Storm leaves US Panhandle reeling

Hurricane Michael’s battering waves swamped streets and docks and shrieking winds splintered trees and rooftops.

The most powerful hurricane on record to hit Florida’s Panhandle left wide destruction and at least one person dead and wasn’t nearly finished yesterday as it crossed Georgia toward the Carolinas, still reeling from epic flooding in Hurricane Florence.

Authorities said at least one person has died, a man killed by a tree falling on a Panhandle home. Search and rescue crews were expected to escalate efforts to reach hardest-hit areas and check for anyone trapped or injured in the storm debris.

A day after the supercharged storm crashed ashore amid white sand beaches, fishing towns and military bases, Michael was no longer a Category 4 monster packing 250kmh winds. Downgraded to a tropical storm early over south Georgia, it continued to weaken overnight but was still menacing the Southeast with heavy rains, blustery winds and possible spinoff tornadoes.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm had top sustained winds of 112kmh and was moving to the northeast at 30kmh.

Damage in Panama City near where Michael came ashore was so extensive that broken and uprooted trees and downed power lines lay nearly everywhere. Roofs were peeled away, sent airborne, and homes were split open by fallen trees. Twisted street signs lay on the ground. Palm trees whipped wildly in the winds. More than 380,000 homes and businesses were without power at the height of the storm.

Vance Beu, 29, was staying with his mother at her home, Spring Gate Apartments, a complex of single-story wood frame buildings where they piled up mattresses around themselves for protection.

A pine tree punched a hole in their roof and his ears even popped when the barometric pressure went lower. The roar of the winds, he said, sounded like a jet engine. ‘‘It was terrifying, honestly. There was a lot of noise. We thought the windows were going to break at any time,’’ Beu said.

Sally Crown rode out Michael on the Florida Panhandle thinking at first that the worst damage was the many trees downed in her yard.

But after the storm passed, she emerged to check on the cafe she manages and discovered a scene of breathtaking destruction.

‘‘It’s absolutely horrendous. Catastrophic,’’ Crown said.

AP Haley Nelson inspects damages to her family properties in Panama City, Florida, after Hurricane Michael made landfall in Florida’s Panhandle yesterday.

Sunk and damaged boats bump in the high seas at the Port St Joe Marina after Hurricane Michael struck yesterday.

Emily Hindle lies on the floor at an evacuation shelter set up at Rutherford High School, Panama City Beach, in advance of Hurricane Michael.