Landfall imminent: Hurricane Michael set to hit Florida as historic, Category 4 storm

Rick Neale and Doyle Rice and John Bacon USA TODAY

Published 1:39 PM EDT Oct 10, 2018

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. – Hurricane Michael made landfall Wednesday near Mexico Beach on Florida's Panhandle, a Category 4 storm that smashed records as the strongest ever to roar onto the state's exposed Panhandle.

High winds and heavy rains lashed the coast. More than 150,000 homes and businesses already were without power. The number could roll into the millions from the "potentially catastrophic" storm, which was packing sustained winds of 150 mph.

The storm was moving north-northeast at 14 mph. It was too late for people in the immediate path of the storm to flee.

The National Weather Service in Tallahassee said a hurricane "of this strength has NEVER made landfall in this region and thus this is an event that will have unprecedented impacts."

"It's historic, it's extremely life threatening," said Kenneth Graham, director of the hurricane center.

More: Michael is so bad Waffle House has already closed 18 restaurants

More: Michael: New information on landfall times, path, storm surge

More: Live stream: Tracking Hurricane Michael

In Panama City Beach, Perry and Mollie Williams described their single-story home a block from the beach as “a fortress" and said they would ride out Michael with their three cats and a Rottweiler.

“It’s our first storm (forecast) to be on top of us," Mollie Williams, a 17-year resident, said warily. "We’ve had a number of them come into the Gulf, and either come to the left or the right of us. But never on top of us."

Brock Long, administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, had ominous words for those who stayed.

"Those who stick around to witness storm surge don’t typically live to talk about it," Long said.

But hours before the storm hit, it was too late for many to flee.

"The time to evacuate coastal areas has come and gone," Florida Gov. Rick Scott said at a news conference Wednesday. "If you are in an inland county you might have one more chance to evacuate, but only if local officials say it is safe."

The hurricane's barometric pressure had dropped as it approached land. The lower the pressure, the more intense the storm. According to Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach, if it maintained its pressure, only four hurricanes on record will have hit the continental U.S. with a lower pressure: Labor Day (1935), Camille (1969), Andrew (1992), Katrina (2005).

Tallahassee, a city of 200,000, sits 100 miles east of Panama City. The city was bracing for hurricane-force winds of up to 100 mph – enough to knock down a lot of trees and power lines, Rathbun warned.

Gale and James Berry fled to a city shelter in Lincoln High School's cafeteria. Gale Berry, 59, says their neighborhood was littered with debris and downed trees after Hurricane Hermine, which made landfall in 2016 as a Category 1 storm. She had no interest in riding out a Category 4 in her mobile home.

"You don't want to have to stay there," she said. "You could die."

Scott said 1,000 search and rescue personnel were ready to respond as soon as Michael passes. Another 3,500 National Guard members were also ready to deploy, he said.

On a full-throttle journey from the Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said Michael will bring “life-threatening” storm surge, hurricane-force winds and torrential rainfall after developing from a seemingly minor tropical storm off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula several days ago.

Long warned that the brutal storm would "stay intact" as a hurricane as it roars through the Florida Panhandle and through parts of Alabama and Georgia. The storm could leave wide swaths of the region powerless for weeks, he said. 

The worst could come in Florida's Big Bend, a loosely defined area of the eastern Panhandle where the coastline bends to the south. Graham said storm surge will inundate the Aucilla River to a point where it will "flow backward."

"This is a nightmare hurricane for the Big Bend," said Ryan Truchelut, chief meteorologist at WeatherTiger. "Michael will be of a landfall intensity not seen for at least 100 years, and perhaps more."

About 4.2 million people are under hurricane warnings, from the Panhandle and Big Bend areas in Florida into parts of southeastern Alabama and southern Georgia. The hurricane center is predicting a storm surge of up to 14 feet in some areas. Heavy rainfall will drench Florida’s Panhandle, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina; up to 12 inches is possible in isolated locations.

On its current track, the the core of Michael is expected to move northeastward across the southeastern U.S. on Wednesday night and Thursday, and then move off the Mid-Atlantic coast away from the United States on Friday.

Bacon and Rice reported from Mclean, Va. Contributing: Steve Kiggins, Wayne Price and Nada Hassanein, USA TODAY NETWORK

Let's block ads! (Why?)

Read More News https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/10/10/hurricane-michael-category-4-florida/1586321002/

Bagikan Berita Ini