MEXICO BEACH, United States, Oct 15, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Carefully, the search
and rescue team examines what is left of a house devastated by Hurricane
Michael when it blasted through this small waterfront community days earlier.
Wearing a hard hat and with a hammer in hand, chief Dobson, one of several
hundred people searching for survivors in the ruins of Mexico Beach, gingerly
climbs the rickety stairs to Number 2603.
“Fire rescue, anybody home?” Dobson calls out, before his men follow him up
the stairs.
“Second floor clear,” a team member shouts from the landing. “Search clear,
we do the third floor.”
Two beds are all that’s left of a top floor room whose roof and exterior
walls were torn away by the Category 4 storm, which made landfall Wednesday
at Mexico Beach packing 155 mile an hour (250 kilometer an hour) winds.
To wrap up the inspection, Dobson’s five member team bring in a black
labrador retriever, which makes a final sweep of the rubble around the house.
His team has come here from Miami, deployed by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency. The first contingent arrived on Wednesday, and have worked
without let up since then.
“We stay 10 to 15 minutes in each house. It depends on the size of the
structure and how much damage there is,” Dobson says.
Scott Deane, the head of FEMA’s urban search and rescue unit in Florida,
says they will stay as long as they are needed.
“We want to make sure that we identify any individual that potentially
stayed in their place, try to make contact, (and) if they are injured get
them proper medical attention,” he said.
– ‘All you see is devastation’ –
Of the 1,000 or so residents of Mexico Beach, about 200 ignored evacuation
orders.
About 20 residents have been rescued and a family of four was evacuated, as
have pets left behind by their owners.
Once the area has been completed cleared, the search and rescue teams will
move to other areas “to make sure the whole county is searched properly.”
Mexico Beach police chief, Anthony Kelly, said it was tough to get people
to leave their homes as the hurricane approached.
“We were here 60 miles before the storm hit and there was still people in
town that would not leave. We went door to door, every single house.
“There were too many people, including with children that did not want to
leave. We came back around, made a second attempt, some still chose to stay,”
he said.
For now, only one death has been confirmed in Mexico Beach — the death
toll overall stands at 17 — but Kelly said it was “possible” another body
might be found.
“Here today the weather is just as beautiful as it can be, but you look
around, all you see is devastation, its god awful,” he says.
“Hopefully we will not (find more dead) but realistically it’s a
possibility,” he said.
There is still no water, electricity or telephone service in Mexico Beach,
adding to the hardship.
“Right now what we need is the possibility for the people to use the
restrooms and something that they can shower off. Some of the people have not
taken a shower for four or five days.
“It’s just bad, it’s a bad situation,” he said.