Florida awakens to Michael’s destruction

UPDATE: Rescuers are starting to get a clearer picture of the immense destruction wreaked by Hurricane Michael on the Florida Panhandle and other parts of the South. Officials at Tyndall Air Force base outside Panama City, Fla., reported “widespread catastrophic damage” and said evacuees from the base should plan for an extended time away. A National Guard team found 20 stranded survivors in Mexico Beach, where Michael made landfall as a Category 4 storm Wednesday, but rescuers said 285 people refused to evacuate and many of the homes in the small community had washed away.

Damaged hospitals in Panama City worked to move hundreds of patients elsewhere, including to Pensacola, Fla., and Mobile, Ala. In Chattahoochee, Fla., the state dropped food and supplies by air to a mental hospital that had been entirely cut off from dry land. The facility has a section that houses the criminally insane, but officials said the storm did not breach it.

Michael also caused heavy damage in southeastern Georgia. Gov. Nathan Deal urged residents there to be patient as emergency crews worked to clear roadways and assess the damage.

Authorities have identified one of the people killed in the storm as 11-year-old Sarah Rodney of Seminole County, Fla. Seminole County Emergency Management Agency director Travis Brooks said it wasn’t a tree, as earlier reported, but an airborne carport that hit her home and killed her. Another man died in Greensboro, Fla., from a falling tree.

Now a tropical storm, Michael moved through the Carolinas on Thursday bringing heavy rain that caused dangerous flooding. In western North Carolina, officials reported rescuing people from flooded cars and neighborhoods. The storm remained a hurricane for almost 200 miles inland, an unusual occurrence since such storms usually dissipate over land. Michael was the third most-powerful on record to hit the continental United States. Florida Gov. Rick Scott said the storm has changed lives forever, and “many families have lost everything.” He added, "This hurricane was an absolute monster.”

OUR EARLIER REPORT (10:45 a.m.): Hurricane Michael is responsible so far for two deaths and massive destruction in Florida, where journalists and rescue crews are still working to reach some of the hardest-hit areas. An 11-year-old girl in Seminole County, Ga., and a man in Greensboro, Fla., died when trees fell on their homes as Michael, the third most powerful hurricane on record to hit the continental United States, devastated communities in the South.

A reporter and photographer from the Tampa Bay Times made it to Mexico Beach, Fla., where Michael made landfall as a Category 4—almost 5—hurricane Wednesday. They reported entire structures washed away, homes stripped down to nothing but staircases and appliances, and fires burning in the early morning darkness. Search teams fanned out across the Florida Panhandle looking for survivors who waited out the storm. An 80-mile stretch of Interstate 80 was closed due to dangerous debris. About 900,000 homes and businesses in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas have lost power as of Thursday morning.

Government offices and rescue agencies posted videos on Twitter of long caravans of utility trucks, semis loaded with supplies, ambulances, and other rescue vehicles driving to affected areas. “We’re working diligently to get to everyone as quickly as we can,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott tweeted.

As of Thursday, Michael wasn’t done battering the South. It was moving over South Carolina and still had the strength of a tropical storm, bringing more rain to waterlogged areas still recovering from Hurricane Florence. At a rally Wednesday night in Erie, Pa., President Donald Trump said his thoughts and prayers were with the hurricane victims. “It’s a big one, one of the biggest we’ve ever seen,” the president said, adding that his administration is working with the governors of all the states in Michael’s path. “We’ll be traveling to Florida very, very shortly.”