Prior to Michael, three previous hurricanes provided the benchmark for residents across the Florida Panhandle: Dennis (2005), Opal (1995), and Eloise (1975). It is likely that some residents made plans to ride Michael out based on the results of these past storms, along with a forecast that did not initially indicate a major hurricane landfall. Older building infrastructure along with a quickly evolving forecast as Michael underwent rapid intensification made residents who stayed extremely vulnerable to impacts. As a result, by the evening of October 9th, the National Weather Service Office in Tallahassee exhausted its resources in an attempt to encourage anyone who stayed to evacuate. The use of social media was paramount in these efforts, as well as the utilization of deployed meteorologists in Bay and Leon County, Florida. Personalized briefings by deployed meteorologists influenced the use of WEA alerts by these counties, escalating messaging efforts in the hours leading up to the onset of impacts. At this time, it remains too early to know the true scale of the influence of these efforts. This presentation will outline the challenges posed by Hurricane Michael, as well as past hurricane history and the area infrastructure, as well as the communication methods used to escalate messaging leading up to and during the storm.
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