The category four Hurricane Michael, the likes of which the likes of which the Florida panhandle has not seen in modern times, made landfall with its eye passing directly over Tyndall Air Force Base. The installation, which sits on the coast near Panama City, is not only the home of F-22 Raptor pilot training, but it also supports many other facets of training and weapons development, including acting as the launch, recovery, and control site for the Air Force's Full-Scale Aerial Target program, which is now based around the QF-16. Suffice it to say, there is a lot of highly important, sensitive and expensive gear located there, as well as capabilities that are critical to the USAF's long-term readiness.

Even for structures built to withstand hurricane force winds, taking a direct hit from a storm that is packing sustained wind speeds of 150mph is a whole different story. There is also storm surge and torrential rain to contend with. Tyndall AFB sits roughly a dozen feet above sea level, and there are lower areas as well.

Panama City is taking an incredible wallop from this storm, with video of roofs being ripped off buildings and structures being demolished playing on repeat on national news stations. Tyndall may be right in the storm's eye, but many other military installations, both big and small, also call the affected area where the storm is charging inland home, most notably Eglin AFB and Hurlburt Field.

All of these bases have very well planned storm evacuation plans, which include flying any aircraft that can take to the air to safer locales far from the storm's projected path. In Tyndall Air Force Base's case, its F-22, T-38, and QF-16 jets went to Wright Patterson AFB in Ohio. Those that can't fly are stored in the sturdiest hangars available, which can make for quite a crowded affair.

Equipment and infrastructure are replaceable, people aren't, and you can't just leave a base full of high-explosives, classified information, and sensitive hardware totally empty. A skeleton crew, including a handful of security forces, stays behind during an evacuation. Let's hope they all fared well as Michael's eye passed directly overhead.

We will continue to update this post as more information on the state of Tyndall AFB and other bases in the surrounding area comes available.</s>The most powerful hurricane on record to hit Florida’s Panhandle has left widespread destruction and at least two people dead as it crossed Georgia toward the Carolinas.

A man was killed by a tree falling on a Florida home and an 11-year-old girl died after a tree came down on a house in south-west Georgia.

Search and rescue crews have been escalating efforts to reach the hardest-hit areas and check for anyone trapped or injured in the storm debris.

A day after the supercharged storm crashed ashore amid white sand beaches, fishing towns and military bases, Michael was no longer a Category 4 monster packing 155mph winds.

Downgraded to a tropical storm early on Thursday over south-central Georgia, it continued to weaken but was still menacing the south east with heavy rain, blustery winds and possible spin-off tornadoes.

After daylight on Thursday residents of north Florida were beginning to take stock of the enormity of the disaster.

Damage in Panama City near where Michael came ashore on Wednesday afternoon was so extensive that broken and uprooted trees and downed power lines lay nearly everywhere.

Roofs were peeled away and homes were split open by fallen trees, while more than 380,000 homes and businesses were without power at the height of the storm.

Vance Beu, 29, was staying with his mother at her home, Spring Gate Apartments, a complex of single-story wood frame buildings where they piled up mattresses around themselves for protection.

A pine tree punched a hole in their roof and his ears even popped when the barometric pressure went lower. The roar of the winds, he said, sounded like a jet engine.

“It was terrifying, honestly. There was a lot of noise. We thought the windows were going to break at any time,” Mr Beu said.

Sally Crown rode out Michael on the Florida Panhandle thinking at first that the worst damage was the many trees downed in her yard. But after the storm passed, she emerged to check on the cafe she manages and discovered a scene of breathtaking destruction.

“It’s absolutely horrendous. Catastrophic,” Ms Crown said. “There’s flooding. Boats on the highway. A house on the highway. Houses that have been there forever are just shattered.”

Governor Rick Scott announced that thousands of law enforcement officers, utility crews and search and rescue teams would now go into recovery mode.

Michael sprang quickly from a weekend tropical depression, going from a Category 2 on Tuesday to a Category 4 by the time it came ashore.

It forced more than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast to evacuate as it gained strength quickly while crossing the eastern Gulf of Mexico toward north Florida.

Based on its internal barometric pressure, Michael was the third most powerful hurricane to hit the US mainland, behind the unnamed Labour Day storm of 1935 and Camille in 1969.

Based on wind speed, it was the fourth-strongest, behind the Labour Day storm (184 mph), Camille and Andrew in 1992.

