Category 4 storm lashes Florida

PANAMACITY,FLORIDA: Gaining fury with every passing hour, Hurricane Michael began pounding the Florida Panhandle with sideways-blown rain and crashing waves on Wednesday as it closed in on the coastline with potentially catastrophic winds of 150 mph.

It was the most powerful storm on record to menace the roughly 200-mile stretch of fishing towns, military bases and spring-break beaches. “I’ve had to take antacids I’m so sick to my stomach today because of this impending catastrophe,” National Hurricane Center scientist Eric Blake tweeted as the storm — supercharged by the Gulf of Mexico’s abnormally warm, 84-degree water — grew more scary.

The brute quickly sprang from a weekend tropical depression, becoming a furious Category 4 by early Wednesday. Less than a day earlier, Michael was a Category 2.

“The time to evacuate has come and gone ... SEEK REFUGE IMMEDIATELY,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott tweeted, while the sheriff in Panama City’s Bay County issued a shelter-in-place order before dawn. More than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast were urged to evacuate. But emergency authorities lamented that many people ignored the warnings and seemed to think they could ride it out.

The storm appeared to be so powerful that it is expected to remain a hurricane as it moves over Georgia on Thursday. Forecasters said it will unleash damaging wind and rain all the way into the Carolinas, which are still recovering from Hurricane Florence’s epic flooding.

Meteorologists watched satellite imagery in complete awe as the storm intensified. “We are in new territory,” National Hurricane Center Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen wrote on Facebook. “The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida panhandle.”