Posted on 10/11/2018 12:42:19 PM PDT by Red Badger
PANAMA CITY, Fla.
The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Michael came into focus Thursday with rows upon rows of homes found smashed to pieces, and rescue crews began making their way into the stricken areas in hopes of accounting for hundreds of people who may have defied evacuation orders.
At least two deaths were blamed on Michael, the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in over 50 years, and it wasn't done yet: Though reduced to a tropical storm, it brought flash flooding to North Carolina and Virginia, soaking areas still recovering from Hurricane Florence.
Under a perfectly clear blue sky, families living along the Florida Panhandle emerged tentatively from darkened shelters and hotels to a perilous landscape of shattered homes and shopping centers, beeping security alarms, wailing sirens and hovering helicopters.
Gov. Rick Scott said the Panhandle woke up to "unimaginable destruction."
"So many lives have been changed forever. So many families have lost everything," he said.
The full extent of Michael's fury was only slowly becoming clear, with some of the hardest-hit areas difficult to reach because of roads blocked by debris or water. An 80-mile stretch of Interstate 10, the main east-west route along the Panhandle, was closed.
Some of the worst damage was in Mexico Beach, where the hurricane crashed ashore Wednesday as a Category 4 monster with 155 mph (250 kph) winds and a storm surge of 9 feet (2.7 meters). Video from a drone revealed widespread devastation across the town of about 1,000 people.
Entire blocks of homes near the beach were obliterated, reduced to nothing but concrete slabs in the sand. Rows and rows of other homes were turned into piles of splintered lumber or were crumpled and slumped at odd angles. Entire roofs were torn away and dropped onto a road. Boats were tossed ashore like toys.
A National Guard team got into Mexico Beach and found 20 survivors overnight, and more crews were pushing into the area in the morning, with the fate of many residents unknown, authorities said. State officials said 285 people in Mexico Beach had refused to leave ahead of the hurricane despite a mandatory evacuation order.
Mishelle McPherson and her ex-husband searched for the elderly mother of a friend. The woman lived in a small cinderblock house about 150 yards from the Gulf and thought she would be OK.
Her home was reduced to crumbled cinderblocks and pieces of floor tile.
"Aggy! Aggy!" McPherson yelled. The only sound that came back was the echo from the half-demolished building and the pounding of the surf.
"Do you think her body would be here? Do you think it would have floated away?" she asked.
As she walked down the street, McPherson pointed out pieces of what had been the woman's house: "That's the blade from her ceiling fan. That's her floor tile."
As thousands of National Guard troops, law enforcement officers and medical teams fanned out, the governor pleaded with people in the devastated areas to stay away for now because of fallen trees, power lines and other debris.
"I know you just want to go home. You want to check on things and begin the recovery process," Scott said. But "we have to make sure things are safe."
Over 900,000 homes and businesses in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas were without power.
The Coast Guard said it rescued at least 27 people before and after the hurricane came ashore, mostly from homes along the Florida coastline, and searched for more victims.
Among those brought to safety were nine people rescued by helicopter from a bathroom of their home in Panama City, another one of the hardest-hit spots, after their roof collapsed, Petty Officer 3rd Class Ronald Hodges said.
In Panama City, most homes were still standing, but no property was left undamaged. Downed power lines lay nearly everywhere. Roofs had been peeled off and carried away. Aluminum siding was shredded to ribbons. Homes were split open by fallen trees.
Hundreds of cars had broken windows. Twisted street signs lay on the ground. Pine trees were stripped and snapped off about 20 feet high.
The hurricane also damaged hospitals and nursing homes in the Panama City area, and officials worked to evacuate hundreds of patients. The damage at Bay Medical Sacred Heart included blown-out windows, a cracked exterior wall and a roof collapse in a maintenance building. No patients were hurt, the hospital said.
The state mental hospital in Chattahoochee, which has a section for the criminally insane, was cut off by land, and food and supplies were being flown in, authorities said.
A man outside Tallahassee, Florida, was killed by a falling tree, and an 11-year-old girl in Georgia died when the winds picked up a carport and dropped it on her home. One of the carport's legs punctured the roof and hit her in the head.
As of 2 p.m. EDT, Michael was centered about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Greensboro, North Carolina, with winds of 50 mph (85 kph). It was moving northeast at 23 mph (37 kph).
Forecasters said it could drop up to 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain over the Carolinas and Virginia before pushing out to sea Thursday night. In North Carolina's mountains, motorists had to be rescued from cars trapped by high water.
"For North Carolina, Michael isn't as bad as Florence, but it adds unwelcome insult to injury, so we must be on alert," Gov. Roy Cooper said.
More than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast were ordered or urged to clear out as Michael closed in. But it moved fast and intensified quickly, and emergency authorities lamented that many people ignored the warnings.
"Why people didn't evacuate is something we should be studying," said Craig Fugate, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a former Florida state emergency management chief. "Is there more the government can do? But we ask that every time."
