It wasn’t at all how they had pictured their October wedding, the one they had been planning and dreaming about for over a year.
A hurricane had just roared through the sleepy Florida Panhandle town of Mexico Beach. The two-story beach house Bryon Hughes and Cori Clark had rented for their guests was unrecognizable. All that was left behind was a brick stoop used on their wedding day to sit on and pose for their wedding pictures.
The bride, a detective with the Panama City Police Department, was on duty when the storm hit. The groom, a veteran firefighter who now volunteers with the Mexico Beach Fire Department, was looking after their house in Calloway and assisting in clearing nearby roads.