SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
I'm Scott Simon. Officials in Florida are scrambling to get food and water to residents of communities that were hit hard by Hurricane Michael. Here's Bay County Sheriff's spokesperson Ruth Corley speaking yesterday to member station WKGC.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
RUTH CORLEY: We are working on getting water here. We are working on getting food here. The utilities people are working very hard to determine where the leaks are, to repair them so we can have water again, so that our toilets will flush. We're working on getting port-a-potties out. We understand the basic needs.
SIMON: Hundreds of thousands are without power from the Florida Panhandle into Virginia. The storm is now blamed for at least 14 deaths. NPR's Joel Rose is in Miramar Beach, Fla. Joel, thanks for being with us.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Hi, Scott.
SIMON: What does the situation seem like today?
ROSE: Well, as you mentioned, there are lots of folks without power. And the situation seems particularly dire in Panama City and some of the smaller towns in Bay County along the Gulf of Mexico. There - in Panama City, there's no water, no power and no gas. Most gas stations are still closed. And as you head out of town to find the stations that do have gas, there are very long lines.
Many folks have evacuated from this region. But for those who stayed behind, it's getting increasingly difficult just to find the basics, like to find food and to find water.
SIMON: And you were in Panama City yesterday, I gather. What's it like there?
ROSE: It's a small city, about 37,000 residents before the storm. It's on the bay. It's not directly on the Gulf of Mexico. It's not a luxurious town. I mean, the houses are set pretty close together. And right now, it's like every block is almost like a scene from a disaster movie. Like, there are trees down. There are wires in the street. It seems like every building sustained some kind of damage, either to the roof or to the walls. I mean, I saw a church that was missing two of its walls, and you could just see from the pews right out into the blue sky outside.
Churches, schools, public buildings, hospitals - all of this has sustained a lot of damage. And I think it's starting to really dawn on folks that this is going to be a very long recovery.
SIMON: Right now, 14 - the deaths of 14 people have been reported and confirmed. But I gather nobody there thinks that's the final word.
ROSE: Unfortunately, no. I mean, I think people do think that the death toll is likely to rise. So far, officials here have been pretty tight-lipped. They don't want to release numbers until they've finished the search and rescue process. Bay County Emergency Chief Mark Bowen was asked yesterday about the number of fatalities. Here's what he said.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MARK BOWEN: What we have is a lot of people missing. I want to be very careful about numbers because are they missing because their loved ones can't contact them, or are they missing because they were, you know, perished in the storm?
ROSE: And when he says loved ones are missing or can't contact them, it's true that cellphones are not working very well, not only in Panama City but all over Bay County. So it remains really difficult to communicate and find relatives who may have stayed behind in the storm.
But still, you do get the feeling that the number of fatalities is going to go up, and maybe way up, when we start to get more information from the waterfront communities, you know, to the south and east of Panama City, places like Springfield, Parker, Mexico Beach and Port St. Joe that were really hit hard by the storm. I think, you know, everyone is sort of dreading what we're going to learn from there.
SIMON: Joel, do people there seem to feel they got enough notice to evacuate?
ROSE: I have been asking that of people who rode out the storm in their homes that I've spoken to. And the people I spoke to, at least, said, yes, they understood the risks. They knew what they were doing. No one I talked to said they would do it again. But, you know, they did not blame this on forecasters or on anybody else. They said it was their mistake.
SIMON: And what's the status of emergency response right now?
ROSE: I spent a little bit of time yesterday at the emergency operations center in Bay County, which is just north of Panama City, and it is overflowing with first responders from all over the region. I saw a lot of electrical linemen and trucks coming into town and really big semi-trucks full of food arriving at the emergency center.
So there is a major response that's being mobilized here. It's just taking some time to get it off the ground. And everybody seems to be complaining about the lack of communications and cellphones. So I think maybe that is one thing that really seems to be holding this response back.
SIMON: NPR's Joel Rose in Miramar Beach, Fla. Thanks so much, Joel.
ROSE: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.