PANAMA CITY, FL — Lorrainda Smith and Wilmer Capps welcomed their newborn son on Oct. 15, three days after Hurricane Michael devastated the Florida Panhandle. The new parents became desperate to seek shelter after coming to the realization their home in Panama City was too severely wrecked by Michael’s path to properly care for the child. With no other options, the couple settled for the night in a Walmart store parking lot that had been shut down by the storm.
While both mother and son are healthy, no new parent would ever want to welcome a child under such conditions
“We had everything. Full-time job, a place to live. One day we had it all, the next we had nothing,” Smith told the Associated Press. “This is not what I thought I’d be bringing him back to.”
Below are haunting photos of the new parents as they spend their son Luke’s first night in the back of their pickup truck:
Lorrainda Smith and husband Wilmer Capps are seen with their 2-day-old son, Luke, contemplating whether or not they should sleep in their truck after learning that their Panama City home was so severely damaged by the storm they couldn’t properly care for their son in it. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)
Capps says he and wife had no choice but to camp out in the parking lot on the night their son was released from an Alabama hospital. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
The new parents even tried going to a local shelter, only to be told it was closed. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Above, Smith is seen feeding the newborn from the tailgate of the truck that they slept in, while below husband Capps takes the baby’s temperature. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Read more from the Associated Press.
Lead image by AP Photo/David Goldman