China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Tallying losses
Hurricane Michael’s violence was visible on Thursday in shattered Florida coastal towns, where rows of homes were ripped from foundations and roofs were torn off schools by the nearrecord-force storm now blamed for at least seven deaths.
Michael smashed into Florida’s northwest coast near the small town of Mexico Beach on Wednesday with screeching 155 mile per hour winds, pushing a wall of seawater inland.
“The wind was really tearing us apart. It was so scary you’d poo yourself,” said retiree Tom Garcia, 60, who was trapped inside his Mexico Beach home as water poured in to waist height.
He and his partner Cheri Papineau, 50, pushed on their door for an hour to stop the storm surge bursting in as their four dogs sat on top of a bed floating in their home.
The beach town looked like it had been carpet bombed, with little left in the first blocks from the beach. Further inland, about half the homes were reduced to piles of wood and siding. Helicopters flew overhead looking for survivors as bulldozers plowed paths along roads filled with shredded homes.
Cheryl Shipman, 72, pointed to a few broken red wooden boards, saying “this used to be my three-story house.”
Michael, the third-most powerful hurricane ever to hit the US mainland, weakened overnight to a tropical storm but marched northeast, toppling trees with 50 mph winds and bringing “life threatening” flash flooding to Georgia and Virginia, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported.
At least seven people were killed by the storm in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina from falling trees and other hurricane-related incidents, according to state officials.
Buildings in Panama City were crushed, tall pine trees were sent flying and a steeple was knocked off a church.
At the city’s Jinks Middle School, the storm peeled back part of the gym roof and tore off a wall. A year ago the school welcomed students and families displaced by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
Fast-moving Michael, a Category 4 storm when it came ashore, was about 20 miles northwest of Raleigh, North Carolina, at 5 pm and set to speed up as it headed for the coast, the NHC said.
Nearly 950,000 homes and businesses were without power in Florida, Alabama, the Carolinas and Georgia on Thursday.
The number of people in emergency shelters was expected to swell to 20,000 across five states by Friday, said Brad Kieserman of the American Red Cross.
Michael pummeled communities across the Panhandle and turned streets into roof-high waterways.
Much of downtown Port St. Joe, 12 miles east of Mexico Beach, was flooded after Michael hit with 155 mph winds, snapping boats in two and hurling a large ship onto the shore, residents said.
“We had houses that were on one side of the street and now they’re on the other,” said Mayor Bo Patterson, who watched trees fly by his window as he rode out the storm in his home seven blocks from the beach. Patterson estimated 1,000 homes were completely or partially destroyed in his town of 3,500.
The US Agriculture Department said Michael severely damaged cotton, timber, pecans and peanuts, causing estimated liabilities as high as $1.9 billion and affecting up to 3.7 million crop acres.
We had houses that were on one side of the street and now they’re on the other.” Bo Patterson, mayor of Port St. Joe, Florida