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Peggy Sue Singleton salvaged a sign from the wreckage of her Panama City, Fla., Barbershop that was destroyed during Hurricane Michael. Just a few words are now legible: "This is the happy place." (Kevin Begos / For The Washington Post)
PANAMA CITY, Fla. – Business used to be good at Peggy Sue Singleton's tiny, white cinder-block barber shop, where she and a co-worker snipped and buzzed more than 200 heads of hair in this seaside city adjacent to a military base.
The cinder blocks now are strewn across the parking lot as if bludgeoned by a wrecking ball, her parlor a haphazard heap of construction innards: splintered wood, smashed windows, wire. As she sifted through the remains, Singleton salvaged two $ 500 hair vacuums, a stash of suds from her "free beer Fridays," and the sign that once appeared: Haircuts $ 11; flat tops $ 13.
"This is the 'happy place'!" The battered white lettering says.
Hurricane Michael was the wrecker of this happy place. It's a hit and miss, with 155-mph winds, flattening buildings, tearing up roads and knocking out power to entire counties. Michael did not just break things, it upended everything. Life in Panama City is still completely disrupted, with many lacking power, running water, reliable cell service and access to the Internet.
This city of 36,000 has long been a gateway to the Gulf, a white-beach providing a touch of paradise along the Florida Panhandle. But residents are now carving out new, unfamiliar existences amid the destruction, driven by the dictates of survival and loss of the staples of modern life.
Some – like Singleton, who says she has a job with the command of Tyndall Air Force. Others are looking for a new employment, often facing a disaster. And everyone is adapting to a society where credit cards and cellphones often do not work. The recovery has transformed their environment into a giant construction site, where the whine of sirens joins the constant buzz of chain saws and the clanks of heavy equipment. Traffic crawls.
Danica Cherico and Shawn Gehlert use a generator to power them as they sit outside their apartments after they are damaged by Hurricane Michael. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
There is now no need to provide food for food, but they are free at distribution centers, though ice is hard to find. Registering with insurance adjusters or. Information about open pharmacies or sellers selling generators and batteries is passed on by word of mouth. The only way to do this is to keep it up to date, too: Most banks remain closed, and ATMs are not working. One bank, BB & T, a mobile satellite unit in a parking lot lot to help infuse cash into the community.
"When there's no power, there's no connectivity, and obviously they do not work," Brian Davis, a BB & T spokesman, said of ATMs. Davis is from Panama City and drove from North Carolina the day after the storm to evacuate his mother and husband. "It's bad. I cried, "Davis said. "I used to be in news. I've seen hurricanes, I've seen tornadoes. . . . I've never seen anything like this. "
[[Houses intact after Michael Hurricane were often saved by low-cost reinforcements]
A week without infrastructure is testing who is prepared for the storm and its aftermath. Jack Humphreys and his son-in-law, both retired from the military, filled their vehicles with gas, knowing they would be better off for their generator and other unforeseen emergencies. They withdrew $ 500 in cash, expecting it might be difficult to navigate to a post-hurricane economy.
But the family quickly exhausted the money: "We went through it like candy," Humphreys said, "he's going out to buy bananas." "Everything is cash. You can not get to a bank. "
Joyce Walker sits on her porch in the aftermath of Michael Hurricane in Panama City, Fla. (Gerald Herbert / AP)
In addition to being unable to access money, residents also are competing to make more of a disaster with out-of-towners from North Carolina, Texas and beyond. Some after-storm entrepreneurs are offering specialized skills as roofers, tree surgeons and mold-abatement experts, and others just import their muscle to help clear debris and rebuild.
A waitress at a seafood restaurant served up beer and wine to customers in the city. She had lost one part-time job, and noted that it was a new job. The tables at Dat Cajun Place, owned by a couple of people in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, who have been trying to get away from their homes.
After waking up to the end of days of hard labor, some residents spoke of warm showers, flushing toilets and working laundromats. By Friday, when the family returned to the blue sky, some families took over the city and ended up with the family.
At People Ready, a temporary employment agency, Keith Crawford, a barber from Biloxi, Miss., Who lived through Katrina, said he had just been driven from Wilmington, NC, where Hurricane Florence opened work opportunities a month ago.
"There's work everywhere," Crawford said. And the cost of the gas was worth it when he could earn $ 10.50 an hour traveling the country doing disaster cleanup.
Christine Hudson, 50, said she did not know about the future, but she was not sure about the future.
"That's why I came here. I have never signed up for a busy day before, but it will keep us busy for a while, "said Hudson. She was relieved to learn that the firm has immediate jobs that pay between $ 10 and $ 13 an hour.
"It helps keep your mind off of. . . all this, "she said, gesturing to the shattered landscape. Hudson's truck is blown out, but she has nowherehere to go.
Richard Hilliard clears fallen from his yard in Panama City following Hurricane Michael. (Scott Olson / Getty Images)
Panama City is best known for its beaches and tourist economy, but
The storm wrecked much of Tyndall, which evacuated its 3,600 active-duty and 2,000 civilian employees, plus thousands of dependents and military retirees. There are no estimates yet of total rebuilding costs. The WestRock Company paper mill employs about 600 people, but it says in a statement that some production will be limited to 50 percent of capacity for the next six months.
[['It's all gone': Tiny Florida beach town nearly swept away by Hurricane Michael]
There was widespread damage at the Eastern Shipbuilding Group, which employed about 800 people and had plans to expand a large Coast Guard contract. Vice President Steve Berthold said it was going to be 40 percent of the workforce is doing cleanup and repairs.
More than 1,000 people working at the Port of Panama City, said executive director Wayne Stubbs. The main port operations can be repaired and should be able to service most customers right away.
But a new warehouse at its east terminal and a distribution warehouse "You never dreamed that it was so hard," Stubbs said.
At RV Connections, employees drove a convoy of vehicles before the storm. Owner Jack Stewart usually sells about 45 RVs each month. Now, with people homeless, he is selling four or five modest. It is not a success.
"This is not the way we like our RVs," Stewart said.
Veronica LaMont works at an adult novelty store in neighboring Panama City Beach, a tourist mecca where business is usually pretty good. Since the storm, it has been dropped. It's not clear when tourists who drive so much from the regional economy will be back. And the first responders occupying the apartments have not been made for the drop in sales.
"They are just too busy for that," LaMont said. "They do not have time."
Local residents are exhausted, too, figuring out how to be themselves. Singleton, sifting like an archaeologist through the remains of her barber shop, suddenly plunged to a dusty object, settled her grip on her hand and raised her head in triumph.
"Oh my God, those are my clippers!" She exclaimed.
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Begos is a freelance journalist based in Florida. Zezima reported from Washington.
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