At a Glance Hurricane Michael carved swaths of devastation as it made landfall on the Florida Panhandle. At least 13 deaths have been blamed on the hurricane. Water rescues were needed in Virginia as Michael's deluge prompted flash flood emergencies. More than 1.5 million homes and businesses have lost power in the South and mid-Atlantic. Hurricane Michael continued its rampage through the mid-Atlantic early Friday morning after ravaging parts of the Florida Panhandle, Georgia and the Carolinas, spawning deadly floods that rose so fast that there was little time to evacuate. At least 13 deaths have been blamed on the powerful storm – four in Florida, three in North Carolina, one in Georgia and five in Virginia. That number is almost certain to rise after Miami Fire Chief Joseph Zahralban, leader of a search-and-rescue unit, told the Associated Press that crews were finding bodies in and around Mexico Beach, the Florida Panhandle town nearly obliterated by the hurricane. "There are individuals who are deceased. We do not have a count, but we are working to identify them," Zahralban said. For the latest on Michael's impacts, click here Florida emergency officials earlier said they have received thousands of calls asking about missing people. But with cellphone service down for much of the area, it is possible that some of those unaccounted for are safe and just haven't been able to contact friends or family to let them know, officials said. Michael made landfall as a high-end Category 4 storm on the Florida Panhandle Wednesday, smashing towns to rubble. On Thursday, the Carolinas and Georgia saw trees knocked down, hundreds of thousands without power, and roads closed by standing water. Evacuations were ordered in Irmo, South Carolina, after multiple homes took on water. The storm's downpours flooded homes in Virginia on Thursday and led to water rescues and numerous flash flood emergencies later in the day. Serious coastal flooding was also reported overnight along North Carolina's Outer Banks, where some residents had to be evacuated as floodwaters inundated roads and homes. (MORE: The Victims of Hurricane Michael) In Florida, from Panama City through Mexico Beach — where the storm made landfall — and into Apalachicola, houses were swamped or blown apart, roofs were ripped off, boats sank and trees toppled in the high winds. Aerial images at Mexico Beach Thursday morning showed extreme damage, with homes swept completely off their foundations and destroyed and few properties left standing along the coast. "Mexico Beach took the brunt," FEMA Administrator Brock Long said. "That’s probably ground zero." More than 1.5 million homes and businesses lost power because of the storm, according to PowerOutage.us. Florida Homeowners told to stay away: Authorities said with so many search and rescue missions ongoing and widespread extreme damage, it's too early for homeowners to return to survey the damage. "It's still not safe to return, particularly to Bay County, Florida," Long said Friday. Deaths reported: Four people were killed in Florida's Gadsden County, according to Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Anglie Hightower. One of them was Steve Sweet, 44, who died when a tree slammed into his Gretna home. Details were not available on the other three deaths. Food and water airdrops happening: Gov. Rick Scott said in a Friday morning tweet that helicopters are dropping emergency food and water supplies into the towns hit hardest by the storm. Psychiatric hospital cut off: In the town of Chattahoochee, the Florida State Hospital, which is the state's largest and oldest psychiatric hospital, was inaccessible in the wake of Michael, according to the Miami Herald. The facility's 975 residents and 325 staffers had ample supplies, especially after food and water drops via helicopter, but the hospital lost all communication with the outside world, the report added. (MORE: How to Help the Victims of Hurricane Michael) Two Panama City hospitals evacuate: Bay Medical Sacred Heart began evacuating patients about 3 a.m. Thursday after the hospital was damaged by the hurricane on Wednesday. Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center also was damaged and began moving patients on Thursday. Both hospitals said their emergency rooms would remain open. Major damage reported at Tyndall Air Force Base: The base, which sits across the bay from Panama City, posted on its Facebook page Thursday that the base had widespread catastrophic damage. The post also said there was roof damage to nearly every house on the base. No injuries were reported. A wind gust of 129 mph was measured at the base. Base personnel had been ordered to evacuate on Monday. The Facebook post said evacuees should plan on being away for an extended time. Devastation in Mexico Beach: Images from Mexico Beach showed widespread devastation with homes reduced to kindling and roofs lying in the middle of U.S. 98. Storm surge lapped at roof eaves. Mayor Al Cathey, 71, told the Tampa Bay Times, "We’re broken here. This devastation is beyond. I think it’s sort of obvious we need some help." Advertisement Dozens Didn't