Crews operating heavy equipment scooped up splintered boards, broken glass, chunks of asphalt and other debris in Mexico Beach on Sunday, as the mayor held out hope for the 250 or so residents who may have tried to ride out Hurricane Michael.
The death toll from Michael’s destructive march from Florida to Virginia stood at 17.
The White House said Donald Trump planned to visit Florida and Georgia on Monday, to survey damage. The president will be accompanied by the first lady, Melania Trump. The White House did not say where the couple would go.
There has been just one confirmed death so far in Mexico Beach, a Florida Panhandle town of about 1,000 people that took a direct hit from the hurricane and its 155mph winds.
Crews worked to clear the building debris along with the rubble from a collapsed section of the beachfront highway. Mayor Al Cathey estimated 250 residents stayed behind when the hurricane struck, and he said he remained hopeful about their fate.
Search-and-rescue teams in the beach town had already combed areas with the worst damage, Cathey said, adding: “If we lose only one life, to me that’s going to be a miracle.”
He said enough food and water had been brought in for the residents who remain. Even some cellphone service had returned to the devastated community.
Five days after the storm struck, a large swath of the Panhandle was suffering, from little beach towns to the larger Panama City to rural communities miles from where the hurricane came ashore.
“There are a lot of inland areas, some of these poor rural counties to the north of there,” the Florida senator Marco Rubio said on NBC’s Meet The Press. “These counties took a devastating hit.
“And we are talking about poor people, many of them are older, miles from each other, isolated in many cases from roads, including some dirt roads that are cut off right now. We haven’t been able to reach those people in a number of days.”
Untold numbers of people across the region have damaged homes and no electricity – Gulf Power officials said on Sunday that they expect to have power restored to 95% of those hit by 24 October. Many of those affected do not have the means to relocate, either to a new or temporary place. More roads were becoming passable as crews cleared trees and power lines over the weekend, but traffic lights remained out and there were long lines at the few open gas stations.
Officials evacuated nearly 3,000 inmates from two hurricane-damaged prisons: the Gulf correctional institution and Annex and Calhoun correctional institution. They had damage to the roof and the infrastructure critical for security, authorities said. No inmates or staff members were injured.
Florida’s other senator, the Democrat Bill Nelson, said Tyndall air force base in the Panhandle was destroyed – and promised it will be rebuilt.
After visiting on Sunday, Nelson said older buildings had been demolished by the storm while newer structures were left in need of substantial repair. Some of the hangars were damaged severely.
The base is home to some of the nation’s most advanced fighter jets but Nelson said he could not comment on how many planes were damaged.