'Potentially catastrophic': Florida's Hurricane Michael makes landfall

Panama City: Supercharged by abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Michael made landfall in the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday afternoon.

The intense Category 4 hurricane brought sustained winds of 230kmh as it tore away tree limbs and sent pieces of buildings flying.

It was one of the most intense hurricanes ever to hit the US mainland and the most powerful one on record to menace the Panhandle, a roughly 320-kilometre stretch of fishing towns, military bases and spring-break beaches.

Its winds roaring, it battered the coastline with sideways-blown rain, powerful gusts and crashing waves, swamped streets, bent trees, stripped away limbs and leaves and sent building debris flying. Explosions apparently caused by transformers could be heard.

The brute quickly sprang from a weekend tropical depression, becoming a furious Category 4 by early Wednesday, up from a Category 2 less than a day earlier.

The authorities warned that it was too late to flee the storm, which the National Hurricane Centre described as "potentially catastrophic".

"This is the worst storm that our Florida Panhandle has seen in a century," Gov. Rick Scott of Florida said. "Hurricane Michael is upon us, and now is the time to seek refuge."

"This will be a catastrophic event the likes of which this region has never seen," the National Weather Service office in Tallahassee warned.

The eye of Michael is expected to make landfall in the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday afternoon, tracking northeast across Georgia and the Carolinas on Thursday before moving off the mid-Atlantic coast on Friday.

Weather forecasters and government officials are particularly worried about a storm surge.

Flash flooding is also a concern.

Governors in three states — Florida, Alabama and Georgia — have declared states of emergency, with mandatory evacuations in effect in coastal areas across the Florida Panhandle.

In Panama City on Wednesday morning, the rain was already coming with that ominous hurricane rhythm, the outer bands of the storm bringing drizzle, followed by unhinged gushing, followed by drizzle again.

In the pre-dawn darkness, a few cars crawled down wide boulevards lined with closed-up retail shops and gas stations. About six blocks from the water, Pastor Carlos Thomas was standing on the front porch of Neal's Temple First Born Church of the Living God, flagging down a passer-by in a driving band of rain.

He had driven the church's big, shiny new tour bus from a tree-shrouded area to an open field across from the church where he thought it might be safer.

Thomas, 48, has spent his entire life in Panama City, and he said he remembered Hurricane Eloise, which passed near here in 1975 and caused millions of dollars in damage. But he said that Panama City had mostly been safe in his lifetime.

So he, like so many thousands on the Panhandle, had decided to ride it out.

"I believe from what I've seen in the past, we're going to be OK," he said. "I'm thinking God's going to take us through it."

The New York Times

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