One Year Since Hurricane Michael (With Photo Galleries)

October 10, 2019

October 10 marks one year since Hurricane Michael made landfall in the Florida Panhandle.

Mexico Beach was ground zero. It was near total devastation from the Category 5 hurricane’s 160 mph winds. The destruction stretched far inland into the small towns north of the coast, like Marianna.

“My home, the city of southern charm, has been laid to waste. Honestly  the pictures do not do the destruction, justice. May God be with all of  us.”

Those were the words of U.S. Army combat photographer SPC Scott Hagan after seeing the devastation of Hurricane Michael in his hometown of Marianna as he documented the damage in photos published on NorthEscambia.com.

Eight months later, last June, he returned to Marianna and documented the slow recovery process.

“I rode around the remnants of a town I called home. My first time being back in the City of Southern Charm since Hurricane Michaels initial landfall and I’m still in disbelief. These little farming communities that dot the landscape of the Panhandle of Florida remain unrecognizable. These pictures were not taken days, nor weeks, or even a couple months after the wrath of God stormed upon land,” Hagan said. “This is how people are living, working, and picking up the pieces of what’s left of not only their lives, but the communities we all call home.”

“And once the storm was over, you don’t remember how you made it through the terror, or how you managed to survive it’s power. You aren’t even sure if in its aftermath, is the nightmare really over? But one thing is certain, when you came out of the hurricane, you were no longer the same the person who greeted the storm. That’s why God sent the storm in the first place; because smooth seas don’t make for skilled sailors,” he said.

For a NorthEscambia.com photo gallery from Mexico Beach, click here.

For a photo gallery from Marianna just days after the storm, click here.

For Marianna photos eight months after the hurricane, click here.

Pictured above and first two photos below: Near total destruction is seen in Mexico Beach in these NorthEscambia.com photos by Sheena Carach. Pictured remaining photos: The destruction in Marianna days after Michael in photos by SPC Jeffrey Scott Hagan for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

To see more of Hagan’s pictures, click here.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News