Devastation along Florida's "forgotten coast" in the wake of historic hurricane Michael

SPRINGFIELD, Florida – Entire communities of the seashore in the Florida Panhandle were virtually destroyed, an air force base suffered "catastrophic" damage and at least six people were killed by the air force. Hurricane Michael, a windstorm that has suddenly gained momentum. powerful hurricanes to hit the United States.

"This one looks like a bomb dropped," said Clyde Cain, who is part of the Louisiana Cajun Navy, a group of volunteer search and rescue teams who traveled to Florida to help Michael, as this was the case last month. Hurricane Florence in the Carolinas.

Michael was downgraded on a tropical storm on Thursday as he headed north-east through Georgia and the Carolinas on a path to the Atlantic Ocean. But his relatively brief onslaught on the Gulf Coast of Florida was devastating.

The tiny beach in Mexico City, Florida, a city of about 1,000 people, seems to have been almost destroyed by Michael's impact at 155 mph – he's missing only 1 mph from a category storm 5. Aerial imagery showed that a large part of the seaside enclave was reduced to the state of ignition, trees cut just above the ground, entanglements of power lines scattered in the streets, cars and boats piled up like rubbish. Entire blocks seemed essentially empty, with the houses and everything that was there crushed by the storm and the wind and presumably washed away by the sea.

"These are not things you need to replenish overnight," said William "Brock" Long, a director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Curtis Locus, an employee of Florida's Department of Transportation, said the damage he's seen across the Panhandle is unprecedented.

"It was a community in the middle of the forest. Now the forest has disappeared and the community too, "said Locus. "It's a beautiful place … it's Party Town, USA." "It's now the devastated city, United States." All along the coastline has been devastated as a war zone . "

Here in Springfield and close to Panama City, apartment buildings are roofless, gas station awnings are crooked, businesses have collapsed, metal poles have been folded in half and the panels display were blown on homes or crushed cars.

"We did not think it would be so bad," said 56-year-old Mike Davis, sitting on the sidewalk in front of Oasis Liquor, a 15th Street store in Panama City, watching the debris around him. "It's devastating."

Davis lives two blocks away and overcomes the storm with his family. He decided to stay because he did not think the storm would be very serious. When he woke up Tuesday and heard that Michael had stepped up, it was too late to leave.

Michael was as powerful as he was unexpected, crossing the Gulf of Mexico and intensifying rapidly to become a power station. The night before the passage of the hurricane, the police told Georgia Wells, 35, that she and her family were in a security zone here in Springfield, in a social housing complex. On Wednesday afternoon, shortly before landing, it was clear that they were in terrible danger.

His six children, his mother and his brother gathered in the smallest room of their apartment. As the winds screamed and screamed – Wells said it sounded more like a tornado than a hurricane – the gypsum began to tear, the roof began to collapse, and the weather began to fall. water flooded the house. They ran to take shelter in a bathroom. The apartment was destroyed.

"We all thought we were going to die. it's so bad, "she said.

Wells, a single mother who works as a manager in a McDonald's local, has lost most of her property.

Families living in the complex slept in cars and on benches Wednesday night and planned to do the same on Thursday.

"Everyone in this place has nowhere to go. We are stuck, "said Wells." We do not have money to go anywhere. "

Just west of here, Panama City Beach, a popular resort resort for retirees and spring breakers, has also been almost wiped by the wind and water walls, with gates -bodies and roofs twisted into ribbons. The storm knocked down 30 ton train cars.

Michael also bombed Tyndall Air Force Base, located directly on the shoreline between Panama City and Mexico Beach, causing "widespread damage to the roof of almost every house and leaving the base closed until further notice", said responsible in a statement.

The 600 families at the base were evacuated Monday and many were taken to shelters to resist the storm. No injuries were reported here Thursday night.

Aerial images show destroyed buildings and a parking lot resembling a salvage yard filled with overturned campers and trucks. The display of an F-15 fighter aircraft at the entrance to the base was torn from its base and overturned.

Rescuers continued to search for survivors and victims of the storm on Thursday, as authorities warned that the death toll could rise.

