Hurricane Michael makes landfall in Florida panhandle - Strongest storm to hit state since 1851 - at least six dead amid devastating damage - UPDATES

RT
Wed, 10 Oct 2018 16:06 UTC

© AFP / NOAA

Florida residents are scrambling to flee their homes as Hurricane Michael bears down on the state. If it doesn't weaken before making landfall, Michael will be the strongest hurricane to batter Florida since 1851.

"No long-time residents of this area will have seen a hurricane this strong before," said the Weather Channel. No category-4 hurricane has ever made landfall along Florida's panhandle, and Michael is set to bring winds of up to 145mph and waves of up to 13 feet, enough to rip roofs off houses, and bury them beneath the storm surge.

As well as being the strongest storm to hit Florida in over a century, Michael is poised to be the strongest to hit the US mainland since the extremely active hurricane season of 2004.

"It's a triple threat - it's got high surge, it's got heavy winds or strong winds and heavy rain and a wide area," FEMA administrator Jeff Byard told Fox News.

"A storm like this could be a once-in-a-lifetime event," Meteorologist Brett Rayburn told Bloomberg. "Winds of this intensity can really knock down any tree or structure in its path.

President Trump has declared a state of emergency for the entire state of Florida, and Governor Rick Scott pleaded on Wednesday with anyone in an evacuation zone - around 500,000 people - to "leave RIGHT NOW," or risk their lives.

After ripping through Florida, FEMA warned that Hurricane Michael could cause flash flooding throughout Alabama, Georgia, and North and South Carolina. The Carolinas are still recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Florence six weeks ago, and Michael is expected to be orders of magnitude stronger than Florence.

Evacuees have already begun to settle into school and government buildings, hastily repurposed as shelters by the Red Cross. 75-year-old retiree Betty Early told Reuters that she was just "blessed to have a place to come," as she huddled on a makeshift bedroll in an elementary school building in Panama City, near the storm's expected landfall.

With the storm approaching ever closer, Gov. Scott warned that first responders will no longer be able to make it to evacuation zones. "The time for evacuating along the coast has come and gone," he warned later on Wednesday morning. "If you chose to stay in an evacuation zone, you must SEEK REFUGE IMMEDIATELY."

In addition to the imminent threat to human life, authorities are predicting sustained power outages, and "major infrastructure damage," according to Byard. Wastewater treatment systems, as well as transportation and communication networks, are expected to be devastated by the storm, which could cause up to $16 billion in damage.

Comment: We don't want to alarm anyone but this went from Category 1 to 4 in under 12 hours.

Michael has emerged from nowhere to become the third-strongest storm (pressure-wise) to ever make landfall in the US...

Update 14:30 EST

Footage of landfall is starting to come in. This looks like it's gonna be a doozy.

UPDATE 18:40:EST

More footage coming in:

UPDATE RT reports on 11th October 2018 (02.23):

A man and a child were killed when trees fell on their homes on Wednesday, as Hurricane Michael plowed into Alabama and Georgia, leaving behind a path of destruction in the Panhandle.

Hurricane Michael, which made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida as a category-4 storm on Wednesday afternoon, has ravaged the Florida Panhandle with gusting winds of up to 155mph (250kph).

A man was killed when a tree fell on his home in Gadsden County, Florida, and a child died in a similar accident in Seminole County, Georgia, local officials confirmed.

Photos and videos show homes in the town of some 2,000 residents shredded to pieces.

Panama City, some 20 miles (32km) from Mexico Beach, has borne the brunt of the storm, as it downed trees, knocked power lines, tore off roofs, and splintered homes, some of which have collapsed.

The storm, the most severe to hit the Florida Panhandle in a century, brought flash floods, inundating roads and homes.

More than 300,000 homes and businesses have been affected by power outages in Florida.

At least one person was killed in the storm. The man was trapped by a fallen tree at his home in Greensboro, Gladsden County, police reported. Rescue crews that were responding to the emergency failed to arrive in time to pull him out alive due to roads being blocked by fallen power lines.

As the hurricane, downgraded to a category-3 storm, moved into Alabama and Georgia on Wednesday evening, Florida Governor Rick Scott urged locals to stay inside and off the roads, as rescuers were on their way to the most heavy-hit areas. The state authorities are still assessing the damage.

Residents of Georgia and Alabama have been hit with power blackouts after the hurricane crossed into the southeastern part of the states. Some 125,000 homes were left without power in Georgia and over 52,000 homes in Alabama as of Wednesday evening.

The storm continued on its destructive path, bringing heavy rains and tearing down trees. As it moved further inland, its crushing force subsided.

By 8pm, Michael was weakened to category-1 storm, with wind gusts reaching 90mph (144kph), the National Hurricane Center reported.

Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump stirred some controversy by refusing to cancel his MAGA rally in Erie, Pennsylvania due to the storm.

