The rebuilt Driftwood Inn is the first major property to reopen in Mexico Beach since Hurricane Michael.
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The rebuilt Driftwood Inn is the first major property to reopen in Mexico Beach since Hurricane Michael.
Greg Allen / NPR
MEXICO BEACH, Fla. – NOAA forecasters say the Atlantic Hurricane season starting today will be busier than usual. This is the seventh year in a row that there has been an above-average hurricane season. It is of particular concern to those living in the Southeast and along the Gulf Coast.
But the threat of hurricanes, climate change and sea level rise are not stopping development along the coast. A case in point: Mexico Beach, a town on the Florida Panhandle that was almost completely destroyed by a hurricane three years ago, is making a comeback.
That was in October 2018 when Hurricane Michael made landfall near Mexico Beach with winds of 160 mph and 17 and a half meters of storm surge. It was a Category 5 hurricane, one of the strongest hurricanes ever to make landfall in the United States. Hotel owner Tom Wood said when he returned to town a few days later, it looked like an atomic bomb test site.
“Everything by the sea… is gone,” he said. “And what didn’t go away, was damaged by the water. In this place, we had water up to the doorknob on the second floor.”
85% of buildings in Mexico Beach have been destroyed, including Wood’s beachfront hotel, The Driftwood Inn. Three and a half years later, the ruined mountains are gone and the rebuilding is well underway. Next month, the new Driftwood Inn will welcome guests. This is the first major business to reopen here since the storm.
Wood is now 82. He has owned Driftwood for almost 50 years and has passed the operation on to his daughter, Shawna. They say the rebuilding in the town is slow to begin with but is actually very successful.
“Individual homes are coming back tenfold,” Wood said.
Shawna Wood and her father, Tom Wood, say their hotel has been rebuilt to be able to withstand winds of 140 mph.
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Shawna Wood and her father, Tom Wood, say their hotel has been rebuilt to be able to withstand winds of 140 mph.
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Shawna Wood adds, “Our bank was the first to come back. And right after that was the gas station. But maybe two years from now.”
COVID hasn’t helped the rebuilding effort. It makes it difficult to find workers, causes supply problems and drives up costs. Construction here is also suspended until the town revises its building codes. The new Driftwood Inn is 6 feet taller than the previous one and was built to withstand a Category 4 hurricane. Wood was asked: What if there was another Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 hurricane?
He considered it for a moment, then said, “I don’t know. We had to do things like put the storm windows in, had to bring the door down. So will it hold up? I think it will hold. . But there will be a lot of damage.”
Mexico Beach has adopted one of the toughest building codes in Florida. Al Cathey, the longtime mayor, said that decision was controversial. But to qualify for $100 million in federal grants, he said Mexico Beach had to take steps to harden the city and require new construction to be able to withstand the storm.
“And we upgraded [the building code] to winds of 140 mph,” Cathey said. And we also do some elevation difference. And you can see that just by driving through town, our town is higher. It should be. “
Three and a half years after Hurricane Michael, property prices in Mexico Beach are still as high as ever.
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Three and a half years after Hurricane Michael, property prices in Mexico Beach are still as high as ever.
Greg Allen / NPR
The hurricane and high rebuilding costs have forced many elderly residents to move elsewhere. But real estate agent and longtime resident Kevin Crouse says there are plenty of newcomers.
“You know, it used to be called the Forgotten Coast,” he said. “I don’t think it’s forgotten like that again.”
There are two housing projects that will increase and a third project will begin soon. Crouse says the risk of living on the coast in an area that was recently flattened by a hurricane has no effect on family values.
“You’ve got some fire sales there from the start,” he said. “That’s not the case anymore. Gulf frontage lots are going for a million or half a million by the sea. We’re right at the top of the market, and it’s still going up.”
Although the new code required buildings to be more permanent, the town kept the limits on height and density in place. That rules out the high-rise apartment buildings and other developments that could begin to erode Mexico Beach’s small-town character.
Mayor Cathey says there has been another change since the storm. People on Florida’s Panhandle used to think they were unlikely to be directly impacted by a major hurricane. That is no longer the case.
People go swimming at the Mexican beach.
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People go swimming at the Mexican beach.
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“When a storm hits the Gulf, I get up,” he said. “I’m paying attention. I’m not a slow learner in storms anymore.”
If people on Florida’s Panhandle needed a reminder of their vulnerability, they got it last month. A week before the official start of hurricane season, meteorologists began monitoring a tropical disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico. It comes ashore not far from Mexico Beach.
