That was certainly "ground zero."
Several of my friends with beach houses have been posting pics and video of coastal areas about 20 miles east of Mexico Beach (St. George Island), and interestingly, most of the homes built after the Hurricane Andrew building codes upgrades when into effect, are still standing. They got a 12' surge there on SGI. Many of the pre-Hurricane Andrew code buildings along the coastline are now gone. Even in Mexico Beach, there are structures that were built under the latest iteration of the coastal building codes, that while significantly damaged, are structurally intact. On those waterfront properties, the stilts make all the difference in the world when the surge rolls in. Of course, anything that gets built to replace the destroyed buildings in these coastal areas, will be built to the modern coastal codes, and will have a MUCH higher survivability the next time one blows through. The small inland towns that got hammered will not be subject to the same stringent level of coastal building codes, though.
My wife and I were talking about this very thing as a result of all of this. Our house was building in '72, and has a gable end roof, which makes it about as vulnerable as it gets for a roof. Based on conversations I've had with structural engineers, our roof will likely come off in the sustained winds of 110-120 MPH range, which means that had this storm blown a little bit more westward, my house would have be on the casualty list. We are working towards downsizing our property as we approach being empty nesters, and if we build a house, are certainly going to entertain, or at least get quotes, on building to Cat 4 wind loads.
The latest "missing person" report I heard (this morning) was that 50 of the 250 people believed to have ridden out the hurricane in Mexico Beach, are "unaccounted for." They don't necessarily believe those people perished, though, because communications are so shot in that area, they might have evacuated late and not reported in, or couldn't let anyone know where they were going.
