Michael slams Florida with ‘historic’ force
Winds reach 155 mph as storm leaves outages, damage to Panhandle
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. – A historic Hurricane Michael made landfall Wednesday near Mexico Beach, nearly a Category 5 storm that smashed records as the strongest ever to roar onto the state’s exposed Panhandle.
High winds and heavy rains lashed the coast. Almost a quarter of a million homes and businesses already were
without power, and the number was rising rapidly. It could reach into the millions from the “potentially catastrophic” Category 4 storm, which was packing sustained winds of 155 mph – just 2 mph short of Category 5 status.
As of late afternoon, the storm’s winds had dropped to Category 3 strength at 125 mph and was moving north-northeast at 16 mph. It was centered about 30 miles west of Bainbridge, Georgia.
The National Weather Service in Tallahassee said a hurricane “of this strength has NEVER made landfall in this region and thus this is an event that will have unprecedented impacts.”
The high winds were knocking down trees and power lines. Storm surge, with forecasts of up to 14 feet in some areas, was a major concern.
“It’s historic, it’s extremely lifethreatening,” said Kenneth Graham, director of the National Hurricane Center. “This storm surge is coming with a vengeance.”
Brock Long, administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, warned that the brutal storm would “stay intact” as a hurricane as it roars through the Florida Panhandle and parts of Alabama and Georgia. The storm could leave wide swaths of the region powerless for weeks, he said.
Florida’s Big Bend, a loosely defined area of the eastern Panhandle where the coastline bends to the south, was bracing for the worst. Graham said storm surge will inundate the Aucilla River there to a point where it will “flow backward.”
“This is a nightmare hurricane for the Big Bend,” said Ryan Truchelut, chief meteorologist at Weather Tiger. “Michael will be of a landfall intensity not seen for at least 100 years, and perhaps more.”
In Panama City the power went out at Country Inn Suites. The wind howled and rainwater leaked through the ceiling. A light pole toppled onto an SUV in the parking lot.
Betty Wexler, 86, lost a beach house to a storm more than 20 years ago. She remembers finding her bed frame in the sand, her neighbor’s bathtub sitting inside it.
“I’ve already lost one house to a hurricane, and I’m scared to death of this one,” she said.
Perry and Mollie Williams were riding out the storm in their “fortress” home a block from the beach.
“It’s our first storm (forecast) to be on top of us,” Mollie Williams, a 17-year resident, said warily. “We’ve had a number of them come into the Gulf, and either come to the left or the right of us. But never on top of us.”
Even before landfall, Long had ominous words for those who stayed.
“Those who stick around to witness storm surge don’t typically live to talk about it,” he said.
But hours before the storm hit, it was too late for many to flee.
“The time to evacuate coastal areas has come and gone,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott said at a news conference Wednesday. “If you are in an inland county you might have one more chance to evacuate, but only if local officials say it is safe.”
Scott said 1,000 search and rescue personnel were ready to respond as soon as Michael passes. Another 3,500 National Guard members were also ready to deploy, he said.
Michael’s barometric pressure at landfall was 919 millibars, by that measurement the third-strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. on record, trailing on the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane and Hurricane Camille in 1969.
Tallahassee, a city of 200,000, sits 100 miles east of Panama City. The city could face hurricane-force winds of up to 100 mph – enough to knock down a lot of trees and power lines, Accuweather meteorologist Brett Rathbun warned.