and there are people still there. so, it s days in the making. i mean, it s not soon enough. so, if i say a day or week, i have a feeling it s just going to be an ongoing thing and, as the government says, not one stone left unturned until we recover everybody. it s already been a week for some of these people and as we look at aerial footage. as we look at some of the video we have on the ground, we don t see a lot of officials there swarming islands, pulling rubble off the debris piles. what do you tell residents who feel like the government isn t responding fast enough? that has been a challenge. and it is a challenge of living, the multiplicity of islands and having two large islands, grand bahama and abaco simultaneously devastated on this scale. so, a small population trying to
rubicon, a disaster recovery organization. we are veterans-based, 70% veterans, 30% civilians. i am here doing disaster recovery from hurricane michael. it will take another six months to clear debris piles on the highways. this is the largest operation here in florida the team has ever done. there are 1300 work requests we have received. unfortunately there are 9,500 that we have not been able to get to yet. the recovery process for the disasters in 2018 are going to be ongoing through 2019, 2020. it s not going to end. period. we need you. i ll start crying here in a minute. you were angels in our lives. thank you. what s rewarding to me is just the thanks of knowing that
first time we re below 150,000 customers without power, 140,000 customers in the florida panhandle without power but you aren t talking about full restoration of power to the houses that can receive power until next wednesday. sandra. sandra: has everyone been accounted for? in mexico beach there is only one person now, remarkably only one person unaccounted for. the police chief told me yesterday they were down to three but they found the remains of one person and tracked another person down by phone who was alive and well in georgia. down to one person, which is remarkable. more than 280 people elected to ride out the storm here. the search crews have been going through debris and checked everything. going through the marsh areas. focusing on the debris piles and turned out the cadaver dogs in the bigger debris piles.
no victims found but hundreds of people are still unaccounted for and martin savidge explains how the next phase of the search will happen. reporter: they have to go through the large debris piles and there are many of them throughout this devastated town. and they will carefully and methodically have to search and investigate every single one. authorities are looking off a list of about 300 names, names of people they know were in this community just prior to the storm coming ashore. now after the storm, what they are doing is trying to match up those names with the people that are still here. they actually have a map with almost 300 dots on it and they are carefully checking the list off. the problem is some cases you go to a home and no one is there in other cases, you go and there is no home there. in other cases, they have been able to cross people off a list because people saw the mass of the storm or have been able to self-report but still a disturbing number.
those who haven t been heard from and may not have survived. martin savidge has more from mexico beach, florida. reporter: the sun s gone down and another night has set in here in mexico beach. and once the sun is gone, it gets completely dark in this community. only the television lights really are what you will see and occasionally the flashing strobe lights of emergency first responders. of course the search and recovery effort has to come to an end. it can t go on in the dark. and it was another very difficult day. no other victims have been found, and the city officials are reporting that all of the major structures that are still standing that would be the homes and also the businesses they have all been searched. but now they move on to another perhaps even more difficult and potentially dangerous phase. they have to go through all the large debris piles, and there are many of them throughout this devastated town. and they will carefully and methodically have to search and