now at noon storm aftermath drone video
showing the devastating scene in
Florida's panhandle as officials lay out
their plan to send help to those in need
after hurricane Michael barreled on
through search and rescue is where we
are hyper focused this morning but as
that you know simultaneously what we're
trying to do is assess roadways and
bridges to make sure that we can get you
know teams commodities and equipment
into the areas that were hardest hit and
Michael now the tropical storm is
officially on the move it's much weaker
now but it still has lots of rain and
lots of wind with it and right now we
have live team coverage of Michael's
aftermath certified weather authority
meteorologist Brandon Orr is standing by
in our weather center but we begin with
local tense Alex Finney who has been
tracking this storm on the ground from
Panama City from the very beginning and
Alex I know you've been driving around
assessing the damage and it's really
devastating yeah Jenice so devastating
we actually were saying in Panama City
Beach yesterday where we wrote out this
storm we were able to get over to the
bridge this afternoon and make our way
here to Panama City and you can just see
how widespread the damage is I must say
for as bad as it looked in Panama City
Beach this morning we were going through
that area I mean just so much
devastation here in Panama City you can
just see homes just completely just
trees just uprooted onto their roofs as
well as just people having to literally
pick up the pieces and restart again
because they have lost everything one
thing that we know we've heard from a
lot of officials of course you can see
here these power lines which is why they
are still advising people that it's
really still very unsafe at this point
but you know in disasters like this you
sometimes tend to always see the good
coming from people and one people that
we met here they actually drove from
Fort Walton and they brought these water
jugs here water that they did not use
for the storm and they are now passing
it out to people in need here in this
community and it's the community that's
really really in need right now we
actually spoke with a man if we can go
to his video just up the street from
here his home literally unrecognizable
looks like a war zone at this point his
dry report there just that foundation
ripped off completely
we know that he had a another building
literally in his backyard that blew
across from the street he had just moved
into that home in February he was
sheltering in place in his house with
his wife and his pregnant daughter
thankfully they were able to make it out
okay but literally narrowly missing a
tree that fell right into their kitchen
take a listen to what he had to tell us
earlier oh I lost good we didn't leave
everybody we saw every family good like
I'm I'm 49 years old I've been working
all my life and that's why I got no
that's going
and you know really a lot of the same
stories that we have been hearing from
people out here we met one gentleman who
was walking down the street with no
shoes he said he watched as his car just
sank into the water as a result of this
storm this category four storm that
people here really were not fully
prepared for that's kind of the rhetoric
that I've been hearing from a lot of
people that they really were not
thinking that the storm was going to
grow to this magnitude and it did we
actually have some video now if it's not
already up of several Power crews that
are making their way through Panama City
Beach and Panama City to hopefully get
to work to restore power to these people
as soon as they possibly can but
widespread power outages we're talking
close to 360,000 people that are without
power here along the Florida Panhandle
so it's going to take a lot of time to
get everything back up and running but
you can see here not just the homes but
we have this McDonald's over here that's
just completely obliterated all the way
on the other side of the street blew
this reserved drive-through sign so yeah
we are talking about a storm that packed
a major punch left a lot of damage in
its wake and now the cleanup is
currently underway such tough images to
see Alex and I know that before the
storm hit you mentioned how all the
bridges were closed so you've been able
to drive around so all the bridges all
back open and are people able to get
back to their homes and kind of see
what's what's left
yeah that's really good Jenny's the
bridges overpasses everything is now
back open people are coming out and they
are assessing the damage people have to
evacuate the people that did stay in
their homes are able to leave their
homes and see what the rest of the
community looks like and let me tell you
it's devastating for these people here
because they have not experienced a
storm like this in years years and even
the storm they experienced back up in
90s
category three doesn't even compare to
what category 4 hurricane Michael
brought with it yesterday it came
through with such a vengeance and I
think a lot of people are still in that
state of shock because they really don't
know what tomorrow's gonna bring when
they're gonna be getting power back and
also we have some people that we ran
into a lady not too long ago she's
looking for her pet so of course there's
the search and rescue efforts
surrounding this situation as well we
still haven't gotten a full count as to
if there are any injuries we know of at
least two deaths here in the US as a
result of this storm thankfully not here
in this area but still it's just very
very sad to see as people are coming to
grips with the fact that this storm
really did leave a lot of people
devastated and one more quick question
for you we were seeing obviously to win
damage but what about the flooding this
storm surge have you been able to make
your way closer to the water to see what
that damage looks like yeah over by
Panama City Beach we actually made our
way over there today and it's really
interesting because we ran into some
buildings that were basically just
completely obliterated others doing just
fine
we ran into another shop that's
literally right there on the beach they
stood a chance they were okay in terms
of the beach itself we weren't really
able to see any major disturbance to
that area there Panama City Beach
surprisingly because it's our first time
even being able to get over there really
did stand up pretty well in comparison
to Mexico Beach and Panama City where we
know that buildings were just collapsing
and homes just being ripped off their
foundation alright Alex thank you
excellent reporting from you stay safe
out there as you continue to drive
around and assess the damage but right
now we do want to show you something
that Marco Rubio Center
Marco Rubio had to say about all the
devastation left behind take a listen
from what I'm hearing from locals and
these are not people prone to hyperbole
Panama City's catastrophic damage
someone told me quote Mexico Beach has
gone and and and it's this is going to
take a lot of money and a lot of time to
sort of rebuild and that was Senator
Marco Rubio as he heard about the
assessment of the damage there on the
panhandle