It also brought the dangers of a life-threatening storm surge.

In Mexico Beach, with a population of 1,000, the storm shattered homes, leaving floating piles of lumber.

“We are in new territory,” National Hurricane Centre Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen wrote on Facebook.

“The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida panhandle.”

After Michael left the Panhandle late on Wednesday, Kaylee O’Brien was crying as she sorted through the remains of the apartment she shared with three roommates at Whispering Pines apartments.

Four pine trees had crashed through the roof of her apartment, nearly hitting two people, and her one-year-old Siamese cat, Molly, was missing.

“We haven’t seen her since the tree hit the den. She’s my baby,” Ms O’Brien said.</s>ATLANTA, Oct. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As Hurricane Michael impacts the Gulf Coast, Georgia Power is ready to respond to power outages as quickly and safely as possible with nearly 3,000 personnel from the company and assisting utilities. Crews are continuing to mobilize from unaffected areas across Georgia over the next 24 hours and are strategically positioning throughout the state ready to re-enter central and south Georgia, and other areas, as Hurricane Michael subsides.

Damage assessment teams will be the first to enter affected areas and will relay critical field information so restoration teams can be dispatched as safely and efficiently as possible. Additional resources are available as part of the Southern Company system, which includes multiple electric and gas companies serving more than 9 million customers.

Georgia Power wants customers to remain informed throughout the storm and reminds residents to keep safety first by following simple safety tips:
• Before a Storm: Stay aware and check the weather forecast before heading outdoors. If an outage occurs, turn off air conditioners as power surges can overload them and charge cell phones in case you lose power.
• During a Storm: Take safe shelter inside a sturdy building away from windows and doors. Avoid contact with conductors of electricity - appliances, metal objects and water.
• After a Storm: Never touch any downed or low-hanging wire, including telephone or TV wires that touch a power line. Never pull tree limbs off of power lines yourself or enter areas with debris or downed trees as downed power lines may be buried in wreckage.

Tools You Can Use
• Outage Alerts: Subscribe to the free Georgia Power Outage Alert service to receive personalized notifications and updates via text message.
• Outage & Storm Center: Available at www.georgiapower.com/storm, customers can visit this site to sign up for Outage Alerts, report and check the status of outages, and access useful safety tips and information. Customers can report and check the status of an outage 24 hours a day by contacting Georgia Power at 888-891-0938.
• Outage Map: Housed within the Outage & Storm Center, Georgia Power's interactive Outage Map provides near real-time information, allowing users to see where outages are occurring across the state and track estimated restoration times.
• Georgia Power Mobile App: Download the Georgia Power mobile app for Apple and Android devices to access storm and outage information on the go.
• @GeorgiaPower on Twitter: Follow @GeorgiaPower on Twitter for storm tips, outage updates, customer service and more.

Georgia Power's electric generating plants are also prepared for Hurricane Michael. Power plants, including coal, natural gas and nuclear plants, are built to be robust and highly secure and incorporate multiple layers of protection including structural strength, highly trained operators and security forces, and proven emergency plans. Safety systems at U.S. nuclear plants, including Georgia's Plants Vogtle and Hatch, are designed to withstand significant hazard events, including hurricane force winds and flooding.

Georgia Power is part of a national mutual assistance network consisting of dozens of utilities from around the country. As part of this partnership, Georgia Power can provide assistance to or receive assistance from other utilities when service to customers is interrupted due to severe weather. In preparation for potential impacts, Georgia will not release crews to other states to assist in Michael restoration until service to all Georgia Power customers has been evaluated and addressed.

Just last year, Hurricane Irma broke or damaged approximately 1,500 power poles, and more than 2,400 trees brought down nearly 230 miles of wire across the state. Georgia Power restored power to nearly one million customers impacted by Hurricane Irma quickly and safely by fully deploying company resources and leveraging the mutual assistance network in the week following the storm.

