[ad_1]
DESTINY – Hurricane Michael is now making waves – economic, in areas that have escaped the fury of the storm.
Every morning, locally, the westbound lanes of US Highway 98 linking Panama City to Destin are cluttered with storm victims attempting to rebuild themselves, foraging for food, building materials, gasoline and housing.
At the same time, the eastbound lanes of Highway 98 abound each morning with emergency response personnel, insurance adjusters, utility conservators – and more and more construction contractors – while Panama City and surrounding areas continue to emerge from Hurricane Michael.
In the evening, the flow is reversed, as people in Destin return home to bypass curfews in Bay County and Panama City Beach, and the people who worked in area devastated by the storm return to their destination. accommodation in the region.
Perhaps most immediately apparent is the impact of post-hurricane economic dynamics on accommodation options in and around Destin.
"There are just not a lot of solutions available at the moment," said Shane Moody, president and CEO of Destin's Chamber of Commerce. Personally, Moody said he was struggling to find housing for his friends and colleagues in search of accommodations following the hurricane.
The experience of an economic boom after a hurricane is not a new phenomenon locally, Moody said.
"We saw this a long time after Katrina," he said. Hurricane Katrina struck the western part of the region in 2005, destroying part of New Orleans and causing damage along the Gulf Coast.
According to Moody, this local boom lasted a few years and allowed – for a while – to protect the Destin region from the economic downturn that hit the United States between the mid to late 2000s.
The big-box building materials stores are another place where the post-Hurricane Michael local economic boom is evident.
"It's a crazy house these past few days," David Johnson, deputy director of The Home Depot on Commons Drive, in Destin, said Thursday afternoon as he was bringing a pallet of coal briquettes from wood at the store. The Home Depot store in Panama City was heavily damaged by the hurricane. Customers are turning to Destin instead, he said.
When the hurricane devastated the Gulf of Mexico last week, the local Home Depot was stocked with "pre-strike" supplies – generators, tarpaulins, and gas cans – that customers would want or would need it immediately after the storm. , according to Destin Store Director, Jaime San Miguel.
Now that the focus is on recovery and repair, Home Depot customers are looking for solutions such as large plastic storage containers for salvaged objects, according to San Miguel.
This was the case for Ephraim Lopez and his wife, SanJuanita. The Panama City couple were on vacation in Ohio when the storm hit and returned to search for a tree that had crashed into their lair. They are now staying at a girl who has a condominium in Panama City Beach that survived the hurricane.
In addition to picking up a number of large plastic storage containers to retrieve some of their belongings, the Lopezes were in Destiny to see an orthopedist at SanJuanita's wrist, which she broke while she was heading quickly to a Verizon store in Panama City. with internet and cell phone service.
In the near future, the couple announced that they would regularly travel to Destin to procure recovery supplies and gasoline. Ephraim Lopez said it was faster to drive to Destin than to find and wait for gas in Panama.
Residents of Panama City for 36 years, the Lopez do not intend to leave in the aftermath of the hurricane.
"I can not get her out of Panama City," Ephraim Lopez said jokingly, "I offered him a million dollars."
It's not just big box stores, gas stations, hotels and condominiums that are experiencing the economic boom. Many other locally owned businesses are also experiencing a spike in customer numbers.
Among these is the Klean Wash Laundromat at Santa Rosa Plaza, a strip mall located on the west side of Highway 98 in Santa Rosa Beach.
On Thursday afternoon, Lola Macomb and her 10-year-old daughter Scarlet were washing clothes after driving Lynn Haven. Macomb and his family were evacuated to Alabama before the hurricane and returned to search for a fallen tree on their home. They do not have electricity, but unlike many people in Lynn Haven, their house was still habitable.
"We feel blessed," said Macomb. Nevertheless, she now drives four hours every two days (90 minutes to Santa Rosa Beach and over two hours to Lynn Haven) to deal with the laundry of her husband, three children and two elderly parents.
"I have not been to a laundromat for so many years," she said. "I had to ask how to use the machines."
The story of Macomb is typical, according to Doreen Baca, who owns Klean Wash with her husband, Jerry.
"We are really out of date," said Doreen Baca to the extent to which the effects of the hurricane have boosted business. On the occasion, she added, people have been waiting for three depths to use one of the 20 washers and 20 dryers at the laundromat.
But, she added, she and her husband and their employees are aware of the harsh conditions in which some of their customers live and will often cover the cost of laundry and laundry for some of their most unhappy customers.
In some cases, the clothes that people bring are "all that's left in the world," Baca said. Sometimes clothes, covered with mud and covered with insulation, were clearly recovered from destroyed homes and yards, she said.
"We are doing everything we can to reduce costs," she said. In some cases, this assistance comes from local accommodation companies for which Klean Wash provides janitorial services such as "wash, dry and bend".
"They will say," On our next order, add $ 100 to our bill, "" she explained. The money has already been used to cover the cost of replacing a big $ 1,000 washing machine engine.
"It's good to have extra business," she says, "but you give a lot of things"
Still, she quickly added, "I'm sorry for the people, I would like to be able to do more."
Steps away from Santa Rosa Plaza, Jon Seeling, owner of 98 Bar-B-Que, also sees an influx of business related to the storm. Thursday night, a team of public service employees from the City of Orlando volunteered to help bring the water service back to the hurricane-affected area, among those who stopped for dinner . Some insurance experts from USAA also enjoyed a meal.
At the beginning of the hurricane, when people did not have easy access to ATMs and their credit cards did not work, Seeling covered the cost of meals. Since then, his son has taken food from the restaurant in the area damaged by the hurricane and distributed it around the corner of the streets.
As for the customers who enter his restaurant after a day's work after hurricane Michael, Seeling said, "If we can give them a half-hour or 45-minute smile, that's what it's all about. it is. "
And, Seeling added, he will continue to try to find ways to help storm victims and salvagers.
"I would not do it otherwise," he says. "My conscience will not let me in. My spirituality will not let me do it."
Source link
