'Having to Sleep Out in the Open': Fla. Beach Residents Tell of Desperation, Looting

PORT SAINT JOE, Fla. - The death toll from Hurricane Michael is still rising. So far, at least 31 people across four states are known to have been killed by the devastating storm.

Nearly half of the fatalities happened in Florida's Bay County, where the 155-mph storm made landfall. The number of dead is expected to rise as authorities search the devastated areas.

The survivors of Mexico Beach and Port Saint Joe endured the worst of Hurricane Michael, and for many, life will never be the same. 

CBN News was able to fly into the hardest-hit areas and talk to some of the residents. Looting is still a real danger as the residents run short of food, water and fuel.

"Right now I'm flying over Mexico Beach and they say it looks like it's been bombed. Well, having been to Mosul, Iraq in the last couple of years, I can tell you that it actually does look real similar," said CBN News Correspondent Chuck Holton as he flew over the beach area in a helicopter.

"The difference is, I'm looking at houses that were completely turned upside down. Or houses that were not just blown up, but picked up and moved and set down in the middle of the street. And that's just not just something you see in a war zone. This is absolutely astonishing," he said.

"I mean when you look at the scale of the destruction right here right here. I mean, there were houses all along right here before the storm and now there are just  concrete slabs," Holton noted.

"So we're seeing FEMA and a lot of other emergency services coming into this area, setting up temporary cell phone towers and distributing water and food and that sort of thing," he said.

But the people here told CBN News they are in desperate need of fuel, propane gas for their stoves and things like blankets and cots because they're having to sleep out in the open. 

CBN News also had the opportunity to talk with several people in nearby Saint Joe Beach to hear their incredible stories of what it was like to ride out the storm. 

"What happened was I was in the house from here and I looked out the front window and the water was three inches coming down the street," recalled Steve, resident of Port St. Joe.

"By the time I looked in the back door, water was already pouring in the back door.  I have four Jack Russells. I run a business called Kayak Dog Adventures and so I grabbed the dogs threw them on the fridge and as the water poured in the  doors were locked up. It came in quickly," he told CBN News. 

Steve said the water rose to the top of a window in just six minutes.

"I had a dog and you see this grass line here. That's how quick it filled up.  So I broke this window out with a broom. Took 2 dogs swam out put them in my boat while it was raging at about a 150-mile an hour winds," he said.

"And then I couldn't get the other dogs to come in because the water was already here. I didn't want to go back in but the glass…I break out some more glass and I went one more time back in there grabbed my other two dogs swam back through the hole put them back in the boat and just rolled over in the boat and rode it out," Steve described.

As desperation mounts, looting becomes more widespread in the community. 

"People come down the street. People are still picking up their items and stuff like that. You know, looking for them in the bushes and stuff here and people turn the corners here and they just jump out and grab coolers and boards and kayaks and whatever they see on the edge of the road and take off around the corner," Steve told CBN News.

"So you know you should give people a minute to pick up their stuff and find what they came for you know come in for clean up and stuff like that. Looters will be shot and hung and shot again!" he said.