Wilmer Capps takes the temperature of his two-day-old son Luke while preparing with his wife Lorrainda Smith to spend the first night out of the hospital in a parking lot in Panama City, Fla., Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Capps says he and wife had no choice but to camp out the night their son was released from an Alabama hospital because their home in Panama City was badly damaged by Hurricane Michael. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Wilmer Capps takes the temperature of his two-day-old son Luke while preparing with his wife Lorrainda Smith to spend the first night out of the hospital in a parking lot in Panama City, Fla., Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Capps says he and wife had no choice but to camp out the night their son was released from an Alabama hospital because their home in Panama City was badly damaged by Hurricane Michael. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Credit: David Goldman

Mexico Beach, Fla. — Missing relatives and worries that looters are just outside the door. Dirty clothes. Hours-long lines for gasoline, insurance adjusters, food and water. No power, no air conditioning, no schools, no information and little real improvement in sight.

Daily life is a series of fears and frustrations, both large and small, for thousands of people living on the edge, more than a week after Hurricane Michael flattened thousands of square miles in the hurricane zone of the Florida Panhandle.

Michael slammed into Florida’s Panhandle with 155 mph winds on Oct. 10 and retained hurricane-force winds deep into southern Georgia, also affecting the Carolinas and Virginia. Florida authorities on Thursday say the storm killed 24 people in the state, bringing the overall death toll to at least 34.

With power still out in much of the Panhandle and thousands of buildings destroyed or damaged by Michael, almost nothing is normal. Even simple tasks are difficult or impossible.

Unseasonably warm temperatures in the 80s are adding to the misery because so few people can cool down with air conditioning. Bottled water is plentiful at roadside aid stations; ice is another matter.