Hurricane Michael: Panama City and Mexico Beach see devastating damage from tropical storm now tracking through South Carolina
An 11-year-old girl from Georgia was among those who were killed in the storm
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Your support makes all the difference.At least six people have been killed by Hurricane Michael and more can be expected after the storm 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.
“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 to 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 were just 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 the 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”.
If you want to see how the aftermath of Hurricane Michael came about live, please see our formerly live coverage of the impact below.
Additional reporting by agencies
Authorities in Mexico Beach, an area littered with small beach towns, said nearly 300 residents ignored evacuation orders in the build up to the climax of the storm. It is currently not known whether these people remained in the area when the storm hit.
As the day goes on, we are beginning to see just how devastating Hurricane Michael was when it hit into the Florida panhandle on Wednesday.
CNN's Brooke Baldwin, flying in a helicopter above Panama City, said that the city is "gone" after the storm hit the area.
"It’s gone… it’s obliterated… I’ve never seen anything like this… I have no words”, Baldwin said.
The latest update from the National Hurricane Centre says that Hurricane Michael is now bringing heavy rains and tropical-force winds to the Carolinas.
The 11am update indicated that Michael will continue to move across the eastern and central portions of North Carolina throughout the day, before moving through southeastern Virginia evening, and then finally making its way into the Atlantic Ocean overnight.
That update indicated that the storm was about 35 miles southeast of Charlotte, North Carolina.
Parts of North and South Carolina can expect between 4 and 7 inches of rain, while isolated areas of North Carolina and Virginia can expect as much as 9 inches of rain.
The death toll from Hurricane Michael is currently just at two, but emergency workers are just now beginning to make their way through the devastation that has been left behind.
Rescue workers with the National Guard have arrived in Mexico Beach, where search and rescue teams have already been moving from door to door to try and check on people.
It seems unlikely that the death toll will remain at two, and dozens of people have already been rescued by those workers. In many places, the devastation is so complete that anyone who stayed behind to wait out the storm is unlikely to have survived.
The New York Times reports that hospitals in Panama City, Florida, are in a rush to evacuate.
While hospital evacuations have been previously reported, the New York Times report portrays a desperate rush to ensure patient safety in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael's landfall.
"It was like hell," Dr Brian Roake, the head of the anesthesiology department at Bay Medical Centre Sacred Heart, told that newspaper of what it was like to be in the hospital during the hurricane's landfall.
Mr Roake said that the situation was particularly dire in the hospital's intensive care unit, which is on upper floors of a newer glass tower. Those windows are double paned, he said, but the storm was so ferocious that the outer layers began to break.
The United States Coast Guard has posted a video showing devastation in Panama City Beach, Florida.
The video was captured by an AIRSTA Savannah aircraft, which is conducting response operations in the wake of Hurricane Michael's devastation.
In the footage, homes can be seen with their roofs torn off, and sand on the roads from nearby beaches. Some homes were completely destroyed, while others remain somehow intact.
The US Coast Guard has released some more photos showing the impact of Hurricane Michael on communities in the Florida panhandle.
Crews are working to assess the flow of storm surge, and have discovered what appears to be a boat turned on its side in the waters near Apalachicola, Florida.
In spite of potential disruptions in voter registration efforts this week as a result of Hurricane Michael, a federal judge has rejected an effort to extend the voter registration deadline in Florida.
US District Judge Robert Hinkle said that there is "no justification" for extending the deadline, which the Florida Democratic Party had asked for. Democrats had called the Republican-led effort to Michael's disruption confusing and inadequate.
Voter registration ended on Tuesday, 29 days before the midterm elections in the US on 6 November.
Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner told local election supervisors that they can accept paper applications for a day after reopening if their offices were closed on Tuesday because of storm conditions.
In other Florida election news, Governor Rick Scott — who is running as a Republican candidate for the US Senate — has announced that he will not attend a scheduled debate set for October 16.
Mr Scott has asked for a two week delay before he meets Senator Bill Nelson, for what could be an influential debate moderated by CNN.
"Due to the catastrophic destruction caused by Hurricane Michael, Governor Scott will be solely focused on response and recovery efforts,' Jackie Schutz Zeckman, Mr Scott's campaign manager, said in a statement provided to Florida Politics.
The statement continues: "We are sure Senator Nelson agrees. So, today, the Scott for Florida campaign has asked CNN to postpone the debate between Governor Scott and Senator Nelson for two weeks. We appreciate CNN understanding the dire situation in North Florida ... Gov Scott looks forward to debating, but will have no time for campaigning in the next few weeks as he focuses exclusively on recovery efforts for the foreseeable future".
The death toll from Hurricane Michael has risen to five after an official in Gadsden County, Florida, official confirmed that more bodies had been found in recovery and response efforts there.
A first death had been reported earlier in the day on Thursday after a man was killed by a tree falling on his house.
The fifth person was an 11-year-old girl who was killed in Seminole County, Georgia.
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