Hopes fade for more survivors of hurricane

MEXICO BEACH: The hunt for missing people in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael early Sunday is turning into a search for the dead, as hope of inding more people alive fades in the Florida Panhandle, US oficials said.

“We’re going into recovery mode, unfortunately,” said Fire Chief Alex Baird of Panama City.

“At sunrise, we’ll start again on our search,” Baird said. “We hope that we’ll ind more (survivors), but it’s more and more doubtful.”

The death toll of the storm reached at least 18 Saturday night and is expected to rise in the US Southeast as rescuers go door-to-door in coastal communities in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

On Saturday, rescue crews heard cries for help and crowbarred into a mobile home crumpled by the storm in Panama City, freeing a mother and daughter, both diabetics who had been trapped in a closet without insulin for two days and were on the verge of diabetic shock, rescuers said.

A lack of food and water is among the most pressing issues for people reeling from the storm, said one volunteer who had been working in the Panama City area.

Rescue teams, hampered by power and telephone outages, used cadaver dogs, drones and heavy equipment to hunt for people in the rubble. More than 1,700 search and rescue workers were deployed, including seven swiftwater rescue teams and nearly 300 ambulances, Florida Governor Rick Scott’s ofice said.

Electricity and phone service were being slowly restored, but it could be weeks before power is restored to the most damaged areas.

Authorities in Virginia say a rescue team has recovered the remains of a woman who had been missing since she was swept away in lash looding during the hurricane.

Virginia State Police said in a news release on Saturday evening that a volunteer K-9 rescue team found 62-year-old Ruby S Allen’s body earlier in the day.

The state Department of Emergency Management says the discovery brings the total of storm-related deaths in Virginia to six.

Four others, including Allen’s son, died in looding, and a ireighter was killed when a tractor-trailer struck a ire engine.

Authorities had previously said Allen, of Eureka, was presumed dead. She, her son and grandson were in a car when it became stranded on a bridge.