By Curtis L Drafton | Veteran Rescue Team Leader
Our new mission, going into our 4th overall day in Mexico Beach and Panama City (Bay County) Florida, is to prepare for people coming back to find nothing.
Search and rescue efforts are lightly continuing, but are moreso in very low water and or dependant on homes/ structures that are collapsed.
If we could estimate it will take weeks to go through fallen buildings and collapsing/ dilapidating structures to find survivors or in some cases possible lives lost.
We do pray that miracles have happened and many of the unaccounted for are discovered smiling and holding on, just waiting for our hands to help them out after two long weeks of staying strong, and helping one another.
So. Our mission is to provide warm meals, blankets, hygiene, clothing, bottled water, emergency care kits and survival kits, tents, cots, sleeping bags, sterno cans, MRE's and non-perishable items so that they can sustain themselves until permanent relief comes.
One story we heard today sits in my mind. A woman told us that just two years ago, her insurance company alerted her that they will no longer cover for flood insurance: so when this storm hit and wiped her house out, she lost everything in a home that she'd paid off after 20+ years of living there. We can't begin to imagine where she'll begin to pick up the pieces.
This will be a common story I'm sure as more people come home to this county, and several others.
But again... we'll keep hope alive and our prayers, and missions moving forward at full steam.
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By Curtis Drafton | Veteran Response Team Leader
By Curtis Drafton | Veteran Response Team Leader
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