FLORIDA BRACES FOR DEADLY STORM SURGE

PANAMA CITY, United States: Michael is now forecast to slam ashore on Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane, bringing a surge of up to 13 feet (four meters) in what could be the worst storm there in decades. As of late Tuesday, Michael was packing maximum sustained winds of nearly 125 miles per hour (205 kilometers) as it aimed for the Florida Panhandle, a finger-shaped strip of land on the Gulf of Mexico. The storm was expected to make landfall on Wednesday, bringing hurricane force winds and heavy rainfall, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. It will then move across the southeastern US for another day or so as it heads toward the Atlantic. At 11 p.m. Eastern time (0300 GMT) it said Michael was still gaining strength and forecast to become a Category 4 hurricane before it comes ashore on the Panhandle or the Big Bend area, which links the former to the peninsula jutting south. After that advisory, Florida’s governor Rick Scott urged people to obey evacuation orders. “Families under mandatory evacuation in the Panhandle and Big Bend need to move inland RIGHT NOW,” Scott tweeted. “The decisions you and your family make over the coming hours could be the difference between life and death.” “#Michael could be one of the worst hurricanes to ever strike the Florida Big Bend/Florida Panhandle region,” former NHC center director Rick Knabb added. Scott has activated 2,500 members of the National Guard and warned Michael could be the most destructive storm to hit the Florida Panhandle in decades. President Donald Trump issued an emergency declaration for the state, freeing up federal funds for relief operations and providing the assistance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).