Death toll rises as workers look for hurricane survivors.
MEXICO BEACH, Fla. — Florida authorities fielded a barrage of calls about people missing in Hurricane Michael’s aftermath as searchand-rescue teams Friday made their way through ravaged neighborhoods, looking for victims dead or alive.
The number of dead is expected to rise, but authorities scrapped plans for setting up a temporary morgue, indicating they had yet to see signs of mass casualties from the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in nearly 50 years.
Search-and-rescue teams found at least one body in Mexico Beach, the groundzero town of about 1,000 people that was nearly wiped off the map when Michael blew ashore on Wednesday with devastating 155 mph winds.
The death toll across the South stood at 14 including the victim discovered in Mexico Beach.
Gov. Rick Scott said state officials still “do not know enough” about the fate of those who stayed behind in the region. “We are not completely done. We are still getting down there,” the governor added.
Florida emergency officials say they have rescued nearly 200 people and checked 25,000 structures.
In a briefing at the state emergency operations center in Tallahassee on Friday evening, authorities said they had wrapped up their initial rapid searches and had begun more-intense searches including inspecting collapsed buildings.
The officials say they’ve completed 40 percent of these “secondary” searches and hope to finish up during daylight hours on Saturday.
Shell-shocked survivors who barely escaped with their lives told of terrifying winds, surging floodwaters and homes cracking like eggs.
Officials set up distribution centers to pass out food and water to victims. Some supplies were brought in by trucks, while others had to be delivered by helicopter because some roads have yet to be cleared.
The deaths were spread throughout the storm’s vast path, from Florida to Virginia, where at least four people drowned in flooding caused by Michael’s rainy remnants. Two died in North Carolina when a car smashed into a fallen tree.
On the Panhandle, Tyndall Air Force Base “took a beating,” so much so that Col. Brian Laidlaw told the 3,600 men and women stationed on the base not to come back yet.