NOTE: These promotions have ended, but the need persists. Please find a way to donate or go help the people hit by Hurricane Michael!
Hurricane Michael was a brute.
The destruction starts just 20 miles east of my home, essentially ripping out all civilized services and damaging or destroying nearly all of the homes and businesses in Panama City, Lynn Haven, Marianna, Blountstown, Mexico Beach, and Port St. Joe, with wind or flood damage significant in Apalachicola, St. George Island, Eastpoint, Carrabelle, St. Marks and points further east and north. The storm increased in intensity from a Category 2 to almost a Category 5 practically overnight, make it the third-lowest-pressure storm to ever hit the United States in recorded history.
Many of us, myself included, would stay for a Category 2, but never would have stayed through anything higher, let alone a Category 5, but by then it really was too late to evacuate without risking being caught in the storm while on the road, blocked by the nightmare of bumper-to-bumper evacuation. The storm was forecast for the eye to make landfall 50 miles east of me. With hurricane force winds extending about 50 miles out from the center, I felt relatively safe, because my house has been through 75-mph winds before, without damage.
As it turned out, the 20 miles between my home and where significant damage starts are like night and day. It’s a sad time here on this beautiful coast and inland. In this day of division and self-centered interests, the outpouring of help from volunteers, just ordinary citizens really, is heartwarming. Funds are the only limitation. Donations are a huge help to the helpers as well as the unfortunate victims. Firefighters and policemen and helpers of all stripes also lost their homes.
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Mexico Beach$750.00
“Mexico Beach”, 11×14 oils on canvas panel. My painting of the canal from June of this year, a more peaceful time.
Hurricane Recovery Fundraising
The need for funding requires creative answers. At least 200 artists are participating in an online silent auction next week, 10/22/18-10/28/18, in which 100% of the proceeds will go to Franklin’s Promise, a non-profit based locally and dedicated to the communities of the Forgotten Coast. They presently are focused on the hurricane relief and recovery effort. I have donated “Seeing the Light” for this auction. More info at Operation Fundstorm.
Additionally, I have posted a temporary page offering a significant discount on paintings I completed in Panama City and on the “Forgotten Coast”, the areas devastated by Hurricane Michael on October 10, 2018.
I will donate 50% of the proceeds from those discounted sales to Hurricane Michael relief efforts. I will leave the discount in place at least through Thanksgiving. First come, first serve. To see my discounted paintings available, please visit my fundraiser page below.