On October 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael swept through the Panhandle of Florida, devastating all in its vicious path. Having only been on the national weather radar for less than a week, hundreds of thousands of Northwest Floridians found themselves underprepared and ultimately stuck by the time Michael came barreling through, due to the overwhelming amount of people trying to purchase supplies and gas in such a short amount of time. Just before landfall, the National Hurricane Center reported that Michael’s strength was intensifying and had already reached high wind speeds of 155 miles per hour – just two miles per hour shy of a Category 5 label (NHC). If the National Hurricane Center had not stopped using central pressure as a determinant for hurricane categorization, Michael’s 919 millibars of pressure would have qualified it as a Category 5, which used to be defined as having pressures lower than 920 millibars.

Because of the lack of national awareness leading up to the storm, and the even greater lack of knowledge of the damage Hurricane Michael caused, one might consider Hurricane Michael as the “forgotten hurricane.” Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which hit major U.S. areas Houston and South Florida, are just two examples of natural disasters that received a considerably greater amount of coverage, and therefore received much more support from charitable organizations. Since Panama City and the surrounding areas are much smaller and less populated cities, national news coverage came and went as fast as the storm. This was a true injustice to the people of the Panhandle, made up of mostly lower to middle class families who simply cannot afford a natural disaster without monetary assistance. The Tampa Bay Times reported, “Hurricane Irma, which caused less property damage than Michael, prompted $100 million in corporate donations through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Hurricane Michael: $27 million” (Tampa Bay Times).

Several local leaders have called for the recategorization of Hurricane Michael from a 4 to a 5; while this categorization does not imply that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will fully reimburse the affected areas, it will urge FEMA officials and other insurance companies to finish dispersing funds (an estimated total of $6,098,845,241 in insured losses as of March 15) to those still waiting – nearly 20% of people that have applied for assistance, according to the Florida Office of Finance Regulation. Bay County Emergency Services Chief Mark Bowen also reported to the Panama City News Herald that since the categorization of the storm is used to determine the dollar value of the damage, “The higher the per capita dollar amount of damage estimated, the more federal aid becomes available. Enough damage can result in a label of 5 versus 4 while essentially the same data set would produce a higher damage cost estimate, thereby allowing us to meet the per capita formula result needed for more federal benefits” (Panama City News Herald). It will also raise awareness about the true devastation that took place in the Panhandle less than six months ago and hopefully entice large charitable organizations to donate funds that Panhandle residents so desperately deserve and need to survive and rebuild our communities.

In hopes of raising awareness about the absolute destruction that still looms over the entire Panhandle, I ask for your support in petitioning the National Hurricane Center, and urge them to reconsider the original Category 4 classification and raise its classification to a Category 5 Hurricane. A Category 5 classification would help significantly to raise public knowledge of the hurricane that ruined our hometown and could have several implications on our communities – the greatest being a faster rate of recovery and rebuilding. The National Hurricane Center should understand that since the hurricane was intensifying in terms of wind speed and pressure just before arriving onshore, then their preliminary readings of 155 mph winds may have increased as well once it made landfall. The National Hurricane Center should also understand that by changing Michael’s categorization to a 5, hundreds of thousands of Floridians would greatly benefit in the long run.

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