Holy Gregory is a journalist for Bay News 9 who traveled to Port St. Joe near Mexico Beach to cover Hurricane Michael... until their chief meteorologist told them to evacuate. They traveled Mariana, FL, where Michael still hit hard.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Marianna, Chipley, Vernon are all areas that were pummeled by Michael but were originally predicted to see no serious weather. Holly describes these areas as having "more trees down than standing"
- Holly and her news crew were stuck 9.5 hours on i-10
- The eye of the storm was 40-45 miles wide.
- Michael mostly hit sparsely populated areas... if it came into a more populated area the death toll would have been catastrophic.
- Most people in affected areas know that it will be a while before they have power restored or infrastructure fixed.
- Mexico Beach is a community of 1500 people - 300 people, including children, stayed. One family stayed in a mobile home, and one man had to take shelter in a bathtub with his two dogs.