MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
More than three months after Hurricane Michael slammed into Florida's panhandle, communities there are still struggling. In Mexico Beach, where more than three quarters of the homes were flattened, just removing the debris could bankrupt the city. NPR's Greg Allen was in Mexico Beach the day after the storm, and he went back to check on the recovery.
GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: On highway 98 in Mexico Beach, the road that runs along the ocean, a small front loader is tearing down one of the many homes still partially standing. There's a lot more demolition and cleanup to do. Officials say debris removal alone is likely to cost more than $25 million, more than 10 times the town's annual budget.
AL CATHEY: We're past the needing water and tarps, but now we're at, you know, where the rubber hits the road.
ALLEN: Mayor Al Cathey says Mexico Beach will need an additional $3 million to replace portions of its sewer and water systems. Although FEMA will reimburse the town for much of those costs eventually, it may not be for a year or more. Making matters worse, the storms destroyed the town's tax base.
CATHEY: Here's what we had. We had roughly 2,700 homes, and there's less than 500 standing.
ALLEN: And many of those standing are uninhabitable, all of which raises questions about how long the town can remain solvent. Mexico Beach was a quiet seaside community, one dependent on tourists and summer rentals. Three quarters of the houses here were second homes. Cathey says that Mexico Beach is now gone. He rode out the storm in his home several blocks from the water. When he went through the town afterwards, he says it was unrecognizable.
CATHEY: There were no landmarks. That's something that was so visual in my mind. I lost track of where I was. After 65 years, I wasn't sure what street I was looking at.
ALLEN: Cathey believes that with help from the state and federal government, Mexico Beach will be able to pay its bills and rebuild. He says local officials will fight to maintain the town's low-key character with zoning and height restrictions. But there's no doubt that a lot of new construction will be going on here over the next several years and that many longtime residents will leave.
DON TILLEY: There's a lot of people walking away.
ALLEN: Don Tilley's house was flooded, but it can be renovated. He's staying, but many of his neighbors aren't.
TILLEY: Some people don't have the money to rebuild, and some people don't have - they just don't want to mess with it.
ALLEN: Right now there's a moratorium on rebuilding. Local officials are studying FEMA flood maps and discussing a new construction code that's likely to increase the cost of rebuilding homes that were destroyed. Even for those whose homes survived Hurricane Michael largely intact, recovery is slow.
PATRICIA HENDRICKS: Hey, how are you?
ALLEN: Good to see you. [LB] I first met Patricia Hendricks in Mexico beach the day after the storm. Her home was mostly OK except for the large pine trees that fell on her house, punching holes in the roof.
HENDRICKS: I just got my shingles today.
ALLEN: Delivered or on top?
HENDRICKS: Delivered.
ALLEN: Yeah.
HENDRICKS: Delivered, oh, yeah. So...
ALLEN: Going to go through this plastic here. [LB] Hendricks pulls back plastic sheeting so we can enter her bedroom where most of the storm damage occurred. The work crews already removed soggy drywall. [LB] Oh, you've got everything - all the - gutted down to the studs here.
HENDRICKS: Yeah.
ALLEN: That's great.
HENDRICKS: It's all stripped down, and now you can see the holes (laughter).
ALLEN: It will be many months or a year, Hendricks says, until she gets her house repaired. The towering pines, cedars and oak trees that she loved and which surrounded her home are gone. But many others in town, she says, have it much worse.
HENDRICKS: You know, there's a lot of people that are struggling here with just living. You know, it's not the food anymore. It's not the water anymore. It's trying to figure out how to put your life back together not like it was, even, but just how to put your life back together.
ALLEN: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been to Mexico Beach twice since taking office in January. He's pledged to aid the city in its recovery, starting with nearly $3 million in state funds to help with the cost of debris removal. Greg Allen, NPR News, Mexico Beach, Fla.