When Michael made landfall around 1:30 pm CDT Wednesday afternoon, traveling at almost 14 mph, at Mexico Beach, Florida, ~24 miles east of Panama City, as a Category 4, it’s winds topped out at 155 mph which is just 2 mph short of a Cat 5. NOAA’s National Weather Service were warning people to “treat these imminent extreme winds as if a tornado was approaching and move immediately to an interior room or shelter.”
It’s the strongest hurricane to have ever hit the U.S. in October, CBS says, and the fourth strongest to make landfall. They believe many gusts topped out higher, but wind gauges broke. By 5:30 pm, The Weather Channel had reported, Michael was already pounding southwestern Georgia as a Category 3 with sustained wind of 115 mph.
Just about every update seemed to bring greater grimness: closed bridges, more towering waves, suspended emergency services, admonitions that the time to evacuate had passed. The hurricane center reported a 130-mile-per-hour wind gust near the evacuated Tyndall Air Force Base — and said that the measuring instrument had then failed.
New York Times; Oct 10 2018
By 11 pm Wednesday evening, “the storm was 45 miles south of Macon, Ga., and had lost strength, with maximum winds of 75 m.p.h.”
Michael was moving at about 20 mph across Georgia, and forecasters were predicting it would pick up speed through the Carolinas as it made its way
Michael was moving north quickly, around 20 m.p.h., into the late evening hours on Wednesday and was expected to maintain its speed as it crossed Georgia. Forecasts still project Michael will move on to the Carolinas through late Thursday on its trek towards the Atlantic an is expected to be off the Atlantic coast on Friday.
One death has been reported from Greensboro after a tree fell into his home. Total death from Michael has been reported to date at 13, with the other 12 in Cuba.
Reports going into the early am hours of Thursday are that upwards of 200,000 are without power.
Here is a Twitter grab, h/t to Don for this one, of Mexico Beach.
h/t for this video from Brown_Skin_Girl.
h/t for this retweet from our Lenny Ghoul for this one. Crazy.
Tiff grabbed us this drone footage video from CNN.
And life goes on.
On A Side Note
If you have rounded up any videos or pictures, please, post them in the comments. Hopefully, we’ll soon have a check in from Georgia Voter and he’ll give us an update to let us know he’s okay.
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