>> announcer: this is "nightline." >> tonight, washed away. hurricane michael's devastation becoming painfully clear. whole communities flattened. abc's david muir surveying the brutal aftermath. >> it's almost impossible to describe the destruction. the race to find survivors. >> search and rescue. >> a million homes without power after the strongest hurricane to hit the continental u.s. in 50 years. also, legacy of hope. the parents of matthew shepherd 20 years after his horrifying murder became a milestone in the national struggle over gay rights, continuing their fight for their son's legacy. >> what we are talking about are equal rights for american citizens. >> but troubling signs as hate

crimes rise. >> if you're not a straight white christian man in this country today, i'm worried about you. >> what the shepherds say still needs to be done. plus, making history, how this young hero is going where no one are cerebral palsy has ever gone before. but first, the "nightline" five. but first, the "nightline" five.

good evening. thanks for joining us. today, we're seeing dramatic new evidence of hurricane michael's devastation, the monstrous force of nature tearing through parts of the florida panhandle, leaving an astonishing trail of destruction. here's abc's rob marciano. >> reporter: the imagery is shocking from the air. >> it's almost impossible to describe the destruction from hurricane michael here on mexico beach. there are some buildings still standing. others are completely destroyed. >> reporter: and on the ground. >> we've now made it about ten blocks, and the destruction hasn't ended. so many homes ripped apart and gone, even if they're standing, they are -- they'll be condemned. >> reporter: flattened homes to hospitals. hurricane michael's quick and powerful strike came in with a roar, the most powerful storm to hit the united states in 50

years. this storm remains remarkably powerful. here in the storm zone, a couple of dry days as they continue this very daunting clean-up and recovery effort. leaving beach towns and fishing villages in ruins, countless displaced or homeless, more than a million without power and a quarter of that without cell service. michael remaining the hurricane through georgia, then weakening across the carolinas but dumping heavy rain and strong winds across much of the east coast. states of emergency have been declared in florida, georgia, alabama, north carolina, and virginia. early this morning, we met a woman outside her home, the roof nearly torn off. >> i took that storm for granted. >> you regret sticking around for it. >> yeah. yeah. but i'm alive. i'm alive. just start shaking. the house started shaking. i got down on the floor. it was probably not -- i started crying to the lord, take us through this. i've been in this house 11

years. >> you ain't never seen a storm like this. >> in panama city, i don't think nobody ever have. >> reporter: just to the east, mexico beach, florida, wiped out. once a beautiful coastal town now transformed into an apocalyptic scene of blit rated homes. my colleague experiencing the storm dangerously close watching as the >> i saw a home taken off the foundation and rolled down the street. i have never seen something like an entire home, a well built home, rolling down the street and i'll tell you right now, it makes you shake. >> reporter: the blue house across the street from where ginger was locked down during the storm, vanished. >> the home that i saw floating away was standing there. it is no longer. >> reporter: remarkably, ginger hears from jenny caputo, who tells us she watched our report

and that she's the owner of that blue house. >> hello, this is jenny. >> i can't imagine if it were my home. >> i'm heartbroken. we've only had that house five months. we've been coming to mexico beach for over ten years and we just love it. we finally bought a place there that we were going to enjoy with our young family now. we'll be back. we will rebuild and we'll come back and we have lots of -- they're just good people there. >> reporter: so many people still desperate for news, then cut off from all communication. >> you swam. >> yes. >> out. >> yes. >> of your home. >> yes. >> to a boat. >> yes. >> and that's how you survived. >> yes. >> reporter: today, survivors giving ginger phone numbers to call, telling loved ones they're alive. >> your daughter and her husband got into a boat that was on a trailer and they rode out the entire five hours of the storm. >> just beside ourselves. >> reporter: my colleague, david, went to two hospitals

that were badly damaged. >> the wind too a path when it broke those doors out and broke these doors out, the wind made a wind tunnel through the emergency department and we had to physically block off the doors which was actually fairly difficult to do. >> how did you do that? >> we put stretchers up and then bars across the doors to keep the doors from flying open. our hospital is filled with patients and a lot of them are sick. they had to be moved quickly. >> reporter: beginning this morning, they began medivac'ing the most critical out. i don't know how to get in here. early this afternoon, when we continued through the destruction, we discovered humane society workers safe but trapped by falling trees. are you guys stuck in there? putting out an s.o.s. call for them and the animals. >> i put out a post because we've got to transport these animals out of here, and i just put it out on facebook and said, please, everybody share. this is an issue. we've got, what, 30, 35 dogs and 60 to 70 cats.

