'FEMA, please help make Mexico Beach great again': Devastated Florida homeowners reveal what's left of their community SEVEN MONTHS after Hurricane Michael tore through

Pictures from a destroyed Florida Panhandle town have revealed the devastation caused by Hurricane Michael, still evident seven months after the category five struck. 
The damage caused by the powerful hurricane in October last year is most obvious in Mexico Beach - where the coastline is dotted with the ruins of homes and businesses, clumps of concrete wedged in the sand and 'for sale' signs on many plots. 
The pictures also reveal that some people are still living in trailers supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), mostly located on the slabs where houses once stood before being destroyed.
On one ruined home, a sign draped over the shattered facade reads: 'FEMA, please help make Mexico Beach great again'. 
Seven months after the category five hurricane made landfall near the small community, the town is still littered with heavily damaged and destroyed homes and businesses
The remains of homes that were heavily damaged by Hurricane Michael remain near the beach in Mexico Beach, Florida
The remains of homes that were heavily damaged by Hurricane Michael remain near the beach in Mexico Beach, Florida

By some estimates, the property loss and damage alone totaled $5 billion. Estimated losses, including spending, loss of gross product and personal income were placed as high as $53 billion. 
The storm killed 57 people in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. 
During the category five storm late last year winds reached up to 160 mph (260 km/h), more force than Hurricane Katrina had when it hit Louisiana in 2005. 
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), $1.1 billion has been spent on Hurricane Michael-related response and recovery efforts in the state
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), $1.1 billion has been spent on Hurricane Michael-related response and recovery efforts in the state
It was the first category five to actually make landfall in the U.S. since Andrew in 1992. 
'It got worse than everybody expected. Nobody, none of us saw this coming. None of us thought we would see something like this,' a woman told local media in Mexico Beach that day. 
According to Vice News, 'a great many' of the 20,000 people displaced by the storm are still living in campers, condemned homes, or in other people's yards across the southern states.  
Wilanne Daniels, Jackson County Administrator, told NBC: 'We have, you know, an estimated $91,000,000 in damage to our buildings and county properties and very little of that has been fixed yet.' 

The fresh pictures come after Trump addressed a crowd of thousands on Wednesday at an outdoor amphitheater in Panama City Beach, just down the coast, promising $448 million more in disaster aid as he kicked his 2020 efforts into high gear.  
'You're getting your money one way or another,' Trump promised supporters, holding up a chart showing federal emergency aid to Florida, Texas and the island territory, 'And we're not going to let anybody hold it up.'
'We've already given you billions and billions of dollars and there's a lot more coming,' Trump said.

The White House said almost all 700 structures on the base were damaged, roughly one-third were destroyed, and 11,000 base personnel were evacuated. The White House blamed 'Democrat obstruction' for a stoppage in recovery work, with about 120 projects being deferred. 
The Panhandle has received about $1.1 billion in federal disaster aid through mid-April, but disagreements in Washington have left many still struggling to recover from the storm. 
The name Michael was officially retired as a hurricane name in March.

'FEMA, please help make Mexico Beach great again': Devastated Florida homeowners reveal what's left of their community SEVEN MONTHS after Hurricane Michael tore through 'FEMA, please help make Mexico Beach great again': Devastated Florida homeowners reveal what's left of their community SEVEN MONTHS after Hurricane Michael tore through Reviewed by Your Destination on May 10, 2019 Rating: 5

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