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Rescue personnel perform a search in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
An American flag flies amidst destruction in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Rescue personnel search amidst debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
In this image made from video and provided by SevereStudios.com, damage from Hurricane Michael is seen in Mexico Beach, Fla. on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. Search-and-rescue teams fanned out across the Florida Panhandle to reach trapped people in Michael’s wake Thursday as daylight yielded scenes of rows upon rows of houses smashed to pieces by the third-most powerful hurricane on record to hit the continental U.S. (SevereStudios.com via AP)
Firefighter Austin Schlarb performs a door to door search in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Mishelle McPherson, climbs over the rubble of the home of her friend as she searches for her, since she knows she stayed behind in the home during Hurricane Michael, in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A boat sits amidst debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
People hold hands as they walk amidst destruction in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Homes destroyed by Hurricane Michael are shown in this aerial photo Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Mexico Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
Kylie Strampe holds her four-month-old daughter, Lola, while surveying the damage from Hurricane Michael after riding out the storm in Callaway, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Michael Williams, 70, waves to passing motorists while looking for food and water as downed trees prevent him from driving out of his damaged home with his family in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Springfield, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. “I don’t know what I’m going to,” said Williams. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Danny, right, and Gina Holland collect water in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Parker, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. “We’re running out of water,” said Danny Holland of his neighborhood up the street that was damaged by the storm. “We’re going to make do.” (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A woman walks through a damaged store in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Springfield, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Aerial photos of the aftermath of Hurricane Michael on St Teresa Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (Scott Clause/The Daily Advertiser via AP)
An entire neighborhood between 40th Street and 42nd Street in Mexico Beach, Fla. was wiped out by Hurricane Michael, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Michael came into focus Thursday with rows upon rows of homes found smashed to pieces, and rescue crews began making their way into the stricken areas in hopes of accounting for hundreds of people who may have stayed behind. (Michael Snyder/Northwest Florida Daily News via AP)
A boat destroyed by Hurricane Michael is shown in this aerial photo Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Mexico Beach, Fla. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Michael came into focus Thursday with rows upon rows of homes found smashed to pieces, and rescue crews began making their way into the stricken areas in hopes of accounting for hundreds of people who may have stayed behind. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
A boat destroyed by Hurricane Michael are shown in this aerial photo Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Mexico Beach, Fla. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Michael came into focus Thursday with rows upon rows of homes found smashed to pieces, and rescue crews began making their way into the stricken areas in hopes of accounting for hundreds of people who may have stayed behind. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
Debris from homes destroyed by Hurricane Michael litters the ground Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Mexico Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
A sailboat upended by winds from Hurricane Michael is shown in this aerial photo Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Mexico Beach, Fla. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Michael came into focus Thursday with rows upon rows of homes found smashed to pieces, and rescue crews began making their way into the stricken areas in hopes of accounting for hundreds of people who may have stayed behind. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
Florida Gov. Rick Scott points out some damage caused by Hurricane Michael while flying somewhere over the panhandle of Florida Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Michael came into focus Thursday with rows upon rows of homes found smashed to pieces, and rescue crews began making their way into the stricken areas in hopes of accounting for hundreds of people who may have stayed behind. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
Destruction is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Michael came into focus Thursday with rows upon rows of homes found smashed to pieces, and rescue crews began making their way into the stricken areas in hopes of accounting for hundreds of people who may have stayed behind. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Matthew Washington carries out items he salvaged from the damaged Thai restaurant he owns with his wife in the aftermath of hurricane Michael in Callaway, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Kelsey Gronbeck walks past damaged homes after checking on a friend’s house in the aftermath of hurricane Michael in Callaway, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Michael came into focus Thursday with rows upon rows of homes found smashed to pieces, and rescue crews began making their way into the stricken areas in hopes of accounting for hundreds of people who may have stayed behind. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Kelsey Gronbeck, right, and Spencer Hall walk through a damaged neighborhood after checking on he home of Hall’s father in the aftermath of hurricane Michael in Callaway, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A large ship lists on its side in the St. Andrew Bay, at Panama City, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Michael came into focus Thursday with rows upon rows of homes found smashed to pieces, and rescue crews began making their way into the stricken areas in hopes of accounting for hundreds of people who may have stayed behind. (Michael Snyder
A soldier stands guard at the damaged entrance to Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in the aftermath of hurricane Michael. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Michael came into focus Thursday with rows upon rows of homes found smashed to pieces, and rescue crews began making their way into the stricken areas in hopes of accounting for hundreds of people who may have stayed behind. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
A pedestrian walks under downed power lines due to Michael, on Cherry Street, south of Polo Road, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (Andrew Dye/The Winston-Salem Journal via AP)
A Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school bus was struck by a power line that was downed by Michael, as it drove down Carver School Road, according to witnesses on the scene on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018 in Winston-Salem, N.C. (Andrew Dye/The Winston-Salem Journal via AP)
A Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school bus driver was trapped on her bus after a power line fell across the bus, due to Michael, as she drove north on Carver School Road on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Winston-Salem, N.C. (Andrew Dye/The Winston-Salem Journal via AP)
A building at the Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart hospital stands damaged from hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Michael came into focus Thursday with rows upon rows of homes found smashed to pieces, and rescue crews began making their way into the stricken areas in hopes of accounting for hundreds of people who may have stayed behind. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Barren trees line a street damaged by hurricane Michael in Springfield, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. The devastation inflicted by Hurricane Michael came into focus Thursday with rows upon rows of homes found smashed to pieces, and rescue crews began making their way into the stricken areas in hopes of accounting for hundreds of people who may have stayed behind. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
John Bird emerges from bathing in a lake after working all day to repair his damaged townhouse which has no running water in the aftermath of hurricane Michael in Parker, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. “Power I can do without,” said Bird. “Water is another thing.” (AP Photo/David Goldman)
David Blackston walks through a muddy parking lot to check on his second-floor apartment in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Callaway, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. Blackston and his wife evacuated to a hotel in Alabama on Monday ahead of the storm. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Hurricane Michael, which ripped through the Southeast, leaving a trail of death and destruction from Florida to Virginia, finally moved off the coast, over the Atlantic Ocean overnight.