Flee: State officials said as many as 285 Mexico Beach residents chose not to obey evacuation orders ahead of the storm. The National Guard was able to rescue about 20 people overnight, but it was unknown how many residents were missing, or if there were any deaths. (PHOTOS: Before and After Images Show Michael's Devastation) A warehouse of boats is seen damaged at Treasure Island Marina in Panama City Beach, Florida, after Hurricane Michael made landfall along the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images) Panama City residents feel wrath of Michael: Vance Beu, 29, was staying with his mother at her Panama City apartment when a pine tree slashed through the roof. Beu said the roar of the storm sounded like a jet engine as the winds accelerated. "It was terrifying, honestly. There was a lot of noise. We thought the windows were going to break at any time. We had the inside windows kind of barricaded in with mattresses," Beu said. Apalachicola suffers heavy damage: Sally Crown, who rode out the storm in her house, ventured out after the storm had passed. "It's absolutely horrendous. Catastrophic," she said. "There's flooding. Boats on the highway. A house on the highway. Houses that have been there forever are just shattered." Trees downed across capital city: In Tallahassee, the power loss from Michael surpassed the loss from Hermine over two years ago, according to Mayor Andrew Gillum. Nearly all customers citywide were in the dark on Thursday. Gillum urged patience and optimism from residents as the city works through its recovery. "I'm counting our many, many blessings. This storm for us certainly was not as bad for us as it could have been." Building permit fees waived: Leon County officials said Friday morning that all building permit fees will be waived for storm-related repairs in the wake of the storm. Homeowners and licensed contractors qualify for this special exception. Federal disaster approved: President Donald Trump approved a major disaster declaration for the state in the wake of the storm, making federal aid available for state and local response efforts. Georgia Agriculture decimated: With the harvest underway, many farms in South Georgia had their crops ravaged by the storm. "Our worst dreams are being realized," Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black told reporters Thursday morning. Black told AJC.com that he expects the losses to exceed $1 billion to crops like cotton, pecans and fall vegetables, which were currently being harvested. 11-year-old girl killed: In southern Georgia, a girl was killed when a carport hit her home in Seminole County. The county coroner later identified her as Sarah Radney. Numerous tornadoes reported: The National Weather Service said it had confirmed three tornadoes were spawned by Michael. An EF0 tornado touched down a couple of miles southwest of Atlanta and snapped several large trees. A high-end EF1 tornado touched down in Crawford County. Numerous trees were knocked down or uprooted. Several homes were damaged by falling trees, the NWS said. Damage was also found in Peach County that was thought to be caused by a brief tornado, but NWS said it wants to re-examine radar data to confirm it.<doc-sep>MEXICO BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - Searchers on Friday uncovered the first body in the rubble of the Florida town of Mexico Beach, which was nearly obliterated by Hurricane Michael, as the toll from the historic storm rose to at least 18 and was expected to climb further. Rescue teams, hampered by power and telephone outages, used cadaver dogs, drones and heavy equipment to hunt for hundreds of people unaccounted for in devastated communities across the Florida Panhandle. “I’ve watched on television, thinking of what others have experienced, like in the Carolinas and Texas,” Mexico Beach Mayor Al Cathey told reporters referring to earlier hurricanes. “But it’s different when you walk down and see this, and your emotions run away. This is just a small unique coastal community.” No other information was available about the dead man found in Mexico Beach, said Joseph Zahralban, Miami’s fire chief who was leading a search and rescue unit. He said it was unclear if the man lived alone or with a family. Three deaths were reported in Marianna, in Jackson County, Florida, Sheriff Lou Roberts told a news conference on Friday afternoon. Florida accounts for nine of the storm-related deaths, with five more in Virginia, three in North Carolina and one in Georgia. The death toll is expected to rise as rescuers go house-to-house and comb through the rubble in Mexico Beach and other Florida coastal communities, such as Port St. Joe and Panama City, said Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Houston-based volunteer search-and-rescue network CrowdSource Rescue said its teams were trying to find about 2,100 people either reported missing or stranded and in need of help in Florida, co-founder Matthew Marchetti said. Social media websites were crowded with messages from those trying to reach missing family in Florida’s Bay and Gulf Counties. Marchetti said his volunteer search