Disaster Profile

On October 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael slammed into Mexico Beach, Florida as a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained wind speeds of 160 mph. With record-breaking wind speeds, Michael was both the strongest storm to make landfall in the continental US (since Hurricane Andrew in 1992) and to ever hit the Florida Panhandle. Tracking across the Southeastern United States, winds plunged 1.4 million residents into complete darkness in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas. Communities across the region were devastated, with full towns in the Panhandle demolished beyond recognition.

Program Work

Thanks to the support of partners, donors, local community and volunteers from all over the world, we have been cultivating a powerful impact in Florida since October 2018. We have committed to carrying out critical home repairs that serve the long term needs of the community in Jackson County and completed our work in April 2021. In addition to repair work, our team also completed mucking and gutting and mold sanitation when needed.

We’d like to say a big thank you to the staff, volunteers, donors, partners and local community members who have made this important work possible. Thanks to your hard work, commitment and support, we’ve been able to safely complete work on a large number of homes and bring hope and joy to many individuals and families affected by Hurricane Michael over two years ago.

Program History

Phase I: Panama City, Florida (October, 2018 to December, 2019)

Assessing the immense and widespread destruction of the storm, our Rapid Response team jumped into action immediately after the storm’s landfall. Identifying a great need in Bay and Calhoun counties, the majority of our work focused just outside Youngstown, Florida. Our initial efforts were chainsawing, debris removal and residential flood cleanup; we then worked on mucking and gutting homes, as well as performing mold sanitations.

Our Hurricane Michael program officially transitioned to the recovery phase in June 2019 and began rebuild work on affected homes; we worked in tandem with local community partners to effectively support recovery and helped more than 800 people.