Georgia Power is the largest electric subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), America's premier energy company. Value, Reliability, Customer Service and Stewardship are the cornerstones of the company's promise to 2.5 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties. Committed to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy at rates below the national average, Georgia Power maintains a diverse, innovative generation mix that includes nuclear, coal and natural gas, as well as renewables such as solar, hydroelectric and wind. Georgia Power focuses on delivering world-class service to its customers every day and the company is consistently recognized by J.D. Power and Associates as an industry leader in customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.GeorgiaPower.com and connect with the company on Facebook (Facebook.com/GeorgiaPower), Twitter (Twitter.com/GeorgiaPower) and Instagram (Instagram.com/ga_power).</s>PANAMA CITY (CBSMiami) — As much of the Florida Panhandle begins the extremely slow recovery from “monsterous” Hurricane Michael, we are getting an amazing look from inside the eye of the storm as it moved across Panama City.

Stephan Melendez posted a video on his Facebook page that he took as the eye of the storm moved over his location.

He says in the video, “You can see the sun and blue sky right in the eye.”

After several comments on his Faceboom page about staying safe, he wrote, “Thanks, everyone! I’m done chasing hurricanes after going through this one. We were never in danger but some of the other chasers were. Real eye-opening and life-changing experience. I’ve seen what I wanted to see and now, I’m out!”

More than 900,000 homes and businesses in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas are without power.

One of the hardest-hit spots was Mexico Beach, where Michael crashed ashore Wednesday as a Category 4 monster with 155 mph winds. There is widespread devastation in the town of about 1,000 people.</s>Hurricane Michael plowed a path Wednesday through parts of Florida’s Panhandle that include greater concentrations of older houses and mobile homes than the rest of the state, raising prospects that damage in the historic storm’s wake could be extensive.

More than 145,000 homes in Michael’s path, or about three-fourths of all residences in the nine Panhandle counties hit hardest, were built before 2000, which was before Florida unveiled some of the nation’s toughest building codes, according to U.S. Census Bureau housing data.

“Your older structures, prior to 2002, are not going to fare as well as the structures that were built since the Florida building codes went into effect," said Jeremy Stewart, past president of the Florida Home Builders Association and owner of an Okaloosa County construction firm.

► Oct. 11: Michael's dangers will linger long after devastation

► Oct. 10: Michael downgraded to tropical storm status but threats remain

► Oct. 10: At least 2 dead after Hurricane Michael plows through Panhandle

More than 30,000 residences, or about 22 percent of all occupied dwellings, are mobile homes, which can be particularly vulnerable to major storms, according to the Census Bureau data. In Liberty County, nearly 45 percent of the occupied residences in Michael's path were mobile homes.

Michael made landfall Wednesday afternoon as a powerful Category 4 hurricane near Mexico Beach, east of Panama City, packing 150 mph winds. It was the strongest storm ever recorded to hit the Florida Panhandle.

The nine counties most impacted are among the state's least populated. The 385,263 people who live in the counties make up less than 2 percent of Florida's population, according to Census Bureau estimates. Most of those people, or 183,563, live in Bay County, which includes Panama City.

Florida began improving its building codes after Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 storm, ripped through South Florida in August 1992. The devastation triggered a statewide, mandatory building code 10 years later considered among the nation’s strongest.

But most homes built before the updated codes went into effect were never required to upgrade.

“There was no real measure of accountability,” Stewart said of the building practices before Andrew.



 In the nine counties between Bay County to the west and Franklin County to the east where Michael’s winds were strongest, 145,435 homes were built before 2000, according to Census Bureau housing estimates from 2016. That’s about 75 percent of the estimated 191,356 homes in those nine counties.



 That’s also in line with the state as a whole, where about 75 percent of the housing stock was built before 2000. But four of the counties in Michael’s path have a higher percentage of older homes: Calhoun, 77 percent; Gadsden, 79 percent; Jackson, 85 percent; and Washington, 81 percent.

“Homes built before those codes were put into place … probably were not built as strong as homes built since,” said Susan Millerick, a spokeswoman for the Tampa-based Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety.

About 8 percent of Florida’s occupied housing stock are mobile homes, but it’s more than double that, or 22 percent, for counties in Michael’s path.

► Oct. 10: Hurricane Michael: What you need to know in graphics

► Oct. 10: The hurricane holdout on Dog Island and his 'Cat-5' house

The highest percentage of mobile homes is in Liberty County, where nearly 45 percent of the estimated 2,363 occupied residences are mobile homes that are often more vulnerable to strong winds because most are not anchored for long-term use.

