Cover ©Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via ZUMA Wire.
A week after Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle, the extent of the storm’s fury is still being assessed as the death toll rises and rescuers search for the missing in the worst hit areas. Michael has killed at least 35 people across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. 15 of those deaths were in Florida’s Bay County, where the hurricane made landfall as a Category 4 storm. The damage is massive to one of the few remaining towns in Florida where small beach houses were built on concrete slabs, giving Mexico Beach a 1950s feel. Virtually all of those homes were destroyed by the powerful hurricane, wiped clean from their foundations by the devastating storm surge. Authorities fear some people who did not evacuate could be buried beneath collapsed buildings. The Florida Department of Health provided an online form to report those who are still unaccounted for, trapped or in need of help. While the exact number of the missing is still unknown, officials hope they will know more as electricity and phone services are gradually restored across the Panhandle.
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