Hurricane Michael death toll hits 17
MEXICO BEACH (AFP) — The death toll from Hurricane Michael has risen to at least 17 with fears it would continue to climb as search-and-rescue teams scour the debris of the Florida town that bore the brunt of the monster storm.
“Mexico Beach is devastated,” Florida Governor Rick Scott said of the town where Michael made landfall as a Category 4 storm on Wednesday.
“It’s like a bomb went off,” Scott said as he toured the town of 1,000 people on the Gulf of Mexico. “It’s like a war zone.”
Rescue teams were using sniffer dogs in Mexico Beach on Friday to search for victims who may be buried under the rubble in the debris-strewn community.
US media later reported one death in the town – an elderly man found alone, according to Mayor Al Cathey. Officials said his body was found hundreds of yards from his home.
Federal Emergency Management Agency head Brock Long warned he expected the toll to rise.
“I hope we don’t see it climb dramatically but I have reasons to believe we still haven’t gotten into some of the hardest hit areas,” he said.
Dozens of structures in Mexico Beach – homes, shops and restaurants – were lifted off their foundations by storm surge and 155-mile-per-hour winds and moved hundreds of feet inland or smashed to bits.
“Very few people live to tell what it’s like to experience storm surge,” Long said. “Storm surge causes the most amount of loss of life.”
State officials said Mexico Beach was under mandatory evacuation orders but some residents decided to stay and try to ride out the storm.
“You hope that somehow, at the last minute, a bunch of people got up and left or went somewhere else,” Florida Senator Marco Rubio told CNN.
Bob Tenbrunson, a Mexico Beach retiree, rode out the storm at his daughter’s house in nearby Panama City and returned to survey the damage to his home.
“I was going to stay here until it turned to a Category 4,” he said. “So, I followed the mandatory evacuation order and left with my wife.
“Luckily we did not get a surge,” he added. “I’ve got two trees on the roof and a couple of holes on the roof. I have been trying to patch it up the best I can.”