Each of the nine counties in Michael's path had a higher percentage of mobile homes than the state average: Bay, 14 percent; Calhoun, 38 percent; Franklin, 25 percent; Gadsden, 27 percent; Gulf, 18 percent; Jackson, 29 percent; Wakulla, 32 percent; and Washington, 39 percent.

► Oct. 10: In a harrowing two hours, Hurricane Michael devastates Panama City

► Oct. 10: Army Corps preparing to cover 'tens of thousands' of damaged roofs

Mobile homes in coastal areas are required to be manufactured to withstand hurricane-force winds, Millerick said. If they are, and if they are anchored and installed correctly, they can be safe.

“You can’t make a blanket assumption that because it’s a mobile home or a modular home, it’s therefore not going to survive the storm,” she said.</s>FEMA Director Brock Long says his agency has nearly 3,000 people in the field ready to assist with Hurricane Michael.

He says teams and aircraft are ready to support any search and rescue missions in Florida or elsewhere, and that staging areas with commodities needed after storms have been set up in Atlanta and at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama.He also says the Federal Emergency Management Agency is working “hand-in-hand” with Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

He praised Florida’s use on Tuesday evening of the wireless emergency alert system to let residents know that the storm was getting stronger.

As for the many people who ignored orders to evacuate, Long said Wednesday that people “who stick around and experience storm surge unfortunately don’t usually live to tell about it.”

National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham is warning that a Category 4 hurricane will bring catastrophic damage to Florida’s Panhandle.

Graham says Michael’s top winds of 145 mph (230 kph) are powerful enough to peel off roofs and cause the “complete destruction of houses.”

Stretches of the coast could see storm surge of at least 6 feet (2 meters), with waters rising in some places up to 14 feet (4 meters) above the ground.

Graham wants people to think about how tall they are, and just how high that water can be.

Michael is powerful enough to remain a hurricane well inland as it travels over Georgia on Thursday.

Graham says falling trees will pull down utility lines, leaving some areas without power for weeks, and hazardous conditions will persist long after the storm blows through.

He says the aftermath of a hurricane is “not the time to start learning to use that chain saw.”

Florida Gov. Rick Scott says the impact of Hurricane Michael will be “horrible,” the worst storm to hit the Panhandle in a century.

Scott said Wednesday he’s “scared to death” that people in places such as St. George Island along the state’s coast had ignored evacuation orders.

He said he hopes that no one kept children with them as they chose to ride it out, but the time to evacuate from coastal areas has “come and gone.”

The governor said state authorities are now focusing on the recovery effort once the fast-moving storm blows through.

He has activated up 3,500 members of the Florida National Guard and says thousands of utility workers are on stand-by.

Huge waves are pounding the shore at Panama City Beach, where officials have announced they are now unable to respond to any calls for service.

Just inland in Panama City, the fire department says it will respond to only life-threatening emergencies and only within the city limits.

The biggest waves are shooting frothy green water between homes and up to the base of wooden stairs over the dunes and the skies appear menacing as tropical-storm-force winds lash the coast. Landfall is expected about midday Wednesday.

 (Associated Press, copyright 2018)

Sign-up now for our daily newsletter and never miss another article from Yellowhammer News.</s>While many of you are still mumbling under your collective breaths, “Say it ain’t so, Flo,” following the devastation of Hurricane Florence, there is reason that mantra might need changing to “Take a hike, Mike.”

Far too many in Scotland County and beyond continue to pick up the pieces from Florence. There are trees down everywhere; there are large areas of standing water; and there are homes that can no longer be lived in. People have just begun the rebuilding process and, in some cases, remain in lines to apply for government benefits.

And now, here comes Hurricane Michael.

This one is expected to be far different than what we went through with Florence — mostly in the fact that it will not come through our front door as a direct hit to southeast North Carolina. Instead, Michael is expected to take a back-door approach by making landfall in the Gulf of Mexico near the Florida panhandle and continue northeast through Georgia and the Carolinas.

Though Michael will hit the U.S. coast as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday, it is predicted to weaken quickly as it makes a swift move toward us here. Be that as it may, Michael’s force shouldn’t be minimized.

When Michael arrives in our region on Thursday, we can expect to see winds from 30 mph to 50 mph — easily strong enough to create additional damage to already weakened trees and buildings, as well as threaten power lines once again. And, of course, there will also be the rain — and that’s probably what we don’t need most. Although only 3 to 4 inches are being predicted for our area, our crops are already soaked, our streams and ponds remain full, and the Lumber River doesn’t need another fill-up.

