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. </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> 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> MIAMI (AP) — Hurricane Michael quickly intensified into a Category 2 over warm Gulf of Mexico waters Tuesday amid fears it would strike Florida on Wednesday as an even stronger hurricane. Mandatory evacuations were issued as beach dwellers rushed to board up homes just ahead of what could be a devastating hit.

A hurricane hunter plane that bounced into the swirling eye off the western tip of Cuba found wind speeds rising. By 8 a.m. Tuesday, top winds had reached 100 mph (155 kph), and it was forecast to strengthen into a “major” Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of more than 111 mph (179 kph).

The speed of the storm barreling toward the Florida Panhandle — Michael was already north of Cuba and moving north-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph) — gave many people only hours to prepare and flee before damaging wind and rain starts whipping the coast.

“Guess what? That’s today,” National Hurricane Center Director Ken Graham said. “If they tell you to leave, you have to leave.”

Gov. Rick Scott also warned people across northwest Florida Tuesday morning that the “monstrous hurricane” was just hours away, bringing deadly risks from high winds, storm surge and heavy rains.

His opponent in Florida’s Senate race, Sen. Bill Nelson, said a “wall of water” could cause major destruction along the Panhandle. “Don’t think that you can ride this out if you’re in a low-lying area,” Nelson said on CNN.

Mandatory evacuation orders went into effect Tuesday morning for some 120,000 people in Panama City Beach and across other low-lying parts of the coast.

Forecasters said parts of Florida’s marshy, lightly populated Big Bend area could see up to 12 feet (3.7 meters) of storm surge.

Michael also could dump up to a foot (30 centimeters) of rain over some Panhandle communities before it sweeps over Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia Wednesday and Thursday. Forecasters said tornadoes could spin off the storm and 3 to 6 inches of rain could cause flash floods as it barrels over a corner of the country still recovering from Hurricane Florence.

Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan bluntly advised residents choosing to ride it out that first-responders won’t be able to reach them while Michael smashes into the coast.

“If you decide to stay in your home and a tree falls on your house or the storm surge catches you and you’re now calling for help, there’s no one that can respond to help you,” Morgan said at a news conference.

Michael wasn’t quite done wreaking havoc in the Caribbean on Tuesday. Forecasters warned of up to a foot (30 centimeters) of rain in western Cuba, triggering flash floods and mudslides in mountain areas, and disaster agencies in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua reported 13 deaths as roofs collapsed and residents were carried away by swollen rivers.

In Florida, Scott declared a state of emergency for 35 counties, from the Panhandle to Tampa Bay, activated hundreds of Florida National Guard members and waived tolls to encourage evacuations. The governors of Alabama and Georgia also made emergency declarations.

With just a month to go before Election Day, Florida voters in evacuation zones also were given one more day to register to vote, once offices reopen after the storm.

Scott also told caregivers at north Florida hospitals and nursing homes to do all they can to assure the safety of the elderly and infirm. Following Hurricane Irma last year, 14 people died when a South Florida nursing home lost power and air conditioning.

“If you’re responsible for a patient, you’re responsible for the patient. Take care of them,” he said.

In the small Panhandle city of Apalachicola, Mayor Van Johnson Sr. said the 2,300 residents were frantically preparing for what could be a strike unlike any seen there in decades. Many filled sandbags and boarded up homes and lined up to buy gas and groceries before leaving town.

“We’re looking at a significant storm with significant impact, possibly greater than I’ve seen in my 59 years of life,” Johnson said of his city on the shore of Apalachicola Bay, which where about 90 percent of Florida’s oysters are harvested.

There will be no shelters open in Wakulla County, the sheriff’s office warned on Facebook, because they are rated safe only for hurricanes with top sustained winds below 111 mph (178 kph). With Michael’s winds projected to be even stronger, residents there were urged to evacuate inland.

“This storm has the potential to be a historic storm, please take heed,” the sheriff’s office said in the post.

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, Florida’s Democratic nominee for governor, filled sandbags with residents and urged the state capital’s residents to finish emergency preparations quickly.

