What’s your Hurricane Michael story?
October 10, 2018 – what does that date mean to you? Can you believe it was six years ago? I imagine that most people who are reading this article lived here during that time, and I am curious – what is your Hurricane Michael story? I would love to hear from you, and I may do a follow-up article with highlights from your submissions. You can email me at Walter.Woodrick@LPL.com, text me at 850.724.1369, or call me at 1-855-966-3742.
How did it feel to experience the uncertainty as Michael formed and moved through the Gulf of Mexico? Where were you when it made landfall? Did you evacuate or did you stay? What was the deciding factor as to why you stayed or why you left? If you left, what did you take with you?
What damage did you incur? What was your most prized possession lost or damaged? How was your interaction with your insurance company? Did you hire a public adjuster? What suggestions do you have for others and what constructive criticism do you have for the insurance companies and their processes?
What was your life like without power and/or water? How long were you without power and water? What good things came from the experience, aftermath, and recovery from Hurricane Michael? Property upgrades, relationships, perspective, faith?
What advice do you have for the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have moved to Gulf and Franklin counties since the storm? Wendy and I met in Nashville in 1994. We married in 1996 and lived in rural southeast Tennessee for a few years until we moved back to her hometown of Panama City where we lived from 1997 through 2015.
After traveling the country with our kids in an RV for several months in 2015, we bought a farm west of Nashville and lived near Nashville until 2021. So, we were not here for Michael. We owned a rental home in Panama City that suffered minor damage, and we were in Panama City helping Wendy’s parents, Winston and Gail Chester, as soon as we were allowed.
We moved back to the area in 2022 when the youngest of our three children went off to college. We chose Port St Joe for the pace of life, sense of community, lack of traffic congestion, and the beauty of the western facing coastline and sunsets.
Wendy loves teaching sixth grade history and helping people enroll in supplemental Medicare and Medicare Advantage health care plans. I am thankful for a great place to work, play pickleball, worship, and truly have community with others. And in this community, we’ve heard a lot of Hurricane Michael stories, and we’ve seen a lot of tears during the telling of these stories. It’s part of who Gulf and Franklin counties are. Share your story. You might help others – encouragement, warning, laughter, and wisdom can go a long way to helping our neighbors experience the community we love and enjoy.
Gulf County resident Walter L. Woodrick is a certified financial planner practitioner, and the author of two books. His website is WoodrickFinancial.com, his phone is 1-855-WOODRICK, and his text number is 850.724.1369. Securities and advisory services are offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor, Member FINRA/SIPC. The opinions voiced in this article are for general information only and not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. #646121-1
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.