Michael made landfall in the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane – the strongest on record to hit the area – wreaking havoc and causing emergencies. In the storm’s wake lay crushed and flooded buildings, shattered lives and at least 11 deaths, a number that officials worry could rise.
The Virginia Department of Emergency Management tweeted “Virginia storm updates as of 7 a.m today. 5 confirmed Michael-related fatalities. 520,000 without power. 1,200 closed roads. 5 suspected tornadoes.”
Authorities in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina had previously linked at least six deaths to the storm, a toll officials have worried will continue to rise as search-and-rescue efforts continue.
In Florida, the Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office reported four deaths related to the storm. A spokeswoman said that one man was killed when a tree crashed through the roof of his home in Greensboro. The sheriff’s office said that it also had three other “storm-related fatalities following Hurricane Michael,” although it did not immediately release further information about what happened beyond saying that all four deaths were “in relation to or occurred during the storm.”
Gadsden, a county in northwest Florida not far from Tallahassee, took a direct shot from Michael as it churned northward on Wednesday.
In North Carolina, a 38-year-old man was killed Thursday afternoon shortly before 1 p.m. in Iredell County, north of Charlotte, when a tree fell on the vehicle he was driving, according to David Souther, the county’s fire marshal.
And in Georgia, officials in Seminole County, on the Florida border, said early Thursday that an 11-year-old girl in a mobile home was killed by a metal carport that was thrown in the air by Michael’s gusting winds.
William “Brock” Long, the FEMA administrator, said Thursday that “search and rescue is where we are hyper-focused this morning.” He warned that the death toll may go up, saying in an appearance on CNN that “those numbers could climb as search-and-rescue teams get out.”
Of the power outages, “You fix the power, you solve a lot of problems,” FEMA Administrator William “Brock” Long said Thursday, of the post-Michael recovery and cleanup efforts.
Nearly 1.5 million people throughout the Southeast woke up without power Friday, including more than a half-million in Virginia – mostly in the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas, according to Dominion Energy. There are about 425,000 outages in North Carolina, according to a Duke Energy spokeswoman. The Florida State Emergency Response Team reported more than 350,000 outages.
The National Hurricane Center’s first public advisory arrived with little notice on Oct. 6, a Saturday. Michael wasn’t even a named storm then; it was simply “Potential Tropical Cyclone Fourteen,” and the center noted that it was “getting better organized over the northwestern Caribbean Sea.”
By the following day, the storm had its name – and by Monday, the center was sounding the alarm about Michael’s potential impacts on the United States.
Landfall came quickly – on Wednesday, along Florida’s “Forgotten Coast” – and Michael was as bad as advertised, delivering a devastating blow before heading north.
Early Friday, in “Post-Tropical Cyclone Michael Advisory Number 23,” the National Hurricane Center wrote that Michael had moved away from the United States, and that “all coastal tropical cyclone warnings and watches are discontinued.”
There may be lingering effects, though, the center wrote: “Gale winds may continue for a few more hours over portions of southeastern Virginia, the southern Chesapeake Bay, and the Delmarva Peninsula.”
And: “Michael is expected to produce 1 to 3 inches of rain from New Jersey to Long Island to Cape Cod, and 3 to 5 inches over Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard through this afternoon.”
And: “This rainfall could lead to flash flooding. Elsewhere, flooding and flash flooding may continue where Michael produced heavy rain very recently in the Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic states.”
It is gone and done, the center noted, adding: “This is the last public advisory issued by the National Hurricane Center on this system.”