PANAMA CITY, Fla. – Michael, the most powerful hurricane on record to hit Florida’s Panhandle, left destruction in its path with at least two deaths as it crossed Georgia as a tropical storm on its way toward the Carolinas. 

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said early Thursday that the eye of Michael was about 90 miles northeast of Macon, Georgia and about 45 miles west of Augusta. The storm’s maximum sustained winds have decreased to 50 mph and it was moving to the northeast at 21 mph. The core of Michael will move across eastern Georgia into Central South Carolina on Thursday morning

Michael brought widespread power outages across three states, washed-out roads, downed trees, and a life-threatening storm surge that has drowned houses in some areas on the Florida coastline.

Michael arrived Wednesday in Florida’s Panhandle with historical force, one of the most powerful hurricanes to ever come ashore in the United States with 155 mph sustained winds, violent waves and sideways rain.

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A child 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.

There are up to 500,000 homes and businesses without power in Florida, Alabama and Georgia, according to estimates, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is already warning that some could be without power for weeks.

During a late-night interview on FOX News Channel’s FOX News @ Night with Shannon Bream, President Donald Trump called Michael “a tough wind storm” that has undoubtedly resulted in “tremendous” damage.

“So, to a certain extent, we don’t know (the full scope) because it’s so dark and all the electric is out. But we hear there’s a lot of damage.” Trump said. “And it’s a tremendous wind damage. Tremendous, a lot of things are blown over. Hopefully not houses with people in them.”

Hours earlier, during a campaign-style rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Trump offered thoughts and prayers for those affected by Michael’s rampage and told the crowd, “We’ll be traveling to Florida very, very shortly.”

As of 2 a.m. EDT Thursday, Michael was 25 miles east of Macon, Georgia, moving northeast at 20 mph with sustained winds of 60 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. It was projected to move across central and eastern Georgia on Thursday morning and cross southern and central South Carolina on Thursday night before heading off the Mid-Atlantic coast early Friday.

“Michael continues to weaken over central Georgia,” the hurricane center said in its first Thursday advisory.

Only 12 hours earlier, Michael made landfall near Mexico Beach as the strongest recorded hurricane to ever hit the Florida Panhandle and the mightiest October hurricane in U.S. history.

Michael is just the fourth major hurricane – Category 3, 4 or 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale – to crash ashore on the Florida Panhandle since 1950, joining Eloise (1975), Opal (1995) and Dennis (2005).

 

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