We can complain, but it won’t keep Michael from coming ashore or from saying hello to the Carolinas this week.

What can be done is to prepare once again. It’s not wise to compare this one to the last one and relax — instead, get ready for Michael as you would any potentially severe storm. Have supplies ready. That means all the usual things like food, batteries, gasoline, prescriptions filled, flashlights, etc.

Unlike Florence, Michael should make a quick entrance and just as quick an exit, so the lingering effects will be minimal. But since he is coming through here less than a month after Florence, it’s worth getting ready for what will be left behind. Again, expect the worst and hope for the best.

We will try to keep you informed — both online and in print — of Hurricane Michael’s journey from the Gulf, but you would be wise to also keep WLNC radio and The Weather Channel handy and tuned in over the next 24 hours or more.

And while you are at it, say a prayer for those who will take the biggest hit.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” (Benjamin Franklin)</s>One resident of the Florida Panhandle who vowed to ride out Hurricane Michael has written his name on his arm in black marker to help identify his body if he dies.

Randy Simmons, 57, made the grim preparation on Wednesday morning at his Panama City Beach condo, shortly before Michael made landfall as a potentially lethal Category 4 storm.

Sipping coffee on the deck of his condo just yards from the beach, Simmons calmly showed his arm to a Miami Herald reporter as the swells began to roil.

'You just never what's going to happen in these situations,' he said. 'People do die.'

Simmons did plan to retreat a few miles inland to a second property before landfall, after finishing preparations at the beachfront condo.

'I was going to stay here until it go to a Category 4,' Simmons said. 'This is going to be a big mess.'

Simmons is not alone among those who have ignored mandatory evacuation orders.

Despite days of dire warnings, these holdouts have decided to remain - and some even talk of attending a 'hurricane party' at a Panama City Beach bar that lies directly in Michael's path.

For those who refused to evacuate, FEMA Director Brock Long said on Wednesday that people 'who stick around and experience storm surge unfortunately don't usually live to tell about it.'

Among the evacuation holdouts is Timothy Thomas, who isn't budging from his home in Panama City Beach, even though it's directly in the path of Hurricane Michael.

Thomas, a 50-year-old air conditioning repairman, plans to defy an evacuation order and ride out the monster storm in an apartment that's just a few hundred yards from the beach and even closer to the tea-colored Grand Lagoon, which will rise as the massive storm pushes ocean water toward the coast.

An Illinois native with a beard, long hair and a streak of independence, Thomas hasn't been through a major hurricane before; he's only lived in Panama City Beach about seven years.

A neighbor with far more storm experience evacuated to higher ground.

But police aren't being pushy about enforcing the order, and Thomas figures he, his wife and their puppy will be OK since they live in a second-floor apartment.

It's more than 10 feet off the ground, after all, and forecasters say the water in his area isn't supposed to rise that much. 'If it does I guess we'll be swimming,' he said Tuesday evening as the sky darkened overhead.

Thomas isn't alone; other residents along his street also plan to take on Michael head-on, even though authorities have told about 120,000 residents of Bay County to leave.

Thomas' first-floor neighbors also plan to stay, and they're welcome upstairs if the water gets too high, Thomas said. So are his next-door neighbors and their dog.

'We've got canned food and a can opener. We have lots of water and food for the dogs, and I'm going to tape up the windows, cover the windows, just tack them up with sheets or whatever, to keep the glass from flying if that happens,' he said.

As Thomas spoke, a hurricane party was going on less than two miles away at Buster's Beer and Bait, a dive bar popular both with locals and tourists who overwhelm the region during the summer.

With Michael percolating out in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday night, dozens of people gathered outside Buster's as small palm trees swayed in the breeze nearby.

On the bar's Facebook page, a $5 special was announced for a drink called the 'Storm Surge'. There was no answer at the bar when DailyMail.com attempted to reach it by phone on Wednesday morning.

Other places were shut down and locked up. The windows were covered with metal hurricane shutters at Pineapple Willie's, a popular beachfront restaurant, and sandbags blocked the entrance to a Wells Fargo bank. Plywood covered the front at Shrimp City, a small seafood market.

Dwight Williams, who lives across the street from Thomas, wasn't taking any chances - he and his wife were packing to evacuate.

