REBUILDING AFTER HURRICANE MICHAEL for The New York Times and NPR
“They arrived by the hundreds last year after Hurricane Michael sliced through the Florida Panhandle, packing 160-mile-per-hour winds that snapped pine trees in half, mangled steel posts, ripped off roofs and upended people’s lives. Without electricity, potable water or reliable accommodation, a rapid-response labor force got to work carting away the wreckage.
In the ensuing months, the workers — nearly all of them from Central America, Mexico and Venezuela — toiled day and night across Bay County to reopen Panama City’s City Hall, repair the local campus of Florida State University and fix damaged roofs on several churches. In towns like Callaway, which saw 90 percent of its housing stock damaged by the Category 5 storm last October, they are still working.”
The New York Times: Hurricane Chasers: An Immigrant Work Force on the Trail of Extreme Weather
NPR: Nearly 8 Months After Hurricane Michael, Florida Panhandle Feels Left Behind