and that means you're transporting one or two at a time over all of this. >> reporter: we just called the national guard. hopefully they can help. >> you did? >> reporter: what do you need, you need the road cleared? national guardsmen arriving to prepare a plan to evacuate them. they won't get out tonight. they'll be back with engineers and heavy equipment tomorrow. the record breaking storm, the strongest to ever hit the florida panhandle made landfall just after the united nations released a dire report on the impacts of climate change. >> scientists have been warning us for years that we can expect to see more extreme weather with climate change. but heat waves, wildfires and heavy rainfall events of recent months, all over the world underscore these warnings. >> reporter: oceans are warming, waters warming, due to climate change. this warm water contributed to the strength of that hurricane. according to a 2013 study, sea surface temperatures in the eastern gulf of mexico, the same waters hurricane michael fed off

of, have warmed over the past century more than what would be expected naturally. >> these waters in the gulf were warmer than they normally are at this time of the year and we know, again, that hurricanes thrive on warmer water. >> reporter: the landmark u.n. report released just this week warned mankind has 12 years to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions or face global catastrophe. with severe drought, floods, rising sea levels, and extreme heat set to cause mass dislocation and destruction. back on the ground in the storm-tossed region, there were small glimmers of hope in this disaster zone. a tallahassee woman greeting the mayor with a "late night" treat. >> i'm out here to bring them chocolate chip cookies. would you like some cookies? >> holy cow. i'm going to take one. >> reporter: happy to be alive, i'm sure, but they're not happy right here. and we met some of the smallest survivors, saved by that couple, four kittens.

>> they're just so cold and hung hungry. >> reporter: but making it through the storm safely now in a shelter up for adoption. for "nightline," i'm rob marciano in panama city, florida. up next, the parents of matthew shepherd on his legacy and their continuing struggle in the battle for lgbtq rights. my name is elaine barber, and i'm a five-year cancer survivor. surviving for five years is a big deal. i had so many people at ctca helping me find a way to go through the treatments. the reality of cancer is not everybody survives. at ctca, they have a huge celebrate life event. that was amazing, because the whole day was about all of the survivors. i'm excited about my future. visit cancercenter.com to schedule an appointment now. they work together doing important stuff. the hitch? like you, your cells get hungry. feed them... with centrum micronutrients. restoring your awesome, daily.

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click, call or visit a store today. it's hard to believe this friday marks the 20th anniversary of matthew shepard's death. his horrifying murder shocked the national conscience. a watershed moment in gay rights history and turned his parents into accidental activists.

i met them recently in wyoming to discuss their continuing battle to make something decent emerge from this unspeakable crime. you said, i'm angrier now in some ways. >> i am. i thought we were making such great progress and then after the election, it was like, well, here we are, ground zero again. i'm so mad we are regressing. here we are again. just makes me very angry. >> reporter: matt shepard, the gay college student savagely beaten last week in wyoming died this morning. >> reporter: it's been 20 years since matthew shepard's gruesome murder became synonymous with hate. his parents, dennis and judy, have turned their family's tragedy into a legacy of hope. but their fight for lgbtq rights is far from over. they point to a recen hate crimes, underscoring what they say is a resurgence of bigotry. >> it's discouraging. it's really scary if you're not a straight white christian man in this country today. i'm worried about you.

>> reporter: judy's son was a 21-year-old college student who was found beaten beyond recognition, tied to a wooden fence, and left to die. his murder sparking a national soul searching over homophobia but to his parents, matthew was simply their son. >> describe him as a kid growing up. what kind of child was he? >> pain in my butt. >> a classic son. >> a classic child. >> a pain in your butt in what way? mischievous? stubborn? describe it. >> stubborn, argumentative. >> all those things. >> but it was something to look forward to. >> reporter: from early on, they s suspected and accepted that matthew was gay. he said, mom, i'm gay, and i said, what took you so long to tell me? and he was like, i don't get it, how did you know before i knew? i said, it's -- i guess it's a mom thing. >> reporter: even then, the shepards say it was inconceivable that anyone would want to harm their son. >> we didn't realize the amount

of violence and discrimination and animus against the gay community until after he died. we thought, he's born here in wyoming, the middle of the united states, he's an american citizen, he has all the rights, responsibilities, duties and privileges of every other american citizen. >> reporter: especially in wyoming in the land of live and let live, the shepards soon discovered that beneath the idyllic surface, intolerance was festering. on that cold day in 1998, a cyclist rode past fencing on the outskirts of laramie and came upon what he thought was a scare crow. instead, a more heinous discovery, matthew clinging to life. >> he was all bandaged, face was swollen, stitches everywhere, comatose position already, fingers curled, toes curled, one eye was a little bit open. he wasn't -- i couldn't even have sworn that it was matt until we got really closer and i could see the tubes in his mouth, i could see his braces and of course that was matt. of course it was.

