The devastation that left the hurricane Michael in its passage by EE. UU

[Blexfraptor]

Hurricane Michael, now a tropical storm, left at least 11 dead after touching land on Wednesday in Florida, officials said Friday, reporting the deaths of five people in Virginia.

In the Twitter account of the emergency services of the state it was written: "5 confirmed deaths linked to Michael". The climatic phenomenon passed through Virginia on Thursday and now it moves away from the US territory, degraded to a post-tropical storm.

The Emergency Department reported that 520,000 homes are without electricity in Virginia. "Floods, fallen trees, closed roads and debris are going to affect the roads this morning," said emergency services.

According to the balance of the authorities, in Florida four people died, in Georgia an 11-year-old girl died, and another person died in North Carolina, a state already affected by Hurricane Florence last month.

Search efforts continue
The search and rescue teams worked Friday in the destroyed communities of the United States looking for victims of Hurricane Michael. According to the authorities, it has been the most powerful storm to hit the state of Virginia in years.

The US military explained that more than 2,000 soldiers of the Florida National Guard were working in recovery operations.

Michael's eye touched land near Mexico Beach, a town about 30 km southeast of Panama City, on Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane of a maximum of 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the National Hurricane Center reported. (NHC).

My biggest worry is, of course, the loss of lives. I know that several people were injured

Tearing roofs
Photos and videos of Mexico Beach, of about 1,000 inhabitants, showed scenes of absolute devastation. The houses seemed to float in the middle of flooded streets, some completely destroyed after having lost the roof.

There, the boats were thrown into the yards and the streets were plagued with trees and power lines. "My house in Mexico Beach is underwater," said Loren Beltrán, a 38-year-old accountant, after seeing images of her neighborhood.

She and her 3-year-old son took refuge in another house in Panama City, where the outlook was not much more encouraging. Panama City looked like a war scenario after being hit by more than three hours with strong winds and heavy rain that fell horizontally. The streets were impassable and there were containers, antennas, roofs, trees and traffic lights scattered everywhere.

"The winds could be heard ugly, like a big television monster," Beltran told AFP. The house where he took refuge from the storm was partially destroyed by the trees that surrounded it and that fell with the wind.

"It's an unthinkable devastation," said Rick Scott, the Republican governor of Florida. "My biggest concern is, of course, the loss of life, I know several people were injured."

Scott had warned that the hurricane would be "the most destructive storm that hits the panhandle of Florida in a century." The "panhandle" (pan handle) is how this tongue of land is commonly known on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

In reporting to President Donald Trump at the White House, the head of the federal emergency agency FEMA, Brock Long, said Michael is the most intense hurricane to hit the area since 1851.

Speaking to Fox News on Thursday, the president promised that "the reconstruction will be quick." On Wednesday, Trump had said he would travel to Florida "very soon." More than 400,000 homes and businesses were without power in Florida, according to a newsletter from Florida's emergency agency, SERT, and Governor Scott said about 20,000 workers were trying to restore service.

A historic hurricane
"Unfortunately, this is a historical situation, incredibly dangerous and life-threatening," Ken Graham, director of the NHC, had warned. General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said the rapidity with which the storm formed and grew took residents off guard.

"When we least expected it, it was a Category 4 hurricane," O'Shaughnessy said. It is estimated that some 375,000 people from more than 20 counties received evacuation orders, mandatory or voluntary.

FEMA has more than 3,000 people on the ground, while Governor Scott said he had activated 3,500 National Guard troops. In Dothan, Alabama, billboards, utility poles and various sheet metal roofs were blown up by the wind, the AFP said.

Some trees that fell on the road were cut at dawn to allow traffic. Last year, a series of catastrophic hurricanes hit the western Atlantic. The most devastating were Harvey in Texas, Irma in the Caribbean and Florida, and Maria, who hit the Caribbean and left almost 3,000 dead in the US territory of Puerto Rico. The Atlantic hurricane season ends on November 30.