![]() In Bay County, where Panama City is located, the post-storm housing crisis has been exacerbated by the high percentage of residents like the Koppelmans who are renters. Most unsettling, many buildings look as though the hurricane struck last week - walls collapsed, windows shattered, trees bursting through. Telltale blue tarps cover thousands of roofs, while others are brand new. In Panama City, the largest and best-funded city in Michael's direct path, the effects of the storm are painfully clear, more than seven months later. She had been living in a rental trailer in nearby Parker but was evicted after the hurricane. To top it all off, the new hurricane season begins on June 1.Īmanda Bohn, 29, has been living on the Summers' property with her sons Isaiah, 8, and Dominike, 9, for two months. The area's largest employer, Tyndall Air Force Base, is years away from returning to full capacity.ĭelaying the recovery is an impasse in Congress, which has yet to pass a disaster relief funding bill - something that normally happens in the weeks following a major storm. Small cities along the Panhandle - a mostly rural region of coast, farmland and timber - are struggling to see a way forward between shrinking revenue and the burden of fronting relief costs. The Koppelmans are among the tens of thousands of Floridians who have been forced out of their homes since Michael, the strongest storm ever to hit the region. ![]() They say they were denied FEMA housing assistance, so they lived in their car while looking for a new place to live. The landowners allow the couple to live in the storm-damaged house rent-free in exchange for help with the horses. Susan Koppelman, 52, and Keith Koppelman, 49, stand for a portrait at a rural property outside Marianna, Fla., where they have been staying since being evicted from their trailer home after last year's hurricane.
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