THE LATEST: MICHAEL COULD CAUSE TORNADOES IN SOUTHEAST U.S.
By The Associated Press
PANAMA CITY, Florida (AP) – The Latest on Hurricane Michael:
2:05 p.m.
Officials in South Carolina say they are more concerned about tornadoes than flooding from Hurricane Michael.
The National Weather Service says tornadoes are possible across the Florida Panhandle, southeast Georgia and southern South Carolina through Thursday morning as Michael moves inland.
Beaufort County Emergency Management Division Commander Neil Baxley says the tornadoes can spin up fast with little warning in the rainbands of the weakening hurricane.
South Carolina saw 47 tornadoes in two days in 2004 as Tropical Storm Frances move north from the Florida Panhandle.
Baxley says the 1-to-2-foot (0.3 to 0.6 meter) storm surge predicted for areas like Hilton Head Island isn’t even enough to trigger a warning.
Along with tornadoes, forecasters are warning of flash flooding from heavy rain and trees and power lines knocked down by gusty winds.
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2 p.m.
Authorities say lifeguards had to save three children who were playing in the ocean at a South Carolina beach as Hurricane Michael approached.
Beaufort County Emergency Management Division Commander Neil Baxley said a 15-year-old and two 9-year-olds were on boogie boards off Hilton Head Island around 12:15 p.m. Wednesday when the waves quickly started to pull them from shore.
Baxley says rescuers were able to make it to the children and bring them to safety.
Baxley said at a news conference there is no reason to be in the ocean Wednesday.
Beaufort County is under a tropical storm warning as Michael makes landfall about 325 miles (520 kilometers) southwest in the Florida Panhandle.
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1:10 p.m.
Local news reporters were working in the dark as Hurricane Michael made landfall in Florida’s Panhandle.
The News Herald in Panama City tweeted that conditions were “getting very nasty here” as the hurricane’s eye closed in. The newsroom was running on generator power without internet access.
The newspaper tweeted that reporters were feeling “crashing thunder shaking building.”
At the Panama City news station WJHG/WECP, reporter Tyler Allender tweeted that his colleagues were taking shelter in a hallway in the middle of the building because “this wind is SERIOUS.”
Allender said they were sitting in the dark because their building had lost power.
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12:45 p.m.
The National Hurricane Center says Michael is making landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida, as a catastrophic Category 4 Hurricane, pushing a deadly storm surge and whipping the coast with 155 mph winds.
Forecasters mark landfall as the place and time when the center of the eye strikes land. Minutes earlier, Michael’s eyewall came ashore between Panama City and St. Vincent Island, and the hurricane center warned everyone inside the relative calm of the eye not to venture outside.
Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 45 miles (75 km) from the center.
Those winds were tearing some buildings apart in Panama City Beach. One beachfront structure under construction could be seen collapsing, and metal roofing material flew sideways across parking lots amid sheets of rain.
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12 p.m.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said Hurricane Michael is “unlike any storm that we have had in anybody’s memory.”
He says this one will inflict serious damage across central and southern Georgia, and he’s calling on people to protect themselves, their families, and anyone who needs assistance.
More than 1,200 evacuees are staying in Georgia state parks, which are waiving entrance fees for those seeking shelter.
The storm also is expected to ravage the state’s peanut, pecan and cotton crops.
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11:50 a.m.
U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said Michael is “a hurricane of the worst kind.”
He said there are about 3,000 FEMA employees in the field, plus aircraft and search and rescue teams staged to move into Florida and Georgia as well.
“The citizens in Georgia need to wake up and pay attention,” Long said. He says this hurricane will likely be the worst storm that anyone in southwest and central Georgia will have seen in decades.
Long applauded local officials who urged evacuations, and said “people are going to die as a result of not heeding the warnings.”