"I cannot disappoint the thousands of people that are there - and the thousands that are going," he tweeted.

According to the Guardian, Michael's 155mph winds at landfall were only 5mph short of category 5 status, making it the strongest storm to strike the United States since Hurricane Andrew ravaged southern Florida in 1992.

UPDATE: The Independent on 12th October 2018 reports:

At least six people have been killed by Hurricane Michael and more can be expected after Hurricane Michael ripped through the US southeast, devastating communities in the Florida panhandle in a tempest that authorities say is the worst the region has seen since records began in 1851.

An 11-year-old girl from Georgia is among those who died in the storm, which levelled neighbourhoods in Mexico Beach and Panama Beach in Florida.

Michael has caused widespread damage, leaving more than 700,000 homes and businesses without power across three states and even blowing a train off its tracks in Florida with winds up to 155mph, according to reports. It has been estimated that more than 300,000 homes and businesses have been destroyed or badly damaged in Florida alone.

© Eric Thayer for The New York Times

A search-and-rescue worker walked down Main Street in Mexico Beach, Florida.

"So many lives have been changed forever. So many families have lost everything. Homes are gone. Businesses are gone," Florida Governor Rick Scott said shortly before a planned tour of the devastation on Thursday. "Roads and infrastructure along the storm's path have been destroyed. This hurricane was an absolute monster, and the damage left in its wake has yet to be fully understood".

Michael, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm, was downgraded into a tropical storm on Thursday, according to the National Hurricane Centre (NHC). The storm still carries with it the potential for major damage and loss of life, with the NHC saying that ongoing flash floods and dangerous winds should be watched for in the Carolinas and southern Virginia.

After daylight on Thursday residents of north Florida would just be beginning to take stock of the enormity of the disaster.

Damage in Panama City near where Michael came ashore on Wednesday afternoon was so extensive that broken and uprooted trees and downed power lines lay nearly everywhere.

The storm was due to began to pass over the Carolinas on Thursday, just weeks after the states were battered by Hurricane Florence's torrential rain. The storm is projected to begin moving eastward on Friday and then make its way out to sea in the Atlantic.

During a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump promised to visit Florida soon. He said that "we will always pull through" and offered his "thoughts and prayers" to those affected by thew storm. On Thursday, he described the hurricane as one of the worst the US had encountered.

"This one went very quickly, but its tremendous destruction in the areas and the path that it chose is incredible for destruction," Mr Trump said on Thursday at the White House. "We have not seen destruction like that in a long time".

More footage of the devastation has emerged:

Update: RT reports severe damage to Florida Air Force base:

© Reuters / Jonathan Bachman

An aircraft hangar damaged by Hurricane Michael is seen at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, U.S. October 11, 2018.

Hurricane Michael has wreaked havoc at Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Florida, uprooting trees, tearing off roofs, and wiping out the flight line and marina. It's still unknown how long repairs will take.

The base, located just 19km (12 miles) east of Panama City, suffered a "direct hit" from the hurricane, which made its landfall on Florida's Panhandle on Wednesday, shredding nearby Mexico Beach and bringing devastation to Panama City.

Tyndall has not been spared the full force of the hurricane either. Aerial footage of the base shows snapped trees, dozens of trailers scattered across parking lots and severe damage to homes, with gaping holes where roof shingles used to be.

Wind gusts have ripped siding from aircraft hangars. "Widespread catastrophic damage" was caused to almost every structure, the base commandment said on Facebook.

"The flight line is devastated. Every building has severe damage. Many buildings are a complete loss. The hurricane completely destroyed the Tyndall marina. The structures and docks are gone."

The base "took a beating" from the hurricane and will need extensive clean-up and repairs, Colonel Brian S. Laidlaw said. The storm left the base without basic utilities, and fallen trees and power lines blocked the roads.
© Reuters / Jonathan Bachman

No casualties or injuries have been reported at the base, which was empty at the time the storm smashed into Florida. The majority of the aircraft waited out the storm in Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio and Carswell Field in Texas.

It is unclear when servicemen and families that were driven from the base can return, the commandment admitted.

"I know that you are eager to return. I ask you to be patient and try to focus on taking care of your families and each other. We can rebuild our base, but we can't rebuild any of you," Laidlaw said.

Update: NOAA's latest projection of tropical storm Michael's path:

Tropical Storm Michael is located 30 miles west of Augusta, Georgia and is moving to the northeast at 21 mph (33 km/h).

NHC forecasters say that this motion is expected to continue with an increase in forward speed through tonight.

A turn toward the east-northeast and an even faster forward speed are expected on Friday.

On the NHC forecast track, the center of Michael will move through eastern Georgia into central South Carolina this morning, then moves across portions of central and eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia into the Atlantic Ocean by late tonight or early Friday.

© NOAA

© NOAA

Tropical storm Michael projected windspeed