PANAMA CITY, Fla. _ More than three months after Hurricane Michael bludgeoned the beachside communities in the Panhandle, dozens of people crammed into the Messiah Lutheran Church on a recent Thursday.
They were there to address enormous questions that hang over their largely lower-income part of the state.
"Affordable Housing," "Reach Less Fortunate," were written at the top of a long list of goals for a startup recovery group. Some suggested auctioning off quilts, or holding a car show.
But the reality is they're going to need millions.
Major donors simply aren't coming through for Florida's Forgotten Coast. According to a Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald analysis of contributions to three prominent national charities, donations to Hurricane Michael recovery fall far below donations for recent landmark hurricanes to hit the South such as Florence, Irma and Harvey.
The Salvation Army has received $2.8 million for its Hurricane Michael response. It received a combined $125 million after Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017.
United Way Worldwide received just under $750,000 for Hurricane Michael recovery. That's more than $10 million less than it received for its combined fund for Hurricanes Irma and Maria. That's about $100,000 less than it received for the 2017 Mexican earthquake.
"God, I give you praise and honor for bringing us together ... I pray that you will continue to give us the strategic ideas and the resources so that our county shall be a better county than it was before October the 10th," Pastor Lynva Masslieno said at the Jan. 24 meeting.
The Bay County group is still in its early stages. Its members are mostly local nonprofit and faith leaders. So far, its work has been hampered by the fact that national attention dried up long ago.
"In terms of the national response ... this was the strongest storm to hit the U.S. since Andrew, and it has not been commensurate with that," said Lance Rettig, who leads the Bay County Long Term Disaster Recovery Organization. He's also the executive director of the local Habitat for Humanity, which is aiming to build eight houses this year for displaced families. "To come back from this _ for a low-income community especially _ I think we're talking hundreds of millions here."
