Trump is going to have a helicopter view of the Florida Panhandle, hit by the hurricane

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Florida (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump arrived in Panhandle on Monday, a storm-ravaged city in Florida, to get an aerial view of the destruction caused by deadly hurricane Michael.

Governor Rick Scott greeted the arrival of Trump and First Lady Melania Trump upon their arrival at Eglin Air Force Base, about 160 km west of the city. where Michael had landed last Wednesday. It's one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the continental United States.

"You know a lot of these people, they do not have a home," Trump said before boarding a helicopter to visit the stricken area of ​​northwestern Florida. "Some of them have no trace of a house … Our main concern is to feed ourselves, to feed ourselves with water and to be safe."

The Trumps also plan to travel later to a part of neighboring Georgia affected by Michael before returning to the White House on Monday night, the White House announced.

Trump, along with Scott, a Republican and US Senate candidate at the November 6 congressional election, said the biggest goal of the day was "to make sure everyone is safe, that it's safe." they are fed ".

The insured wind and storm surge losses caused by Hurricane Michael will rise to between about $ 6 billion and $ 10 billion, said the risk modeler, AIR Worldwide. These figures do not include losses paid by the national flood insurance program or uninsured property, said AIR Worldwide.

Michael hit the Florida Panhandle with a category 4 wind over 250 km / h (250 km / h) on the five-step Saffir-Simpson ladder.

At least 18 people in four states have died as a result of the storm. Dozens of people are still missing in Florida's panhandle communities in ruins on Sunday.

Rescuers said they expected the death toll to increase and that they were using dead dogs and heavy equipment to search collapsed houses in small towns like Mexico Beach and Panama City, in order to find more victims.

& # 39; A MIRACLE & # 39;

Relief efforts have been hampered by blocked roads and huge piles of rubble in many communities, such as Mexico Beach, directly affected by the storm that killed at least one person on the scene.

"If we lose a single life, it will be a miracle for me," said Al Florida, mayor of Mexico Beach, a city of about 1,000 residents, to the Florida media.

Cathey said 46 people who had not been evacuated were still missing on Sunday.

Florida's Emergency Management Division said that while electricity was returning to most areas, at least 85 percent of customers in four predominantly rural Florida Panhandle counties were out of electricity on Monday. Officials said it could be weeks before the return of power in the most damaged areas.

According to Scott's office, more than 1,700 search and rescue officers have been deployed, including seven white water rescue teams and nearly 300 ambulances.

In Panama, Fire Chief Alex Baird said search and rescue teams are now in "recovery mode" after largely losing hope of finding other survivors.

Trump is fully committed to helping national and local agencies recover, the White House said. It was announced Sunday that he had declared the state of emergency in Georgia, thus freeing up federal resources for the state. A similar statement had already been made for Florida.

Last month, Trump traveled to North Carolina and South Carolina after being hit by Hurricane Florence.