Eight years later, especially after the Hurricane that can’t be pronounced, this is still raw. All of our wind sensors in the entire area broke when winds hit 160+ before the storm even made landfall. It made landfall on Tyndall Air Force base and every building was damaged. All of the military housing was destroyed. My friends home with her children’s stuff was unrecoverable. They nearly closed the base permanently due to the damage- until Trump stepped in. The East side of the storm took the worst of the damage, but it was luckily rural. Mexico Beach saw the worst of the storm surge at 24’. That’s halfway up the third floor. Many of the concrete foundations were gone. We lost 90% of our canopy. When the electric company came to restore power, they had to put in all new poles because most were gone, broken, or at 50 degree angles. The entire area was unrecognizable to people who had lived here their entire lives. Many, many people had to be chainsawed out of their home due to trees trapping people inside. Helping your neighbor was key to our survival. It took weeks to 6 weeks to get power restored. The mail service was out about 3-4 weeks. Water and sewage took days to over a week. Cell service worked for only AT&T until about 6 weeks later. We lived without modern amenities in the rain and sun until we could get services. Until our houses were livable we lived in trailers or outside- many of us for years after the hurricane. We had curfews out of necessity. City Roads were impassable for days. All of the hospitals took major damage and even closed. Some hospitals still have not recovered 8 years later. The Salvation Army fed us for over a month. @SamaritansPurse was one of the first in and stayed over a year. We all depended on each other and the help from our fellow men. Every single person in the 40 mile wide path was affected- their job, their car, their home but for most all was affected. The path went all the way to Georgia. On our Hurricane Michael anniversary, I am so glad to see those on the Gulf Coast doing so well, because what I’ve seen was so much worse. I’m so happy this wasn’t as bad as it could be. For those who had no idea, we know. It’s because the damage was so bad we couldn’t tell you. We couldn’t call for help or post for you to see. And for all of those who know the devastation of Hurricane Michael, I hope you are stronger today than you were. To those with a fresh taste of Mother Nature, we are here for you. Sending my Love.