Based on its internal barometric pressure, Michael was the third most powerful hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland, behind the unnamed Labor Day storm of 1935 and Camille in 1969. Based on wind speed, it was the fourth-strongest, behind the Labor Day storm (184 mph, or 296 kph), Camille and Andrew in 1992.
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The equivalent of a tornado track - but probably 25 miles wide.
There were 285 people remaining in Mexico Beach. They’ve found 20 alive so far.
I’ve lived in Okinawa and in the Philippines.
The typhoons there are like this.
Clearly caused by whoever is president in the States at the time.
Correct. Within many Freeper's lifetime, before weather satellites, high ground was the valuable real estate. People built inland from the shore because they didn't have enough warning of an approaching storm to safely evacuate.
Amazing only 2 deaths reported >>
...
And not even at the point of landfall.
One was caused by a tree.
In fact most of the damage from the storm will be found to be caused by the involvement of trees.
Sooner or later, every eastern US coastal area from Brownsville, TX on up to Long Island and even Cape Cod, MA will have a devastating hurricane. You take your chances.
My daughter’s ex in-laws had a home in Mexico Beach...had is the key word but they did evacuate and are fine. When she was married to their grandson they used to go there to visit, she could not believe it is all gone or nearly all gone.
Sick of these stupid headlines. The damage is very imaginable and routine for Hurricanes and Tornados all the time.
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Agreed, and the windspeed cited isn’t a speed measured at landfall. It’s an absolute maximum speed measured at sea with modern technology.
“Why people didn’t evacuate is something we should be studying,” said Craig Fugate,
...
How many people were harmed by not evacuating?
As far as the media was concerned Katrina was a New Orleans only event. Hardly any real-time coverage at all about Pass Christian.
“This area is not New Orleans.”
I have stayed in New Orleans for a couple hurricanes, but would not stay right on the coast for a major storm.
Staying on the coast is just ignorant.
Thats part of the answer.
The other part is that the transportation and housing infrastructure for such massive moves simply does not exist.
There are not enough lanes on highways, and the fuel distribution system isn’t capable of delivering the amount of fuel that would be required in such a short period of time to all the vehicles that would be required to carry such an evacuation out.
It sounds like such an obvious answer...until you start to actually calculate real world resources and move from the theoretical to the practical.
Nagan is an idiot and had no clue what to do...along with politics in the mix. The politics had more to do with fed, state, and local not being able to work together than anything.
What people must understand is even if expected, there is no way for outsiders to help immediately after a large disaster. Supplies and people to help can be staged ahead of time, but obviously not in the area expected to be hit. So locals must be able to as much as possible deal with the situation until the area is safe to enter, and roads are cleared enough to enter. That is how it has to work. If local government is inept before, during, and after the disaster I have no idea how to solve that issue. Move?
The purpose of federal help is to HELP local and state governments because their resources, manpower will not likely be enough to deal with a large disaster over an extended time. The problem is now in some areas people seem to think when disaster hits the feds should magically appear within moments to fix everything.
That has been known for centuries.
During the cleanup of Hurricane Elena in eighty five we could tell where the tornadoes had been by the rotational damage patterns in the debris. A pine tree that has been twisted apart by a tornado looks different from one knocked over by straight winds.
Chainsaws work on either though.
“Its the price one pays to live on the coast.”
Sad, but that’s the reality. If you chose to live in near the beach in a hurricane zone, or on any any low-lying area, especially reclaimed swamp land, then this is what happens. In lifetime growing up in NC, I remember when no one built anything substantial on barrier islands or coastal areas not protected by barrier islands, or on reclaimed swamp land. Then, there was a lull in hurricane activity after the early 50s. Then, air conditioning became more available. Then, Yankees came South, following the sun and the dream of living near sand and shore. There were (and still are), naturally, many scoundrels willing to build and sell them huge expensive houses on the barrier islands, on unprotected coastline, and on reclaimed (drained)swamp land. Then, folks are shocked and dismayed when Mother Nature flexes her muscles. Amazing.
I think most folks who live or own property on a coastline know what the risks are. But they roll the dice, trading a few years of a lifestyle they want for that one time when the Big One comes along and wipes it all out.
It’s a decision everyone has to make for oneself.
I’ve been visiting Panama City Beach for 60 years. My wife and I go 2 or 3 times a year now. We both absolutely love the beach and the restaurants. And we’ve discussed purchasing property down there from time to time.
But we’ve always known that sooner or later what happened yesterday would occur. And we would be worried sick about investing money in something that could be wiped out in an afternoon.
So we decided to let others assume the risk and earn the property appreciation, if it occurs. We rent.
Not True
He seem to have forgotten about Hurricane Camille that hit slightly to the west of Michael 49 years ago in 1969.
Camille had the highest wind speed at landfall of any storm ever anywhere in the world.
https://geology.com/hurricanes/largest-hurricane/
Michael, the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in NEARLY 50 years.......................fixed it..........
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