Two dead like Michael, plus a hurricane, swirls across the land

Two people were killed when Tropical Storm Michael crossed Florida and Georgia early Thursday, a few hours after touching down as Category 4 hurricane, the most powerful in Florida's history.

"The country has witnessed the storm that devastated the Panhandle," Florida Governor Rick Scott said Wednesday night, but promised: "Hurricane Michael can not break Florida."

A man was killed when a tree fell on a residence in Greensboro, Florida, Sgt. Anglie Hightower, a spokeswoman for the Gadsden County Sheriff's Office, told NBC News. And an 11-year-old child was killed near Seminole Lake, Georgia, but the exact circumstances of death are not yet known, said Travis Brooks, director of emergency management for Seminole County.

Michael was weakened into a tropical storm after midnight, but he remained unsafe nearly 11 hours after crossing the land as a Category 4 hurricane near Mexico Beach, Florida, about 20 km away. south-east of Panama City, at about 1:30 pm and with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph.

At midnight, Eastern Time, the storm was about 30 miles south-southwest of Macon, Georgia, with a threatening wave for life and 70 mph high winds, the Meteorological Service announced. national. Hurricane warnings for the Gulf Coast of Florida were canceled Thursday morning.

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Latest news on the storm:

• Michael was weakened in the face of a tropical storm, with sustained winds of 70 mph and hurricane warnings for the Gulf Coast of Florida were canceled.
• An unidentified man was killed when a tree fell on a house in Gadsden County, Florida.
• An 11-year-old child was killed in Seminole County, Georgia, but the exact circumstances were not yet known.
• Nearly 326,000 customers in Florida and more than 334,000 in Georgia and Alabama were without electricity.
• More than 375,000 Florida residents were undergoing an eviction order.

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Michael Graham, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, described Michael as "a devastating and historic storm that we will never forget".

The weather service announced that Michael's core would move into southwestern and central Georgia in the night, before heading northeast in the southeast until Thursday night and then off the mid-Atlantic coast in early Friday.

"We have a little way to go with this system," Graham said on MSNBC. "We tell people that it's not over."

Michael was one of the worst storms the Panhandle had ever seen before even touching the ground. As the eyes moved over the area, the National Meteorological Service warned people not to go out in "relative calm" because the winds were rising rapidly.

"The historic record, dating back to 1851, finds no category 4 hurricane ever to hit the Florida run," said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center, in a message posted on Facebook on Wednesday.

Storm surges could be extremely catastrophic on the Florida coast, between 9 and 14 feet. "The water will come miles away from the coast and will easily go up on the roofs of houses," said Scott, adding that even two feet of storm could be deadly.

Lisa Dawn Parker, 51, decided to stay in Panama City Beach with her boyfriend. They watched from an apartment on the sixth floor wind tearing the roof of a seaside resort.

"The station next to us is completely demolished," Parker said. "The windows are blown, the whole facade is gone."

"We did not think it would be worse than Ivan," Parker said, scared, citing the 2004 hurricane that killed more than 50 people in the southeastern part of the country. "We do not know why we stayed."

More than 375,000 residents in dozens of Florida counties were undergoing an eviction order on Wednesday, but Brock Long, a director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said some residents do not have access to safe homes. had not had time to flee.

"If you do not consider a warning for any reason, your goal should be to rise as high as you can and access an installation that you think will be able to withstand winds at this stage and hopes that everything will be fine, "said Long. "Unfortunately, those who stay to deal with a storm surge usually do not live to talk about it."

At least 10 military bases, home to about 700,000 members of the armed forces and their families, are in the area, the Defense Department said. The Pentagon said it had prepared thousands of forces, including deep-sea vehicles and helicopters, to assist residents if necessary.

Tyndall Air Force Base, near Panama City, said it was hit directly and suffered considerable damage.

The base, which ordered a mandatory evacuation on Monday and evacuated jets on Tuesday, said in a statement that the state of the runway could not be determined.

"Base officials have no estimate for when they will be able to return safely," the authorities said.

Brad Kieserman, vice president of disaster operations at the Red Cross, said that about 6,000 people were already in shelters in five states, including about 5,000 in Florida.

Kieserman told reporters that he would not be surprised if more than 20,000 people were in shelters on Thursday or Friday.

Electricity services announced Thursday morning that nearly 326,000 customers were without electricity in Florida, more than 270,000 in Georgia and more than 62,000 in Alabama.

"That's bad," Franklin County Sheriff, J.J. "Tony," Smith said in an interview while he was investigating the damage to Apalachicola. "If you went around the city, you saw all the trees felled, all the roads blocked in the city center because of the floods," Smith said. "For us, it's catastrophic."

A crew of Weather Channel has even tried to leave its base in Apalachicola, but without success, because of the storm preventing driving, meteorologist Mike Bettes says on Twitter.

The Bay County Sheriff's Office issued an on-site shelter ordinance early Wednesday and the county's Department of Emergency Services said the officers would no longer be able to answer calls.

The Tallahassee National Weather Service, located about 20 km inland, said: "It's too late to find a shelter #Michael to move in right now. The best thing to do is to find shelter at home, away from any window. "

The authorities also closed the Hathaway Bridge, which connects Panama City and Panama City Beach. It constitutes a main axis of access to the cities.

Forecasters say torrential rains, destructive winds and possible tornadoes will also spread inland, and areas in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and the Carolinas are likely to be hit hard. The governor of Georgia, Nathan Deal, declared the state of emergency for 108 counties.

In North Carolina, Governor Roy Cooper announced the state of emergency before Michael. Tropical storm warnings and storm surge watches have been issued for some parts of the coast, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The deadly cyclone Florence hit the state last month.

Peter Macias, a spokesman for the Red Cross, said that about 4,000 people have entered nearly 70 evacuation centers across the Florida Panhandle and Alabama in one night.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed Scott 's emergency declaration for 35 counties in Florida. Scott said Wednesday morning that he had informed the president of the storm and that Trump had offered all the necessary resources "as we prepare to respond to this massive and catastrophic storm."

Government offices have been closed in these 35 counties. While Tuesday was the deadline for Floridians to register, residents will be allowed to register on the day of the reopening of these offices, the Florida secretary general said in a statement. The Democratic State Party on Tuesday filed a lawsuit claiming that the one-day extension was insufficient and confusing.