‘Extremely dangerous’ Michael hits Florida

The leading edge of Hurricane Michael has hit the Florida coast as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm.

Michael sprang from a weekend tropical depression and grew swiftly into the worst hurricane in recorded history for the north-west coast of Florida, carrying destructive wind, up to a foot of rain and a storm surge of up to 13ft.

The sheriff in Panama City’s Bay County issued a shelter-in-place order before dawn yesterday, and Florida governor Rick Scott tweeted that for people in the hurricane’s path, “the time to evacuate has come and gone ... SEEK REFUGE IMMEDIATELY”.

At 7am local time, an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter crew reported top sustained winds up to near 140mph with higher gusts.

Michael’s eye was about 105 miles from Panama City and 100 miles from Apalachicola, but moving relatively fast at 13mph.

“We are in new territory,” National Hurricane Centre meteorologist Dennis Feltgen said. “The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida Panhandle.”

Only a skeleton staff remained at Tyndall Air Force Base, which is located on a peninsula just south of Panama City.

The home to the 325th Fighter Wing and some 600 military families appeared squarely targeted for the worst of the storm’s fury, and leaders declared “HURCON 1” status, ordering all but essential personnel to evacuate.

The base’s aircraft, which include F-22 Raptors, were flown hundreds of miles away as a precaution, a spokesman said.

Ryan Maue of weathermodels. com said: “I guess it’s the worst case scenario. I don’t think anyone would have experienced this in the Panhandle.

“This is going to have structure damaging winds along the coast and hurricane force winds inland.”

The University of Georgia’s Marshall Shepherd, a former president of the American Meteorological Society, called it a “life-altering event”.