MICHAEL’S FURY

HURRICANE Michael, the fiercest storm to hit Florida in a quarter-century and the third-most powerful to strike the US mainland, battered the state’s Gulf coast with roof-shredding winds, towering surf and torrential rain.

Michael, whose rapid intensification as it churned north over the Gulf of Mexico caught many by surprise, made landfall early on Wednesday afternoon near Mexico Beach, about 32km southeast of Panama City in Florida’s Panhandle region, with winds reaching 249km/h.

The storm came ashore as a category four hurricane. Its sustained winds were 3.2km/h shy of an extremely rare category five.

The storm’s intensity diminished steadily as it pushed inland. About eight hours after landfall, Michael was downgraded to category one, with top sustained winds of 150km/h. In the first apparent hurricane

related fatalit fatality reported, Gadsden County sheriff’s spokeswoman, Anglie Hightower, said a man was killed when a tree toppled onto his house in Greensboro.

Severe flooding, structural damage, uprooted trees and downed power lines were widespread in coastal areas. Michael grew into a category four hurricane in 40 hours.

“Satellite images of Michael’s evolution on Tuesday night were, in a word, jaw-dropping,” wrote Bob Henson, a meteorologist with Weather Underground.

President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency for all Florida. At mid-afternoon, about 192,000 homes and business customers were without power in Florida, with more outages reported in Georgia and Alabama, utility companies said.

REUTERS