While areas across Bay County like Lynn Haven have received media and governmental attention, smaller communities and towns like Millville and nearby Springfield have remained largely ignored. At least, its residents feel that way.

PANAMA CITY — For the past couple of weeks, Wanda Brannon and her daughter, Sirena Foster, have traveled across Panama City in a Mercury Voyager.

Brannon, 66, weighs 350 pounds and can’t walk. Because she lost her wheelchair during Hurricane Michael, she’s been mostly confined to the passenger-side seat of the van, driven around Panama City by Foster to wherever they can pick up food and supplies.

“I just want to be able to really lie down somewhere,” Brannon said.

On Thursday, Brannon and Foster drove to Daffin Park in Millville, not far from where Brannon’s College Avenue home of the past 20 years was destroyed. Brannon gets teary eyed when she talks about how she felt the house shake Oct. 10 as she was praying in her bathroom for God to save her.

“I kept praying ‘I don’t want to die like this,’ ” she said.

At Daffin Park, Brannon waits in the car as Foster goes to a camp set up by volunteers. Foster goes to get bandages, antiseptic cream and allergy medicine. While she’s there, she picks up a hot meal for her and her mother.

“This has always been home to me,” Foster said.

Despite being in the poorer part of Bay County, many people still count Millville as home, a community that was briefly a city in the early 20th century before becoming part of Panama City proper. At one point a booming area, Millville has stagnated during the past couple of decades, home to mostly working-class residents.

As people make their way to and from Daffin for food, supplies or a hot shower, smoke can be seen wafting out of the WestRock paper mill, a symbol for both its namesake and how the industry shaped the area in the early days.

While areas across Bay County like Lynn Haven have received media and governmental attention, smaller communities and towns like Millville and nearby Springfield have remained largely ignored. At least, its residents feel that way.

“I don’t hear anyone talking about us,” Paul Weeks said.

It has been mostly volunteer-run projects that have catered to these communities. On this day, a group of volunteers drove out from Santa Rosa Beach to offer food and supplies. The effort is the byproduct of Hannah Martin, a broker associate at The Premier Property Group, and Jessica Proffitt Bracken, president of Proffitt PR.

Martin was in New Orleans when Hurricane Michael hit. Martin, who has been involved with philanthropic efforts in the past, said she was devastated as she saw news reports of how the area had been ravaged by Michael.

“It was truly the most devastating thing I have ever seen in my life,” Martin said.

Within a couple of days, Martin and Proffitt were raising funds and support to go out to different communities to help people. Largely through social media, the duo was able to quickly raise thousands of dollars and amassed dozens of volunteers eager to help. The Sonder Project, the charitable arm of 360 Blue Properties, offered its support within a week or so, feeding thousands in the process.

“We see this as neighbors helping neighbors,” Sonder Project CEP Chad Zibelman said.

One such neighbor who was out and about Thursday was Carrie Campbell as she handed out hamburgers and hot dogs to people coming into the tent. While some took enough for lunch, others took three or four boxes of food at a time, knowing they would need it for later.

“I felt like just donating supplies was not enough anymore,” the Santa Rosa Beach resident said. “I had to be here.”

Near the two tents Martin and Proffitt’s volunteers are working, the Red Cross is set up nearby. FEMA also has recently set up a comfort station, equipped with restrooms and showers. Bags of ice also are on hand, a commodity treated like a luxury these days in the area.

Genease Martindale said she hopes this kind of support stays in the area, a place where many cannot travel far from because of a lack of transportation.

“I just filed my claim with FEMA,” Martindale said, adding she was unsure on when she would hear back from the agency.

As Foster gets her supplies to her mother, she wonders aloud what will be next for them.

“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” Foster said.

Reach Drew Taylor at drew.taylor@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0204.