were open. “We were prepared for a day or two at the most,” said Tyson Bean, 26, who grilled and shared hamburgers with neighbors Thursday night. “But ice has melted and the food is gone.” His girlfriend, Whitney Sharp, 32, wondered when schools might reopen. Her daughter, Jaslyn, 4, was supposed to have started pre-kindergarten next week. “We have no idea,” Sharp said. “Some of our neighbors are teachers and they said it might be three months.” On Beck Avenue near the Panama City waterfront, daylight poured between the exposed beams of Jordan Slaughter’s roof. Her apartment was still standing, but uninhabitable. Slaughter bagged up the belongings that were worth saving, and gingerly stepped over the things that weren’t, as friends and family joked about the need for hazmat suits. “I’m going to stay with family until the power comes back on or I find another job,” she said. Agueda Sanchez and her son, Victor, used a tree limb to sweep up the debris at their family bakery where the 155 mph winds had blown out the building’s front wall. The bakery, La Fuente on U.S. 98, had been part of a small strip mall occupied by a handful of local business owners. The roof was peeled off much of the complex. A pile of brick and debris containing everything from office chairs to a street sign lay where the western wall of the building once stood. “I don’t know if they’re going to rebuild,” Victor Sanchez said. “It depends on the owners and the insurance.” In Blountstown, about 50 miles northeast of Mexico Beach, those in need of food and water were queueing up near the town square. “I’m the only person who has a car and gas,” said Sandra Clark of Clarksville, who sat crying in her car at the distribution center because the need was so great. “I have 15 people. They’re living in tents. They’re decimated. We have nothing.” Grabbing water for a different reason was Jessie Foreman, a technician from Critter Car, a pet clinic outside Blountstown. “We have about 30 animals housed there, people dropped their animals off with us before they left for the storm,” she said. “The front part of the building is caved in, collapsed, but the back half is secure. All the animals are safe.” Streams of emergency vehicles rolled past Blountstown and headed south to Mexico Beach, Port St. Joe and other hard-hit areas. Lines of ambulances, utility trucks, tree services trucks, state fish and game officers in their marked trucks, and line-upon-line of white prison buses, made their way steadily toward the coast.<doc-sep>
MEXICO BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - Mexico Beach, the seafront Florida resort town shattered by Hurricane Michael, will be rebuilt “100 percent”, its mayor said on Friday. A foundation of a ruined home is pictured following Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Florida, U.S., October 12, 2018. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri But the community, void of condominium high rises and hotel chains, is bound to be built differently to limit future damage, Mayor Al Cathey said. “We’re going to lose some of the quaintness that we had, in the old cottage style houses,” he told Reuters as he surveyed the damage in his truck. “But we’ll be newer and improved.” Nearly entire blocks of small two-story houses were swept away during the hurricane, presumably by storm surges that reached up to nine feet (2.7 meters). Some larger bungalows and multi-story buildings survived. Those that withstood the storm were likely built or raised after Florida overhauled its building codes in 2001, Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told CNN on Friday. Local and state officials must be proactive in passing the necessary regulations, he said. “It’s OK if you want to live on the coast or on top of a mountain that sees wildfires or whatever, but you have to build to a higher standard ... If we’re going to rebuild, do it right,” Long said. The immediate challenges for Mexico Beach residents who were picking through the remains of their homes were a lack of power, water and phone service, and no nearby sources of food and gasoline. “I don’t know if we can rebuild or not, depends on the insurance,” said Marcie Miller, a real estate agent from Georgia, removing valuables from the shell of her house. “And now they’re talking about changing the building code.” Insurance usually covers the cost of a home, but not the expense of rebuilding to stricter construction codes. A second residence owned by Marcie and her husband Pete, a farmer, a two-story duplex, was tossed in two large pieces a city block from a double lot that the family has owned since 1957. Some residents who were nervously trickling back on Friday said they hoped the place, nicknamed “the Forgotten Coast,” does not change too much. “It was the perfect beach town. Not all of that commercialism,” said Dottie Sinclair, 57, a nurse, adding that one Subway fast-food restaurant was the only commercial chain. “I don’t think it will ever be the same,” said husband Danny Sinclair, 64, who is semi-retired. “People will just pack up and leave.” Mexico Beach, is one of many white-sand beaches along the Florida Panhandle, but unlike communities like Panama City Beach, it has no large scale resorts run by big chains. While it will be different, the mayor said he hopes to keep Mexico Beach’s law preventing buildings taller than four floors. “If we do that then the big guys won’t be interested in us,” Cathey said. The mayor rode out the hurricane in his house, which was unscathed, but the hardware store he owns was leveled. A search and rescue operation led by FEMA had not found any Mexico Beach fatalities as of Friday morning, authorities said. Residents who returned were not giving up on their home. “I hope they rebuild it. It’s a wonderful community,” said Roger Wiggins, 66, a retired maintenance worker. “It’s just going to take years.”