Mexico Beach, Florida, was crushed by Hurricane Michael on Oct. 10 as video footage emerged of shattered houses floating in storm surge water.
Mexico Beach, Florida, was crushed by Hurricane Michael on Oct. 10 as video footage emerged of shattered houses floating in storm surge water.
Houses are almost completely underwater, and the only thing visible are home’s roofs in some areas, CNN reported.
“A motion toward the northeast at a faster forward speed is forecast on Thursday through Friday night. On the forecast track, the core of Michael will move inland across the Florida Panhandle this afternoon, and across southeastern Alabama and southwestern Georgia tonight,” said the National Hurricane Center.
The storm at one point had 155 mph winds as it made landfall, making it a strong Category 4 system.
“It feels like you don’t know when the next tree is going to fall on top of you because it’s blowing so ferociously,” said Port St. Joe Mayor Bo Patterson in a Reuters interview. “You just don’t know when the next one is going down. It’s very, very scary. We have trees being uprooted, heavy, heavy rain.”
“This happened so quickly, we weren’t exactly prepared,” he said.
Michael is the worst hurricane to hit the Florida Panhandle since the mid-1800s, the director of FEMA, Brock Long, told ABC News.
“Anybody that doesn’t evacuate that experiences storm surge doesn’t typically live to tell about that story,” Long said.
As the storm hit, “Michael is upon us, it is time to seek refuge. Once you are sheltered, STAY PUT,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott tweeted. “Do not try to leave until the storm has passed. Multiple state and federal resources are staged and ready to respond as soon as it is safe.
Around 4,000 people have entered 70 evacuation shelters, FEMA officials told ABC, which added that power could be out in some places for weeks.
President Trump had approved an emergency declaration for Florida, which allows the federal government to provide resources and funding during the hurricane.
