Death toll numbers elusive,

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — In Florida, a grim task is unwinding slowly: Finding out how many people were killed in Hurricane Michael.

The storm that ravaged Florida’s Panhandle left incredible destruction stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the state border, but getting a firm grasp on how many died is proving somewhat elusive.

The state has officially acknowledged just two deaths so far — and one death was in northeast Florida, far from the groundzero fury of the Category 4 storm.

Meanwhile, search and rescue teams have crawled and walked through thousands of 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 16 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 more fatalities than people want to admit,” said State Rep. Halsey Beshears, a Republican whose district includes several of the counties hammered by Michael. “If you stayed in Mexico Beach, there’s no way you could have survived. I think more fatalities are going to show up every day.”

Joanne Garone Behnke called it “torture” awaiting news about whether her 79-year-old aunt who stayed in Mexico Beach had survived.

Right after the storm hit, Brock Long, the chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said he expected the death toll to rise after hearing reports that some people refused to evacuate before Michael’s landfall.

But both Long and Gov. Rick Scott, however, sidestepped questions late Sunday after they returned from an all-day trip to some of the hard-hit communities.

“I’m very hopeful that everybody is going to be found alive and that everybody is going to survive this,” Scott said.