Girl, 11, killed by Florida hurricane
A GIRL aged 11 was killed by Hurricane Michael as it tore a 320km trail of destruction through three US states.
The girl died when a metal carport was lifted up by the 250kph winds and thrown into the roof of her house, Georgia officials said.
A Florida man died when a tree fell on his home and more than 900,000 people were left without electricity in Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
Michael is the strongest hurricane ever to hit the Florida Panhandle, in the north of the state, and is the third strongest in American history.
It caused over two metres of flooding and lifted homes off foundations. Entire communities in Mexico Beach, Florida, were levelled. Jason Gunderson, a member of the Cajun Navy rescue group, said: ‘The only way I can explain it, through my eyeballs, is a Third World country war zone.’
The storm strengthened rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico and came ashore as a Category 4 hurricane on Wednesday afternoon, although it was close to being a Category 5, the highest.
Mexico Beach councillor Linda Albrecht said: ‘It feels like a nightmare. Somebody needs to come up and shake you and wake you up.’
ABC News meteorologist Ginger Zee said the ruins in Mexico Beach were ‘eerily reminiscent’ of the devastation after Katrina. A state of emergency has been declared in Florida.