In Gadsden County, in northwestern Florida, not far from Tallahassee, which fired directly on Michael, the sheriff's office reported four deaths related to the storm. He revealed the details of one: a man who was killed when a tree crashed against the roof of his house.

A 38-year-old man was killed Thursday afternoon in Iredd County, North Carolina, north of Charlotte, when a tree fell on the vehicle he was driving, according to David Souther, County Fire Marshal.

Officials from Seminole County, Georgia, north of the border with Florida, said Thursday that an 11-year-old girl in a mobile home had been killed by a metal car shelter that had been thrown into the air by Michael's violent winds.

Michael's immense devastation made it difficult for rescuers to reach certain areas on Thursday. Cain Navy Cain said that even his storm-hardened rescue crews were particularly cautious because Michael had shot down many trees and utility poles.

"This one is so powerful that my guys have to use chain saws to cut down fallen trees to get into the neighborhoods," Cain said. "This one is really bad, and no one has seen it coming."

The meteorologists had seen Michael arrive and warned for several days that it was a serious storm. But what they did not anticipate, they said many, was Michael's furious intensification in the hours before the landing and the distance with which she managed to maintain this ferocity.

"Sensational! That's what we did not expect," said Steve Bowen, director and meteorologist at Aon's risk management consulting firm, who works with insurance agencies to analyze natural disaster risks. He added that Michael had broken many rules because he "maintained the intensity of the hurricane nearly 200 miles inland."

Bowen said Michael, the most intense hurricane ever recorded to hit the Panhandle, should lead to rethinking building codes in the area.

"The houses are not really built to withstand this kind of wind in the Florida Panhandle," he said.

He and other officials estimated that Michael's damage would reach billions of dollars, even though the storm did not affect a population center as important as Hurricane Harvey when he landed in Texas, then flew over Houston, dropping record amounts of rain. .

Michael blew houses, businesses and monuments across a part of Florida that was not used to direct blows from monster hurricanes.

Robin Ford, co-owner of the 4C BBQ Family Restaurant in Defuniak Springs, helped feed hundreds of first responders with a giant smoker on Thursday, handing them chest, steaks and pulled pork. Its restaurant is about 45 miles northwest of Panama City and the area has become a gathering place for first responders.

"I hate to say that, but we send those first responders into a war zone," Ford said. "I was an assistant sheriff in Texas and we had a tornado and that's what it looked like. It looked like a nuclear bomb had exploded. "

Ford, a veteran of the Air Force, is president of Healing Tools for Warriors, who works with veterans and first responders with PTSD to help with natural disasters, and reintegrate them into the community. society – let them know that they are heroes. "

He added that two veterans had decided to stay in Panama City during the storm.

"Some men with PTSD do not want to go to shelters because it's hard to be in the crowd," he said. "It's hard for them to evacuate."

These two veterans were eventually rescued by the National Guard after "the roof was destroyed" of the building in which they were.

Penny Pinkham, founder of Healing Tools for Warriors, said she and other members of her organization were seeing "awful" things. She explained that much of the roof of Bay Medical Center had been ripped off.

"The devastation is everywhere," she said, adding that many people were still communicating by walkie-talkie on Thursday because the mobile phone service was still down.

Ford said many other veterans were helping, cleaning up the debris and helping the responders in the event of an emergency. "We load water and blankets, and we bring things to anyone with nothing," Ford said. "And that sounds like a lot of people."

On St. George Island, about 75 km southeast of Panama, 39-year-old Nick Cabrera and his 37-year-old wife, Amy, weathered the storm with eight children aged between 2 and 16 years old.

Amy Cabrera is the innkeeper of the St. George Inn, where they took refuge. She said that they were planning to leave.

"We did not know which way to go, so we decided to stay," said Nick Cabrera. "The water coming up was pretty crazy. Picnic tables floating by. It did not cover the traffic signs, but it was close. "

Kevin Begos in Apalachicola, Florida, Carmen K. Sisson in Panama City, Florida, and Katie Zezima in Washington contributed to the writing of this report. Lazo has been reported in Springfield, Florida, and Panama City. Berman, Wax and Sullivan were reported from Washington.