Hurricane Michael made landfall on the Florida Panhandle this morning, with 155 mile-per-hour winds establishing it as the strongest storm to hit the continental U.S. since 2004.
Michael is expected to batter Panama City and nearby areas with a potentially deadly 14-foot storm surge, according to the latest National Hurricane Center update.
The swift-moving monster is set to drop as much as 12 inches of rain in some areas as it races north toward Georgia, Alabama and a Carolinas region still recovering from Hurricane Florence.
“A storm like this could be a once-in-a-lifetime event,” said Brett Rathbun, a meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. “Winds of this intensity can really knock down any tree or structure in its path.”
The storm made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida, the Hurricane Center reported. As much as 40 percent of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and 28 percent of natural gas output was shut down as the storm pushed toward land.
Regional ports are closed, and almost 300 flights have been canceled. About 104,000 homes and businesses lost power before the storm made landfall.
As a Category 4 storm, Michael is the most intense to make landfall on the panhandle in U.S. records dating back to 1851, with the last major hurricane, Dennis, arriving as a Category 3 in 2005.
The last storm to batter the mainland at Michael’s strength was Hurricane Charley in 2004, which hit Florida’s West Coast about 90 miles south of Tampa.