“There’s nothing between us and this storm but warm water, and I think that’s what terrifies us about the potential impacts,” Gillum said. </s> Hurricane Michael is strengthening as it races over the Gulf of Mexico approaching a landfall along Florida's Panhandle. Forecasters say deadly storm surge, catastrophic wind damage and heavy rainfall are imminent.The National Hurricane Center in Miami says the Category 4 storm has maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 kph) and is moving at 13 mph (20 kph). At 8 a.m., Michael was centered about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Panama City, with tropical storm force winds already lashing the coast.The hurricane center says Michael will be the first Category 4 hurricane to make landfall on the Florida Panhandle.The unexpected brute that quickly sprang from a weekend tropical depression grew swiftly, rising in days to a catastrophic storm. Around midday it was expected to become one of the Panhandle's worst hurricanes in memory with heavy rainfall expected along the northeastern Gulf Coast and life-threatening storm surge of up to 13 feet (4 meters).Florida officials said roughly 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast had been urged or ordered to evacuate. Evacuations spanned 22 counties from the Florida Panhandle into north central Florida. But fears lingered that some failed to heed the calls to get out of Michael's way as the hard-charging storm began speeding north over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.Worried meteorologists said it had the potential of becoming one of the worst storms in the history of Florida's Panhandle."I guess it's the worst case scenario. I don't think anyone would have experienced this in the Panhandle," meteorologist Ryan Maue of weathermodels.com told The Associated Press. "This is going to have structure damaging winds along the coast and hurricane force winds inland."Cameras outside the International Space Station captured views of Hurricane Michael on Tuesday. The Hurricane is expected to make landfall in the Florida panhandle on Wednesday.University of Georgia's Marshall Shepherd, a former president of the American Meteorological Society, called it a "life-altering event" on Facebook and said he watched the storm's growth on satellite images with a pit growing in his stomach.Franklin County Sheriff A.J. Smith near the vulnerable coast said his deputies had gone door to door in some places urging people to evacuate. "We have done everything we can as far as getting the word out," Smith said. "Hopefully more people will leave."On the exposed coast of Florida's Big Bend, most of the waterfront homes in Keaton Beach stood vacant amid fears of a life-threatening storm surge in an area that hadn't seen a potentially catastrophic major hurricane in decades. Even so, 77-year-old resident Robert Sadousky wasn't quite ready to evacuate yet.The retired mill worker has spent more than half his life on the coast and weathered his share of storms. He chose the spot where his house stands on tall stilts overlooking the Gulf waters in 1972 after it was the only lot left dry after a storm flooded the beach that year.While most homes around him are vacation rentals or summer getaways for their owners, Sadousky had stayed put through more than four decades of storms. No longer. Michael was expected to bring surging seas up 9 feet (2.75 meters) above ground level at Keaton Beach."I know it's going to cover everything around here," Sadousky said Tuesday, eyeing water lapping at the edge of a canal behind his home. He pulled two small boat docks from the water, packed his pickup and picked some beans from his garden before getting out - like hundreds of thousands elsewhere."We don't know if it's going to wipe out our house or not," Jason McDonald, of Panama City, said as he and his wife drove north to safety into Alabama with their two children, ages 5 and 7. "We want to get them out of the way."Florida Gov. Rick Scott warned it was a "monstrous hurricane," and his Democratic opponent for the Senate, Sen. Bill Nelson, said a "wall of water" could cause destruction along the Panhandle."Don't think that you can ride this out if you're in a low-lying area," Nelson said on CNN.But some officials were worried by what they weren't seeing - a rush of evacuees."I am not seeing the level of traffic on the roadways that I would expect when we've called for the evacuation of 75 percent of this county," Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford said.In the dangerously exposed coastal town of Apalachicola, population 2,500, Sally Crown planned to go home and hunker down with her two dogs."We've been through this before," she said. "This might be really bad and serious. But in my experience, it's always blown way out of proportion."Mandatory evacuation orders went into effect in Panama City Beach and other low-lying areas in the storm's path. That included Pensacola Beach but not in Pensacola itself, a city of about 54,000.Michael could dump up to a foot (30 centimeters) of rain over some Panhandle communities before its remnants go back out to sea by way of the mid-Atlantic states over the next few days. Forecasters said it also could bring 3 to 6 inches of rain to Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, triggering flash flooding in a corner of the country still recovering from Florence. And isolated tornadoes were also possible. </s> (CNN) — Hurricane Michael, which is poised to slam Florida’s Panhandle, has strengthened into a now a Category 3 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Maximum sustained winds increased to 120 mph, with gusts to 150 mph on Tuesday afternoon. Michael is expected to strengthen even more as it continues to head toward the Gulf Coast.

Michael, which is spinning the Gulf of Mexico, is expected to make landfall Wednesday afternoon in the Florida Panhandle still a Category 3 storm. It is threatening dangerous storm surges to low-lying areas ill-equipped to handle them. Officials are urging people to get out of the way now.

