Video footage has emerged of looters going through a Family Dollar store in the wake of Hurricane Michael in Florida.
“About 40 people are seen looting, ransacking and cleaning out a destroyed Family Dollar in Panama City after Hurricane Michael,” the channel said.
The Family Dollar was missing most of its roof and half of its walls. People could be seen driving directly to the store, located in hard-hit Panama City, and loading items into their vehicles.
At the end of the video, a man is heard saying, “I gotta go get me some laundry detergent.”
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Michael hit near Panama City and Mexico Beach on Oct. 10, with high-end Category 4 winds of 155 mph. Mexico Beach was especially hard-hit, and aerial footage revealed miles of flattened trees and torn-asunder homes.
The storm then hit the Carolinas and Virginia with heavy rains on Oct. 11, bringing flooding to areas that were slammed by Hurricane Florence a few weeks ago.
Death Toll at 12
So far, 12 people died during the storm, Reuters reported, which noted that the figure could likely rise as search-and-rescue crews make discoveries.“I think you’re going to see it climb,” FEMA Administrator Brock Long said. “We still haven’t gotten into some of the hardest-hit areas.”
Officials said that more than 1 million people were left without power in the wake of the storm.
Long called on communities such as Mexico Beach to rebuild to withstand future hurricanes. “It’s OK if you want to live on the coast or on top of a mountain that sees wildfires or whatever but you have to build to a higher standard,” he said. “If we’re going to rebuild, do it right.”
“We had houses that were on one side of the street and now they’re on the other,” said Port St. Joe Mayor Bo Patterson of the damage.
The Coast Guard said it rescued at least 27 people before and after the hurricane’s landfall, mostly from coastal homes. Nine people had to be rescued by helicopter from a bathroom of a home in hard-hit Panama City after their roof collapsed, Petty Officer 3rd Class Ronald Hodges said.
In hard-hit Mexico Beach alone, state officials say, 285 people in Mexico Beach defied a mandatory evacuation order ahead of Michael. The task ahead: finding and hopefully safely accounting for all those who stayed behind.