teams, consisting mostly of off-duty police officers and firefighters, also had rescued or accounted for 345 others previously reported to CrowdSource Rescue since Michael struck on Wednesday. DOGS AND BULLDOZERS FEMA crews have been using bulldozers and other heavy equipment to push a path through debris so rescuers can sift the rubble using specially trained search dogs. Slideshow ( 18 images ) More than 1,700 search and rescue workers have been deployed, Governor Rick Scott’s office said in a statement, including seven swift-water rescue teams and nearly 300 ambulances. Michael crashed ashore near Mexico Beach on Wednesday afternoon as one of the most powerful storms in U.S. history, with winds of up to 155 mph (250 kph). It pushed a wall of seawater inland, causing widespread flooding. The tropical storm, which grew in less than two days into a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, tore apart entire neighborhoods in the Panhandle, reducing homes to naked concrete foundations or piles of wood and siding. Slideshow ( 18 images ) Except for the emergency 911 system, authorities in Bay County, the epicenter of the disaster, were virtually without telephone or internet service until late on Friday, making communications internally and with the public difficult. “We didn’t have anything,” said Ruth Corley, a spokeswoman for the Bay County Sheriff’s Department. “We’ve been writing things down on pieces of paper. We’re doing what we can with the minimal media that we have.” She said local television stations were knocked off the air for two days, and authorities were relying on the Gulf State College radio station to transmit public service bulletins. Search teams went door-to-door hunting victims. REBUILD RIGHT FEMA’s Long urged communities such as Mexico Beach, where many homes were pulverized by 12 to 14 feet (3.7 to 4.3 meters) of storm surge, to rebuild to withstand future storms. “It’s OK if you want to live on the coast or on top of a mountain that sees wildfires or whatever, but you have to build to a higher standard,” he said. “If we’re going to rebuild, do it right.” By Friday morning the storm remnants were about 275 miles (445 km) southwest of Nantucket, Massachusetts, packing maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph). More than 940,000 homes and businesses on the U.S. East Coast were without power and it could be weeks before power is restored to the most damaged parts of Florida. The numbers in emergency shelters were expected to swell to 20,000 across five states by Friday, said Brad Kieserman of the American Red Cross. The Coast Guard said it rescued 129 people. Even as rescuers searched the rubble for survivors or the dead, some Mexico Beach residents were nervously trickling back, expressing hope the place, nicknamed “the Forgotten Coast,” would not change too much as it rebuilds. “It was the perfect beach town. Not all of that commercialism,” said Dottie Sinclair, 57, a nurse, adding a Subway fast-food restaurant was the only commercial chain. “I don’t think it will ever be the same,” said her husband Danny, 64, who is semi-retired. “People will just pack up and leave.”<doc-sep>An urban search and rescue team searches for bodies with the help of a dog in Mexico Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File) PANAMA CITY, Fla. – A family can begin to grieve after officials confirmed Friday the death of a 79-year-old Florida woman who had been missing since Hurricane Michael left her Mexico Beach home in rubble. Joanne Garone Behnke said it’s been an agonizing wait to find out what happen to her aunt, Aggie Vicari. The Bay County medical examiner’s office on Friday confirmed that it was Vicari’s body that was recovered Monday. Her body had been under rubble for five days before rescuers found her, Garone Behnke said. The South Florida woman says she spoke to her Aunt Aggie — affectionately described as a “stubborn Italian woman” — just hours before Michael’s devastating winds came ashore. Her fence had already blown over. “I know she was scared, and I know it was late, and I know she’s the kind of person who kept money in her house, and I know she didn’t want to leave it,” said her niece. A memorial service will be held next month on Vicari’s lot, where her home once stood. Ad As officials continue to identify bodies recovered since the devastating Oct. 10 storm, a firefighter became the latest death attributed to the storm when he was killed by a falling tree while helping clear debris with family members more than a week after Michael blew ashore with 155 mph winds. Fire coordinator Brad Price, 49, of Wewahitchka was on his tractor when he was killed Thursday, the Gulf County Sheriff’s Office said on its official Facebook page. “We love you, grieve with you, and are praying for all of you,” Gulf County firefighters said on their Facebook page. That brought the storm’s death toll in Florida to 25, and 35 overall across the South — where, in addition to tree falls, deaths came when the storm decimated homes with winds and storm surge, cut power to those reliant on electricity for medical conditions and swept away cars in flash