Hurricane will have left more dead than people want to admit
IN FLORIDA, the grim task of finding out how many people were killed in Hurricane Michael is slowly unwinding.
The storm that ravaged Florida’s Panhandle left destruction stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the state border. The state has officially acknowledged just two deaths so far – and one was in northeast Florida, far from the ground-zero fury of the category 4 storm.
Meanwhile, search and rescue teams have scoured buildings and ruins for days in places like Mexico Beach, which was virtually wiped out when Michael roared ashore last week.
The Associated Press has put the overall death toll at 17 so far, including one death in Mexico Beach confirmed by a search and rescue team, and six others confirmed by local officials in Florida. In other states, there are 10 confirmed deaths.
“Unfortunately, there are going to be more fatalities than people want to admit,” said State Rep. Halsey Beshears, a Republican whose district includes several of the counties hammered by Michael.
After the storm, state officials said thousands of calls inquiring about missing people came in to authorities and non-profit groups. Fema did announce on Monday that search and rescue teams, along with the Coast Guard and National Guard, had rescued or assisted more than 4000 people in storm-impacted areas.
State officials say they will announce storm-related fatalities once they are certified by local medical examiners. Part of the problem is that the medical examiner office responsible for certifying deaths in several of the hardest-hit counties was without power or water until Monday.