Tropical Storm Michael menaces Southeast with heavy rain; 2 dead

Trevor Hughes and John Bacon USA TODAY

Published 2:16 PM EDT Oct 11, 2018

PANAMA CITY, Fla. – The most powerful hurricane on record to hit Florida's Panhandle left destruction and death in its path Thursday as it weakened to tropical storm status but still brought havoc to Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia. 

Hurricane Michael made landfall on Wednesday about 20 miles southeast of here with historic, 155 mph sustained winds, violent waves and sideways rain. On Thursday, the true extent of damage to this picturesque seaside town was revealed.

The sugar-sand beaches were littered with debris when the storm's rage – and the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico – finally receded. Two hospitals were evacuated. Swaths of homes were destroyed, power lines snapped like toothpicks, cars and trucks flipped and smashed.

Authorities say it will likely be weeks before roads are cleared and electricity is fully restored.

"It got tore up. It looks like a bomb went off," said Chris Allen, 48, as he surveyed the damage to the historic downtown.

Michael didn't stop here. Thousands of homes and businesses were blown apart as the storm slammed across the Florida Panhandle and roared, still with hurricane force, into Georgia.

The damage was astonishing. Aerial views show entire neighborhoods wiped out. An 80-mile stretch of debris-strewn Interstate 10 west of Tallahassee was shut down.

Beaches disappeared, military bases were damaged, boats were slammed into houses and trees mowed down like lawns. Power outages affected more than 600,000 customers in the two states alone. Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina reported 170,000 more.

More: Hurricane Michael: What you need to know in graphics

More: In a harrowing two hours, Hurricane Michael devastates Panama City

Federal Emergency Management Agency is already warning that some could be without power for weeks.

“So many lives have been changed forever," Florida Gov. Rick Scott said. "So many families have lost everything. … This hurricane was an absolute monster.”

The region was in search and rescue mode, with thousands of first responders and National Guard members fanning out to help. A helicopter crew pulled nine people from a bathroom of a home here after the roof collapsed, the Coast Guard said. The rescue was among dozens by the agency, which was conducting a search survivors.

"One hundred percent of our focus is on rescue and recovery from this devastating storm," Scott said.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Michael was centered about 25 miles south of Greensboro, North Carolina, Thursday afternoon. It's strength had eased since its angry landfall but Michael was still rocking maximum sustained winds of 50 mph as it swept northeast at 23 mph.

Authorities confirmed two deaths, and the number was expected to rise. An 11-year-old in Seminole County, Georgia, was reported dead early Thursday morning after a tree fell on a home during the storm. A man was killed Wednesday in Greensboro, Florida, also by a falling tree that struck his home.

Parts of North Carolina, still recovering from the unrelenting rains of Hurricane Florence, were hit with up to 7 inches of rain by Michael.

“For North Carolina, Michael isn’t as bad as Florence, but it adds unwelcome insult to injury,” Gov. Roy Cooper said. "So we must be on alert."

In this seaside town, the curfew was in effect Wednesday night and Thursday morning to prevent looting, although Jane Lindsey, 72, was taking no chances.

Lindsey and her husband spent the night in lawn chairs guarding their store, the Elegant Endeavors Antique Emporium on Harrison Avenue. The wind tore off the roof, poured water into all three floors, and blew out their front windows.

"We've never seen this kind of devastation," Lindsey said, her feet crunching the broken glass that once was her plate-glass windows. "It's such a loss for all these families, for all these small businesses."

Lindsay was so worried about her store that she and her husband abandoned their nearby home to the storm: "We don't even know if we have a house left. We can't leave here."

Police officers spent the night patrolling the area and responding to calls for assistance, making do with damaged patrol cars. The air itself smells like a sawmill, a legacy of the thousands of shredded trees.

Federal officials are prepared with tarps for thousands of roof-damaged homes across the region, and government survey ships are checking coastlines for additional damage. Thousands of contractors are set to replace utility poles and string new electric lines, but the damage to businesses will take far longer to fix.

Panama City and Panama City Beach are heavily dependent on tourism, with about 17 million visitors annually sunning themselves on the 27 miles of soft sand beaches, and officials are optimistic they can be up and running again soon.

The beaches here, at least, were largely unaffected by the storm, which hit the east side of Panama City hardest. Panama City Beach, a separate town, is west of there.

Panama City Beach is particularly popular with residents of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, Florida, Missouri and Illinois because it's a relatively easy drive for most southerners and has the closest beaches to the Midwest. The city has already had a record-breaking tourism year, with visits up 10.2 percent before the storm hit.

Officials promise they'll be back open for business as fast as possible, so tourists can enjoy Thanksgiving's "Beach Home for the Holidays" and a 10,000-ball beachball drop for New Year's Eve.

"Panama City Beach is so resilient, and the whole community will be working together to get things back up and running," said Jayna Leach, a spokeswoman for Visit Panama City Beach. "With all of us working tougher, we'll be back up and running and be back to the world-class destination that we always have been."

Lindsey isn't so sure. After years of struggling to keep the store afloat, she doesn't know whether it can survive the flooding, wind damage and potential loss of precious antiques inside.

"Will it ever recover? Who knows. We'd like to think it would come back. We've had other setbacks, normal things that small towns go through. But how long will this take? Two years, three years, to get back on our feet?" Lindsey said. "We're thinking, is this the time to give it up, to retire?"

Bacon reported from McLean, Va. Contributing: The Associated Press

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