floods. While trees brought down by Michael’s ferocious winds took a heavy toll on life and property, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said Friday that the fallen trees themselves are contributing to a $1.3 billion hit to the heavily forested Florida Panhandle’s timber industry. Pulp mills, sawmills and other production facilities were damaged in 11 of the top timber-producing counties in state, Putnam said. Ad “This is a catastrophic loss to the forest industry in the Florida Panhandle,” Putnam said in a news release. Officials also were concerned that downed trees could pose a fire hazard. Forest Service Director Jim Karels said the danger grows as the debris dries. The agency is working to clear the debris and establish fire lines that could help contain forest fire, he said.<doc-sep>
MEXICO BEACH, Fla. — Search-and-rescue teams began finding bodies in and around Mexico Beach, the ground-zero town nearly obliterated by Hurricane Michael, an official said Friday as the scale of the storm's fury became ever clearer. But he gave no details on the number of dead. The death toll across the South stood at 13, not counting any victims in Mexico Beach. Miami Fire Chief Joseph Zahralban, leader of a search-and-rescue unit that went into the flattened town, said: "There are individuals who are deceased. We do not have a count, but we are working to identify them." Zahralban spoke as his team — which included a dog — was winding down its two-day search of Mexico Beach, the town of about 1,000 people that was nearly wiped off the map when Michael blew ashore there Wednesday with devastating 155 mph (249 kph) winds. Blocks and blocks of homes were demolished, reduced to splintered lumber or mere concrete slabs by the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in nearly 50 years. As the catastrophic damage across the Florida Panhandle came into view 48 hours after the hurricane struck, there was little doubt the death toll would rise. How high it might go was unclear. But authorities scrapped plans to set up a temporary morgue, suggesting they had yet to see mass casualties. State officials said that by one count, 285 people in Mexico Beach defied mandatory evacuation orders and stayed behind. Whether any of them got out at some point was unclear. Emergency officials said they have received thousands of calls asking about missing people. But with cellphone service out across vast swaths of the Florida Panhandle, officials said it is possible that some of those unaccounted for are safe and just haven't been able to contact friends or family. Across the ravaged region, meanwhile, authorities set up distribution centers to hand out food and water to victims. Some supplies were brought in by trucks, while others had to be delivered by helicopter because of debris still blocking roads. Residents began to come to grips with the destruction and face up to the uncertainty that lies ahead. "I didn't recognize nothing. Everything's gone. I didn't even know our road was our road," said 25-year-old Tiffany Marie Plushnik, an evacuee who returned to find her home in Sandy Creek too damaged to live in. When she went back to the hotel where she took shelter from the storm, she found out she could no longer stay there either because of mold. "We've got to figure something out. We're starting from scratch, all of us," Plushnik said. President Donald Trump announced plans to visit Florida and hard-hit Georgia early next but didn't say what day he would arrive. "We are with you!" he tweeted. Shell-shocked survivors who barely escaped with their lives told of terrifying winds, surging floodwaters and homes cracking apart. Emergency officials said they had completed an initial "hasty search" of the stricken area, looking for the living or the dead, and were now launching into more careful inspections of ruined buildings. Gov. Rick Scott said state officials still "do not know enough" about the fate of those who stayed behind in the region. "We are not completely done. We are still getting down there," the governor added. Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Brock Long said he expects to see the death toll rise. "We still haven't gotten into the hardest-hit areas," he said, adding with frustration: "Very few people live to tell what it's like to experience storm surge, and unfortunately in this country we seem to not learn the lesson." Long expressed worry that people have suffered "hurricane amnesia." "When state and local officials tell you to get out, dang it, do it. Get out," he said. On the Panhandle, Tyndall Air Force Base "took a beating," so much so that Col. Brian Laidlaw told the 3,600 men and women stationed on the base not to come back. Many of the 600 families who live there had followed orders to pack what they could in a single suitcase as they were evacuated ahead of the storm. The hurricane's eyewall passed directly overhead, severely damaging nearly every building and leaving many a complete loss. The elementary school, the flight line, the marina and the runways were devastated. "I will not recall you and your families until we can guarantee your safety.