Kennedy, AndrewCopp, AndrewFlorence, MatthewGradel, AndersonGurley, KurtisJanssen, MattKaihatu, JamesKrafft, DouglasLynett, PatrickOwensby, MargaretPinelli, Jean-PaulPrevatt, David O.Rogers, SpencerRoueche, DavidSilver, Zachariah2020-12-142020-12-142020-09-010733-950X5020004http://hdl.handle.net/10919/101110Category 5 Hurricane Michael made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida on October 9, 2018, with measured high water marks (HWMs) reaching 7.2 m NAVD88. The town itself received great damage, with many areas destroyed down to the foundations. In this study, we document the storm and its effects on the greater Mexico Beach area: hazard, structural damage, and their relationships. Wave and surge damage was nearly total for low-lying properties, but damage decreased greatly with increasing elevation. Major wave and surge damage was noted in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) X zones, which are out of the 100-year floodplain, and it is suggested that the 100-year storm is a deficient measure for categorizing flood risk. This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/application/pdfenCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 InternationalArticle - Refereedhttps://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WW.1943-5460.000059014651943-5460