Hurricane Michael Death Toll Rises To 11 As Southeast Reels From Storm’s Power

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.

Five deaths were reported in Virginia, in addition to four in Florida, one in Georgia and one in North Carolina.

Hundreds of thousands of people are without electricity, and areas along the Gulf Coast report severe outages of cellphone service and other communications. Hundreds of miles away, as Michael moved through the Mid-Atlantic Thursday and overnight, flash flood warnings were sent to people in towns from the coast to the slopes of the Appalachian Mountains.

Six Florida counties remain under curfews, as work crews try to push debris off of roads so utility and emergency crews can start to repair the damage and reach people who need help.

In areas that have been declared safe, officials are warning residents to drive only in the daytime, when they can see downed power lines and other hazards.

Some of the hardest-hit places are Mexico Beach and other communities along the Panhandle, where Michael razed buildings, snapped huge trees in half and threw debris over roads.

“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.”

Mexico Beach, close to where Michael made landfall just short of a Category 5 hurricane, was devastated by the storm. Some houses were simply wiped off of their foundations, with wreckage and sand covering the ground and streets.

“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.”

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.”

Others said they remained because road closures and police checkpoints make it very hard to get back home.

Even with the worst of the storm now past, flooding remains a threat, as overwhelmed river systems struggle to cope with massive amounts of water. 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.”

Michael is now dropping rain along the Mid-Atlantic and New England coasts as it moves eastward over the ocean, with sustained winds that have strengthened to 65 mph.

“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.”