‘It’s Pure Hell’: Hurricane Michael Leaves Housing Crisis

Diahnn "Shelly" Summers, right, embraces Lori Hogan, who is currently living in a tent in Summers' backyard months after Hurricane Michael hit in Youngstown, Fla, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. "This is the first time I've felt comfortable since the hurricane," said Hogan. "This is home for me and I love it." A small village has popped up in Summers' backyard outside Panama City: Where there once was an empty grassy space, tents now form a circle around a fir tree with Christmas lights. The tents are currently home for local residents who are still homeless months after Hurricane Michael screamed ashore with 155-mph winds, flattening, blowing away or rendering uninhabitable thousands of houses. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

apnews.com - by Mike Schneider - March 4, 2019

. . . Of all the Florida Panhandle areas affected by Michael, Bay County was hardest hit: Officials said almost three-quarters of its 68,000 households were affected. Former Florida House Speaker Allan Bense, who is leading a hurricane recovery initiative, estimated about 20,000 people were homeless in the weeks after the October storm.

Some have been able to make their homes livable again with cosmetic repairs. Others left town: The county’s student population is down 14 percent. And 7,800 residents are still considered homeless, county officials said.

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