>> reporter: sheriff dave o'malley was assigned to the case. >> the things that i was initially able to determine was that the traumatic injuries to his face and his skull were likened to high speed impact crashes. >> reporter: as if he got in a high speed car crash. >> exactly. just extremely brutal injuries. he was actually struck between 19 and 21 times, specifically concentrated on his head. >> reporter: when did you realize how global a story this was? >> when the servers at the hospital began to crash with all the e-mail messages, people from all over the world inquiring about matt or having something to say. >> reporter: matthew laid in a coma for six agonizing days but then he slipped away. it still rurts. >> of course it does. pictures come into your head and there it is again. >> reporter: it will never leave you. >> no. >> reporter: initially, sheriff o'malley and the local authorities thought it was a robbery. >> something went profoundly wrong for them to drag him out

of a truck and tie him to a fence and beat him in the head and the face with the butt end of that big gun. >> reporter: that was no longer robbery. >> no. no. not at all. >> reporter: that was a hate crime. >> my opinion, yes. >> reporter: according to the prosecutors, two locals, 21-year-old russell henderson and 22-year-old aaron mckinney met matthew at a bar and lured him into mckinney's truck by pretending to be gay. both men were convicted of first-degree murder. at the time, hate crime laws didn't extend to cover sexual orientation. the trial becoming the crux for national debate around gay rights and anti-gay bias. matthew's murder made many in laramie examine the roots of prejudice and hate. >> i was mean spirited, extremely homophobic, and basically this investigation forced me to interact with the gay community many times. i feel kind of hypocritical talking about it because i flipped a 180 so quickly. it was just the way i had been

for many years, and interacting with these kids that were friends of matt's, it made me lose my ignorance really quick and it made me realize that my belief structures were based on what other people had told me. >> reporter: matthew's murder became the inspiration for the laramie project. >> are you matthew shepard? he says, yeah. >> reporter: the play, performed more than 2,000 times in the u.s., translated into 13 languages, and immortalized in an hbo film. >> i would like nothing better than to see you die, mr. mckinney. however, this is the time to begin the healing process. >> to someone who refused to show any mercy. >> reporter: dennis reread that courtroom letter at this year's 20th anniversary gala. >> i'm going to grant you life, as hard as it is for me to do so. >> reporter: what message were you trying to send to the perpetrators? >> i wasn't saying anything to the perpetrators. i was telling the world who matt was as our son and as a brother that he was just an ordinary kid

who wanted to make the world a better place. and they took that away from him. and from us. >> reporter: the shepards take solace knowing their son's legacy reverberates to this day with this generation of lgbtq youth, like the outspoken olympic skater, adam rippon, who participated in the gala this year. >> the experiences that have been able to have, especially in the last few months, that a lot of them are in part to what dennis and judy shepard have been able to do with their foundation. putting a highlight on a lot of the discriminatory things that happened to lgbtq people has made the road a lot easier, especially for somebody like me. >> then i noticed something. >> reporter: rippon was so moved by being in the play, he flew to laramie to talk iavg my own struggle from came out and from when i was in high school to even have that ability to do that and to have the ability to have conversations like this,

even, is something phenomenal. >> what do you want the legacy of matthew shepard to be? >> events around this toth year anniversary really show that change is happening and that people care about continuing matthew's legacy. >> i want people to see wyoming as not just a random, offensive red neck state that killed someone. i want them to see it as a place that recognized that that's not okay and started the changes around the nation to help fix problems. >> reporter: that legacy is inspiring a whole new generation. after years of social activism. >> this afternoon, i signed into law the matthew shepard and james bird jr. hate crimes prevention act. >> reporter: even helping pass landmark legislation, expanding federal hate crimes to include lgbtq victims. >> and this is obviously incredibly important. >> that actually is a copy of the law that president obama

signed, making it official, protecting lgbtq. >> reporter: the shepards are determined to continue honoring matthew's name while keeping the memory of their son alive. >> he had flaws. he was smart, funny, people just were drawn to him. and there was a great loss, not just to us but to all his friends and people who hadn't met him yet. >> reporter: matthew shepard's ashes will be interred at washington national cathedral on friday, october 26th. judy and dennis shepard are planning to donate personal papers and objects representing matthew's life to the smithsonian's permanent collection. up next, the barrier this athlete with cerebral palsy has just broken. >>nnouncerabc news "nightline" sponsored by mercedes-benz. edes-benz. ♪ from the start, the c-class was ahead of its time. [ indistinct radio chatter ]

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now to an inspiring athlete who's just made history. cerebral palsy. now as a junior on the

university of oregon running club, his dream is to run a half marathon in less than two hours. for the last year, he's been working with nike on shoes tailored to his needs. watch his emotional reaction as nike surprises him at the finish line with a contract. the first athlete with cerebral palsy to get one. >> we love you. >> good things happen, right? >> bravo, justin. thanks for watching "nightline." monitor their blood glucose every day. which means they have to stop. and stick their fingers. repeatedly.

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