I’m sure you have heard by now that Hurricane Michael was one for the books. It will be one that my kids hear about the way I have always heard about Opal, Katrina & Andrews. This specific hurricane was a million times worse than anyone anticipated, and it was on my hometown- Panama City (and the whole panhandle, through Georgia and more).

My family, Joshua, and I evacuated to my family in the Tampa area the day before Hurricane Michael made landfall. Joshua’s family stayed, as most locals did, because Michael went from a tropical storm to a almost Cat 5 in 72 hours. Hurricane Michael strengthened most as we were sleeping, and majority of locals had to work that Tuesday… making it nearly impossible for most to evacuate.

I know those who rode out the storm experienced much more trauma than I did. However, there will be no memory like the one of Joshua and I crouched over praying with tears of fear streaming down our cheeks for his family’s (as well as everyone else) safety. (Side Note: There is a story I want to share with y’all though, and you can see the video for yourself on my instagram post here.. as well as read more at the end of this blog.)

As a military brat I have always said I didn’t have a “hometown” because I moved 3 times before the age of 4, my brothers move more times than that, my parents are from different cities, and we kind of just got stuck at Tyndall for the last 12+ years while anticipating our next move. However, after coming home the weekend after the storm and seeing my home, neighborhood, and town I instantly knew this was my hometown and my heartbreak clarified that.

I watched the news, all of the videos on Facebook I could possibly watch, and seen the horrifying photos of our hometown. But there is nothing like seeing it in person. Our town honestly looked good in photos compared to how it did in person. Because of amazing men and women like the ones I got to photograph, everything looks a million times better than it did a week and a half ago. I cannot thank the first responders, emergency teams. linemen, electricians, and water employees enough. They projected 1-2 MONTHS before anyone got power back, and now almost the whole inner city does.

Region 4 Florida Forestry was on my street for the last four days and let me tell you…. they made a WORLD of a difference. All roads are cleared for two lanes, all driveways are cleared, and some yards. I was only able to watch them work yesterday but they said they had been there the three days prior too.

I watched them knock out one neighbors driveway in less than an hour, which is what I photographed and you can see the whole process that I documented. Also, I talked to a couple of them. I never knew how much thought and preparation that goes into cutting trees. One gentlemen said that every 3 or so hours they have to sharpen the blades on their chains of their chainsaws. I only spoke to a few of them for just a little bit and I’ll be honest I wouldn’t be able to repeat what they said about the process. To summarize though, these guys work their tails off doing SO many different things like fighting wildfires, to taking trees off of homes, and clearing driveways. So much thought goes into all they do, and documenting this was exactly why I got into photography!