Florida Panhandle asks: Should disaster relief really be political?

After Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle last October, residents say their world looked like a war zone: houses blown apart, trees gone, ambulances transporting hospital patients to safety.

Now the storm is one for the record books. With new measurements showing that winds reached 160 miles an hour, Michael was upgraded retroactively to Category 5, only the fourth such top-level hurricane ever to hit the mainland United States.

But the residents of those Panhandle communities feel forgotten, as disaster relief for multiple natural catastrophes around the country has been stalled in Washington gridlock.

Greg Brudnicki and Mark McQueen, the mayor and city manager, respectively, of Panama City, Florida – which suffered immense damage – came to Washington this week to lobby for

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