Panama City damage in pictures: Devastating aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Florida
Hurricane Michael has left a trail devastation in its wake after making landfall in Mexico Beach, Florida — roughly 20 miles southeast of Panama City in the state’s Panhandle area.
Michael is one of the strongest storms to hit the state in the past 80 years, and left hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without power in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.
Mexico Beach and Panama City have been left facing what Florida Governor Rick Scott called "unimaginable destruction".
The storm made landfall just north of Mexico Beach on Wednesday afternoon as a Category 4 hurricane, bringing with it 155 mph sustained winds that that fell just short of making Michael a Category 5 storm.
Photographs show that the region took a heavy hit from Hurricane Michael. In some photos, Jinks Middle School in Panama City was shown to have endured such harsh winds that a drone was able to fly straight into the school’s gymnasium after heavy winds pulled the roof back and collapsed walls.
Vance Beu told the Associated Press that he was staying with his mother at an apartment complex with Hurricane Michael hit the region, and that the storm sounded like a “super high-pitched” roar that sounded as if “a jet engine was coming”.
“It was terrifying, honestly,” Mr Beu told that news service. “There was a lot of noise. We thought the windows were going to break at any time".
As the day began on Thursday, emergency response crews were working to clear debris from roads and to initiate rescue operations where possible. Federal Emergency Management Administration (Fema) administrator Brock Long told “FOX & Friends” on Thursday that those workers were only abel to conduct a “limited” amount of search and rescue missions Wednesday before nightfall.
At least two people are said to have died in the storm, and more mortalities may soon be discovered as crews work to help the region to regain stability. Those deaths include a Florida man who was killed by a tree that crashed through his roof. An 11-year-old Georgia girl was also killed in the storm when her family’s mobile home was rammed by a car port.
