Hurricane Michael: Survivors scramble to find food and water in Florida Panhandle



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Long queues were formed outside the Salvation Army's fire stations, schools, and food trucks, while residents were trying to pick up supplies. bottled water, ready-to-eat meals and hot meals.

Florida Governor Rick Scott tweeted Saturday that millions of meals and liters of water are already en route to affected communities.

Michael's death toll has gone up to at least 17 and nearly 900,000 customers remain without electricity in seven states. The storm that hit Panhandle, Florida, was one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the United States, leaving a trail of destruction extending to Virginia. The misery of its impact will probably persist for weeks or even months.

On Saturday, the emergency teams will continue their descent into the Panhandle coastal towns, such as Mexico Beach, which have been destroyed, and will attempt to reach isolated areas isolated by trees and utility poles.

Meanwhile, officials in Georgia have received reports that 84 poultry houses, with more than 2 million chickens, were reportedly destroyed during the storm, also causing serious damage to pecan, cotton, vegetables and peanuts.

"For me, the cotton harvest is as bad as possible, I was picking three bales of cotton (this week), today it's over," said the cotton farmer and representative of the company. State, Clay Pirkle. "I can not tell the difference between what I chose and what I did not do."

The woman saw her husband die

Sitting in a red pickup truck just steps from the damaged home on Thursday, Gayle Sweet recalled the last moments that she shared with her husband.

"I told her," Wait, wait, call for help now, "she told CNN's affiliate, WFTS, sobbing.

Hurricane Michael destroyed his house and killed the love of his life

Her husband, Steven Sweet, was killed when an oak tree destroyed their home in Gretna, Florida, and landed on her husband. The 44-year-old is one of 17 dead. since Hurricane Michael made landfall Wednesday.

A few hours after Hurricane Michael left his house in ruins, Gayle Sweet refused to leave. Her husband's body was still trapped in the rubble.

"I hope that they (the emergency teams) will be here soon, I'm not going anywhere until they get him out," she said. declared.

Eight people, including Sweet, died in Florida. An 11 year old girl died in Georgia when a carport crashed against the roof. According to Adrienne Jones, deputy director of McDowell County Emergency Medical Services, two of the three dead in North Carolina died when their vehicle hit a fallen tree due to high winds.

Five people died in Virginia. Four firefighters drowned while the fifth person, a firefighter, was killed when a semitrailer lost control of his road and he struck his truck in Hanover County, Virginia .

Hospitals evacuated but operational

After evacuating hundreds of patients, Michael's heavily damaged hospitals still find ways to continue helping people in need.

The entrance door to the Bay Medical Sacred Heart in Panama City was closed Friday and water service was not restored, but a hand-made sign directed patients to the room emergency, which remains operational.

Hospitals & # 39; crucial work continues in the middle of the hurricane

The hurricane force winds were so strong that they lifted the roof of the hospital tower where most of the patients were and that water spilled into the hospital. l & # 39; establishment. About 1,500 people, including doctors, nurses and patients, were going through the storm.

"It was a scary few hours of howling winds, blown windows, collapsing roofs, collapsed ceilings, but patient care," said Dr. Amir Haghighat, a cardiologist at the Cardiovascular Institute of Northwest Florida, who works at Bay Medical.

Hundreds of patients were taken to hospitals all over Florida and up to Mobile, Alabama, Friday, during a parade of ambulances and medical helicopters. The hospital remains open to receive patients in an emergency room powered by a generator.

Newsrooms still work

In the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, many Florida journalists endure the same nightmare as other local residents and work in incredibly difficult conditions.

Panama City's two largest television networks, WMBB (affiliated with ABC) and WJHG (affiliated with NBC), have not been broadcast in days. On Wednesday's show, one of the last comments heard by viewers was a reporter who said, "It looks like a train is going on the roof of the TV station, the whole building is shaking."

Florida Newsrooms hit by Hurricane Michael, but reports continue

WMBB General Manager Terry Cole said his staff was working and sleeping in a church next Wednesday until Thursday. They installed chairs and cameras on the parking lot and produced their newscasts from there.

The city's daily newspaper, the Panama City News Herald, has also been mistreated by Michael and still has no power. Cleaning crews were present when a CNN crew stopped on Friday. But the office was almost empty – the journalists were all out to tell stories.

The impact of climate change on storms

Michael's strength can reflect the effects of climate change on storms. The planet has warmed considerably over the last few decades, leading to changes in the environment.

Hurricane Michael is not really a

According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, man-made greenhouse gases create an energy imbalance: more than 90% of the remaining heat is trapped by gases entering the oceans.

Even though there may be no more storms in a warmer climate, most studies show that storms will get stronger and produce more rain. The rising sea levels makes storm surges worse than 100 years ago.

The Climate Central research group says that unless the rate of greenhouse gas emissions changes, hurricanes should intensify more rapidly in the coming decades.

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CNN's Jason Hanna, Dave Alsup, Dianne Gallagher, Miguel Marquez and Keith Allen contributed to this story.

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