Hurricane Michael: A Brief Overview and Look at the Societal and Economic Impacts across North Florida and South Georgia

Hurricane Michael made landfall along the Florida Panhandle Coast on the afternoon of October 10, 2018 at unprecedented strength for the area. As a high end category four, Michael had the third lowest pressure for a U.S. landfalling, behind Hurricane Camille (1969) and the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane. With a forward motion around 15 mph, Michael quickly traversed across the Florida Panhandle and into southern Georgia, areas particularly vulnerable to both wind and surge impacts. Given the forward motion and sustained strength of Michael inland, major impacts were observed across these areas with societal and economic consequences likely to extend well into the foreseeable future.

Outside of damages to homes and businesses across the Florida Panhandle and southern Georgia, Florida and Georgia’s agriculture industry will suffer significant losses. This includes crops such as cotton, pecans, poultry, and vegetables, with losses exceeding one billion dollars combined thus far. Forestry experienced the greatest loss, as over one million acres of trees were destroyed across the region, yielding a loss of over one billion dollars alone. The destruction of timber across the area hindered initial recovery efforts, as there were hundreds of roads blocked by downed trees in the wake of Michael. This presentation will discuss the evolution of Hurricane Michael, as well as it’s impacts in the region. The potential short and long term societal and economic ramifications will also be discussed.