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Hurricane Michael Leaves Deadly Trail Through Southeast

by admin · October 12, 2018 An aerial photo shows homes and businesses destroyed after Hurricane Michael smashed into Florida’s northwest coast in Mexico Beach. The storm rampaged through Georgia and the Carolinas on Thursday.

Courtesy James E. Wyatt / U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Reuters

Updated at 12:45 p.m. ET

At least 11 people have died from Hurricane Michael, which slammed into Florida’s Panhandle with 155-mph winds on Wednesday. The storm hacked a trail of catastrophic destruction in Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia before finally heading back out over water. As of noon ET Friday, the storm had left nearly 439,000 accounts without power outages in North Carolina, the state’s Emergency Management Agency said. Around the same time, Virginia’s emergency agency said more than 446,000 customers had no electricity. Those numbers are added to nearly 345,000 accounts without power in Florida and 150,000 in Georgia.

As one Panama City, Fla., resident told NPR’s Debbie Elliott, “This whole town’s destroyed.” “This is a war zone,” one Mexico Beach resident said of the damage left in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael.

Carlo Allegri/Reuters


Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Friday morning that the state has “half a million gallons of fuel being distributed daily at 40 fueling stations to support our utility crews as they work around the clock to restore power.”

With many roads impassable, Scott says food and water “are being airdropped into the hardest-hit communities, and law enforcement are escorting resources on the road.” 

“Before, it was paradise,” Mexico Beach resident Lance Hanson told NPR’s Greg Allen. “It was the most beautiful, secret location you could have for a vacation. The best beach in the world.”

Hanson stayed in his family’s house one block from the beach to ride out the storm, along with his uncle and 98-year-old grandmother. As Greg reports, “The storm blew off much of the roof, but the nightmare, as he calls it, didn’t end there. Houses where the gas was left on caught fire in Mexico Beach, threatening to burn down the entire neighborhood.”

“This is a war zone. How are you going to get out of here?” Hanson asked. “This city is destroyed. The whole area … they’re going to tear down these houses and rebuild it. You’re not going to recognize Mexico Beach.”

Before-and-After: A #MODIS satellite pass today showed evidence of the widespread tree damage reported over the Florida Panhandle from Hurricane #Michael. You can also see difference in the water color offshore, as lots of sediment was stirred up. Source: https://t.co/IKOtgfXxLapic.twitter.com/fsfO8ykuhx

— NWS WPC (@NWSWPC) October 11, 2018

Many of the beach’s residents followed evacuation orders. As for why Hanson and others stayed behind, Greg says he spoke to one man who “faulted the National Hurricane Center and the news media for not providing a more accurate forecast.”

The intense power of Michael caught many people off guard, as it quickly bloomed from a “disturbance” with winds of 30 mph on Saturday afternoon to become a fearsome storm with gusts over 170 mph. As it gained strength, hurricane forecasters said it “defies traditional logic.” 

Gerald Herbert/AP

“Hurricane Michael arrived before most of the state farmers had started harvest for the season — specifically for pecans, peanuts and cotton,” Tasnim Shamma reports from Atlanta member station WABE, for NPR’s Newscast unit.

“It is our worst dream being realized,” Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black said. “I have seen cotton that was being harvested yesterday. It was an outstanding yield of three bales an acre. You cannot tell where he stopped harvest and where the rest of it was being harvested by the storm.”

More than 50 poultry houses were also destroyed, officials say. Michael Williams, 70, looks for help from passing motorists as downed trees prevent him from driving out of his damaged home in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael with his family in Springfield, Fla., on Thursday. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said.


In Virginia, the National Weather Service said on Friday, “significant river flooding is occurring or forecast on the Appomattox River and possibly even on the lower James River.”

“All coastal tropical cyclone warnings and watches are discontinued,” the National Hurricane Center said on Friday morning, adding, “There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.”






