Many local families were left homeless or living in patched-up, make-do conditions when Hurricane Michael came ashore in late 2018 as a Category 5 storm and moved inland with a force unseen here in times past. It lingered for hours in Jackson County, damaging almost everything it touched and still a Category 2 as it finally headed north.
Its impact is still being felt as 2021 dawns. But some of the youngsters and parents displaced by the storm spent their 2020 Christmas in sturdy homes of their own for the first time since that life-altering October of 2018. They rang in the new year Friday with a new reason to celebrate.