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'There's just nothing left': 24 poignant images show true destruction of Hurricane Michael

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Hurricane Michael’s pounding waves and winds have obliterated row after row of beachfront homes after the Category 4 hurricane slammed ashore on the Florida Panhandle.
Independent.ie Newsdesk Twitter Email
October 12 2018 8:13 AM
Hurricane Michael’s pounding waves and winds have obliterated row after row of beachfront homes after the Category 4 hurricane slammed ashore on the Florida Panhandle.
Recovery is just barely beginning from the catastrophic destruction even as a downgraded Michael spreads high winds, rains and flash flooding misery as far away as Virginia.
At least three deaths were blamed on Michael, the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental US in over 50 years, and by early Friday it was not over yet: a tropical storm long after Wednesday’s landfall, Michael stubbornly kept up its punch while barrelling up the south-east.
While forecasters said Michael was gradually losing its tropical traits, a new chapter would begin as an extra-tropical storm, predicted to intensify with gale force winds once it starts cross out into the Atlantic.
Linda Marquardt rode out the hurricane with her husband at their home in Mexico Beach.
When their house filled with surging ocean water, they fled upstairs.
Now their home is full of mud and everywhere they look there is utter devastation in their Florida Panhandle community, with roofs lifted off of buildings and pine trees snapped in 155 mph winds.
The destruction in this and other communities dotting the white-sand beaches is being called catastrophic — and it will need billions of dollars to rebuild.
«All of my furniture was floating,» said Ms Marquardt, 67.
«A river just started coming down the road. It was awful, and now there’s just nothing left.»
In North Carolina’s mountains, motorists had to be rescued from cars trapped by high water.
High winds toppled trees and power lines, leaving hundreds of thousands without power.
Flash flooding also was reported in the big North Carolina cities of Charlotte and Raleigh.
All told, more than 900,000 homes and businesses in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas were without power.
Meanwhile, thousands of National Guard troops, law enforcement officers and rescue teams still had much to do in Florida’s Panhandle, the hardest hit area.
Families living along the Panhandle are now faced with a struggle to survive in a perilous landscape of shattered homes and shopping centres.
In one community, Panama City, most homes were still standing, but no property was left undamaged.
Downed power lines and twisted street signs lay all around.
Aluminium siding was shredded and homes were split by fallen trees. Hundreds of cars had broken windows.
The hurricane damaged hospitals and nursing homes in Panama City, and officials worked to evacuate hundreds of patients.
«So many lives have been changed forever. So many families have lost everything,» said Florida governor Rick Scott, calling it «unimaginable destruction.»
Michael also was deadly, both in Florida and beyond.
A man outside Tallahassee, Florida, was killed by a falling tree, and an 11-year-old girl in Georgia died when Michael’s winds picked up a carport and dropped it on her home, debris striking her in the head.
A driver in North Carolina also was killed when a tree fell on his car.
Some fear the toll can only rise as rescue teams get around storm debris blocking roads and reach isolated areas.
More than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast were ordered or urged to clear out as Michael closed in, but emergency authorities lamented that many ignored the warnings.
The Coast Guard said it rescued at least 27 people before and after the hurricane’s landfall, mostly from coastal homes.
Nine people had to be rescued by helicopter from a bathroom of a home in hard-hit Panama City after their roof collapsed, Petty Officer 3rd Class Ronald Hodges said.
In hard-hit Mexico Beach alone, state officials say, 285 people in Mexico Beach defied a mandatory evacuation order ahead of Michael.
National Guard troops made their way into the ground-zero town and found 20 survivors initially on Wednesday night, and more rescue crews are arriving, but the fate of many residents was unknown.
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