The remnants of Hurricane Michael — the most powerful storm on record to strike Florida’s Panhandle — swept through Georgia on Thursday on a path toward the Carolinas after leaving widespread destruction and at least two deaths in its wake.
“It’s hard to convey in words the scale of the catastrophe in Panama City. The whole city looks like a nuke was dropped on it. I’m literally shocked at the scale of the destruction,” storm chaser Josh Morgerman tweeted Wednesday night.
Another storm chaser echoed Morgerman’s stark assessment.
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“Drove from Panama City almost to Mexico Beach and I can tell you this is the worst damage from wind that I have ever seen! Absolutely catastrophic! You will not believe your eyes when you see it,” Mark Sudduth tweeted.
“Walking thru Mexico Beach to receive my GoPro cam and I’m telling you, it’s DEVASTATED. Truly devastated. Some buildings completely swept clean – only slabs,” he added.
A day after making landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida, as a Category 4 monster packing 155-mph winds, Tropical Storm Michael continued to weaken but was still threatening the Southeast with heavy rains, heavy winds and possible spinoff tornadoes.
Authorities said at least two people have died, a man killed by a tree falling on a Panhandle home and an 11-year-old girl killed by a tree falling on a home in southwest Georgia.
The National Hurricane Center said early Thursday that the eye of Michael was about 90 miles northeast of Macon, Georgia, and about 45 miles west of Augusta.
The storm’s maximum sustained winds have decreased to 50 mph and it was moving to the northeast at 21 mph. The core of Michael will move across eastern Georgia into central South Carolina later Thursday.
After daylight Thursday, Florida residents took stock of the epic scale of the disaster.
In Panama City, near where Michael came ashore, uprooted trees and downed power lines were strewn everywhere and countless homes were torn asunder. More than 380,000 homes and businesses lost power at the height of the storm.
Vance Beu, 29, was staying with his mother at her home in a complex of single-story wood-frame buildings where they piled up mattresses around themselves for protection.
A pine tree broke a hole in their roof and his ears popped when the barometric pressure plummeted. The roar of the winds, he said, sounded like a jet engine.
“It was terrifying, honestly. There was a lot of noise. We thought the windows were going to break at any time,” Beu said.
Sally Crown rode out Michael on the Panhandle, thinking at first that the worst damage was the many fallen trees in her yard before she emerged to check on the cafe she manages.
“It’s absolutely horrendous. Catastrophic,” Crown said about the scene of devastation. “There’s flooding. Boats on the highway. A house on the highway. Houses that have been there forever are just shattered.”
Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said some Florida residents may have been taken by surprise by the rapid escalation of the storm.
“It really started as a tropical storm, and then it went to Category 1, then it was Category 2 and before you know it, it was Category 4,” O’Shaughnessy told Reuters.
With Post wires
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