They plan to stay with friends in DeFuniak Springs, a Panhandle town about 30 miles inland. Their single-story home is built to withstand winds blowing up to 130 mph, Williams said, but rising water is scary.

'What worries me is the storm surge,' said Williams, who has lived on the street about 24 years.

Thomas said relatives in Illinois had urged him to leave and stay with them, but he didn't have a way to get so far north so quickly, and shelters aren't a good option in his view.

'You never know who you're sleeping beside,' he said. 'Here, I do.'

So Thomas and his wife will stay put. And once the wind stops howling and the water recedes, Thomas will await the natural outcome of a hurricane for someone who works in the air conditioning business in a place known for hot, humid summers.

'After all the air conditioners go under water, we'll be busy,' he said.

Another Panama City Beach resident, Teri Vega, 53, said her husband and 12-year-old daughter will remain despite the evacuation order.

'We have a fairly new house,' Vega told NBC News before Michael strengthened to a Category 4 storm.

'It was built really well. We put the hurricane shutters up. We have tubs of water in each of the bathrooms so that we can still flush. We have a generator. We have a gas grill. Tons of canned food, water, Gatorade.'

Inland in Panama City, Missy Theiss, 54, told NBC News that she lives just outside a mandatory evacuation zone, but planned to stay because they have five animals — two cats, two small dogs, and a pit bull.

'Nobody is going to let a pit bull into a shelter,' Thiess said before Michael was upgraded. 'We've got five animals here. I'm not leaving them. Point blank. I'm not leaving them.' Thiess said the family is prepared with water, food and a generator.

About 90 miles west of Panama City Beach, in Pensacola Beach, one man even planned to ride out the storm on his sailing boat.

Though Pensacola is not projected to get dangerous storm surges, tropical storm force winds are predicted in the area.

'If I can move my lines up and down, the boat's good. And now it looks like, I know it's going to Panama City. We're watching this thing, it's an educated decision,' former Coast Guardsman Jeff Platke told Fox News.

He said he'd chosen the marina where he'd make his stand carefully: 'This marina survived Ivan. Man, if I'm going to put myself somewhere, I'm going to put myself somewhere good.'

Even some tourists in Pensacola Beach are opting to ride out the storm in their hotels rather than evacuate.

'We're staying,'' George Kirn of Chicago told the Pensacola News Journal.

Kirn and his wife Christine were making their third trip to Pensacola Beach and are staying at a hotel on the beach. 'It's just Mother Nature,' he said.

Christine Kirn said the couple is prepared to go without power and water for a short period.

'If we lose power, we have a little stove to cook with,'' she said. He added: 'And I'm not going to be without coffee.'</s>With 155mph winds at landfall, Hurricane Michael is the strongest storm to hit the continental US since Hurricane Andrew devastated south Florida in 1992. It has been downgraded to a category 3 hurricane and its eye is now approaching south-east Alabama and south-west Georgia. The storm was moving at 16 mph as of 4pm local time, according to the National Hurricane Center, and its sustained winds were at 125mph. Michael is expected to move across Alabama and Georgia over the course of Wednesday evening. Life-threatening storm surge and catastrophic winds will continue, the National Hurricane Center says</s>Tornadoes ripped across counties in Florida and Georgia on Thursday, adding danger to the carnage left by Hurricane Michael.

Associated Press reported several tornadoes have been spotted by local news channels — including in Clay and Sarasota counties in Florida, and Fort Stewart, Georgia, on Wednesday.

The wreckage left by a tornado in Crawford County. NBC 11 Alive/YouTube

Damon Powers filmed this tornado from Sarasota, Florida, on Wednesday:

The National Weather Service issued a Tornado Watch across some central counties in Georgia, an update on Wednesday said.

In South Carolina, Chesterfield, Cherokee, York, and Lancaster counties are under tornado watch as of 6 a.m. on Thursday.

Brian Monahan, a Meteorologist with WSB-TV in Atlanta, Georgia, tweeted on Wednesday there was a "threat of isolated brief tornadoes."

President Donald Trump described Hurricane Michael on Wednesday: "It's like a big tornado, a massive tornado."

See how the hurricane grew from a tropical storm here.
Hurricane Michael is downgraded to a tropical storm, but tornadoes are spotted in Georgia and Florida.