The worst storm in a century has arrived in Florida’s Panhandle. Hurricane Michael, a Category-4 storm, hit east of Panama City around noon on Wednesday with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph—strong enough to snap trees in half.
Michael’s winds are powering storm surges up to 13 feet on the coast and surges in rivers up to 15 miles inland, the Miami Herald reports. “This will be a catastrophic event the likes of which this region has never seen,” the National Hurricane Center said.
More than 375,000 Panhandle residents were under evacuation orders, but it’s unclear how many vacated their homes. “The time for evacuating along the coast has come and gone,” Gov. Rick Scott tweeted. “First responders will not be able to come out in the middle of the storm.”
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Scott called the hurricane a “100-year storm” and it is the third-most powerful hurricane to hit Florida in recorded history, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Only 1992’s Hurricane Andrew and a 1935 hurricane struck with greater intensity as measured by windspeed.
Cameras across the Panhandle are capturing the historic storm.
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