Commentary: Rural Northwest Florida Is Forgotten After Hurricane Michael

Hurricane Michael struck on Oct. 10, 2018 at Category 5 strength, the strongest hurricane to ever hit Florida’s Northwest coast and the fourth storm of this magnitude to ever make U.S. landfall since 1850. The storm was so strong, it remained a Category 3 when it hit the Georgia state line, another record as the first major hurricane to directly impact Georgia since the 1890s. 

The effects of the loss of housing and economic drivers will be felt for many years.  As this region continues to rebuild and plan for recovery, local government officials who have never had to face such catastrophic loss are faced with many tough fiscal decisions.

The following commentary is submitted by Richard Williams, the Executive Director of Opportunity Florida, a rural regional economic development organization serving the regional Rural Area of Opportunity, and the Executive Director of Career Source Chipola. – Allara Mills Gutcher

The challenge of explaining where we stand post Hurricane Michael as it relates to rebuilding, lessons learned, and how we are preparing for the next storm is a task that is much like the recovery. It seems impossible at first, but if you take it one step at a time, realize you are going to make mistakes, and realize it is going to take a lot of time to see even a little progress you can move forward positively.

Planning for the new “us” is underway. We are encouraging our communities to dream. We are finding that in a region economically depressed prior to the storm, learning to dream about the future is often a tough sell. Many communities simply don’t believe that the resources to make those dreams become a reality will be delivered. Given what happened in the immediate aftermath I can’t blame them for having those negative thoughts, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t working to change their view of tomorrow.

Today we stand forgotten by most of the outside world, but despite this we are doing what we always do here in rural Florida. We are taking what resources we have and making them work as best we can every single day. It took 239 days for a relief bill to be passed and signed by the president. By comparison aid was passed for Hurricane Katrina in just 10 days.

In the rural counties local government are still reeling from the physical impacts and are just beginning to really tackle the fiscal impacts on the budget for this and future years. Community leaders find their days filled with meetings that are just now starting to move from promises to planning. We are finding the passage of relief funds doesn’t mean there is money ready to be spent on needs such as housing. It will still take time to establish the rules and regulations around those funds. The passage of money does mean people are just now starting to realize there really are reasons to dream big about the future.

The shortage of available workforce housing is having a real impact on the local economy, and many communities are now realizing that they must tackle this issue if they want any chance at future growth, or maybe even future survival as a community. The need for planning around the housing issue has never been more pressing.

Where do we stand now? We are starting to move forward with more than just digging out of debris, and we are starting to see actual plans being developed that take into consideration needs of today and tomorrow. We have learned many lessons, too many to write in this space, but the main lesson we were forced to learn is three words. Recovery Takes Time.