Gov. Rick Scott called Michael a “monstrous storm” that could bring “total devastation” in and around the Panhandle area.

“Hurricane Michael is forecast to be the most destructive storm to hit the Florida Panhandle in decades,” Scott said.

“You cannot hide from storm surge, so … get out if an evacuation is ordered,” he said.

Winds of tropical storm force will be felt in the area starting early Wednesday, and mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders already have been issued in at least 22 counties on the Florida Gulf Coast.

About 3.7 million people were under hurricane warnings in the Panhandle and Big Bend regions, as well as parts of southeastern Alabama and southern Georgia. Tropical storm warnings cover a further 3.1 million people in the three states.

Michael’s core, with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph, was about 335 miles south of Panama City, Florida, as of 2 p.m. ET Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 35 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds were outward up to 185 miles.

The main threats

 The storm’s center and where it makes landfall with its destructive winds represent just one of several concerns. Among them:
• Storm surges could slam the coasts of the Florida Panhandle, Big Bend and Nature Coast, the National Hurricane Center said. The deadliest storm surge of possibly 9 to 13 feet is expected between Mexico Beach an Keaton Beach. “That means the water will come miles in shore and could easily be over the roofs of houses,” Scott said.
• Heavy rain and flooding are expected not just for Florida but also for other parts of the Southeast. Up to 12 inches of rain could fall in Florida’s Panhandle and Big Bend, southeastern Alabama and southern Georgia, while parts of the Carolinas — recently deluged by Hurricane Florence — and southern Virginia eventually could see up to 6 inches, the hurricane center said.
• Tornadoes could spawn in the Southeast on Tuesday night into Thursday, forecasters said.
• Damaging winds are expected to rake not just Florida but also southeastern Alabama and southern Georgia. If Michael’s core comes ashore as a Category 2 or higher, it would be the strongest storm in terms of wind speed to make landfall in the country this year.

“You will see damage to infrastructure. You will see power outages,” said Jeff Byard, associate administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Office of Response and Recovery.

‘We need the residents to be leaving today’

 A hurricane warning is in place from the Alabama-Florida border to the Suwannee River in Florida.

Meanwhile, tropical storm warnings extend from Florida’s Chassahowitzka River to the Mississippi-Alabama border. Tropical storm watches are in effect in some coastal areas of Mississippi, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

Storm surge warnings are also in place along the Florida and Alabama coasts.

“This is a life-threatening situation. Persons located within these areas should take all necessary actions to protect life and property from rising water and the potential for other dangerous conditions,” the hurricane center said.

US Rep. Neal Dunn, whose district includes Panama City, urged people under evacuation orders to get out before tropical-storm-force winds arrived. He focused on islands off the coast whose bridges may close as the storm approaches.

“You haven’t got anywhere to go (if the bridges close),” he said Tuesday morning. “And then you’re riding it out in your car instead of something else. So we need the residents to be leaving today … because by this evening, those bridges are going to be in peril of being closed.”

Scott extended a state of emergency to 35 counties and activated 2,500 National Guardsmen for hurricane duty. He said tolls were being suspended in the state’s northwest region to ease the evacuation process, and the Florida Highway Patrol is sending nearly 350 state troopers to the Panhandle and Big Bend areas.

A couple move up their beachside wedding

 The hurricane forced Benny and Cindy Guinn to get married a day earlier.

The couple was supposed to get hitched Wednesday in Florida’s Panama City Beach, but Michael’s approach forced mandatory evacuations there.

“We (first) bumped it up to Tuesday night … and then we bumped it up to Tuesday morning,” Cindy Guinn said.

With an officiant standing in front of them, the couple said their vows on the beach as brisk winds brushed them.

Elsewhere at Panama City Beach, many businesses were closed and homes were boarded up.

Cars were in long lines at one of the town’s gas stations Tuesday.

“Since 6 a.m. it’s been backed up. We’re just now running out of regular (gas),” worker Danny Hess told CNN affiliate WJHG.

Georgia, Alabama prepare for damage

 In Georgia, Gov. Nathan Deal declared an emergency for 92 counties.

In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey issued a statewide state of emergency, saying on Twitter that it was “in anticipation of wide-spread power outages, wind damage and debris produced by high winds & heavy rain associated with #HurricaneMichael.”

The governor’s declaration activates the state’s emergency operations plan, according to Ivey’s office.

Deaths in Central America

 Michael has been lashing western Cuba as it churned toward the United States. Up to 12 inches could fall there, threatening flash floods and mudslides, the hurricane center said Tuesday.

Over the weekend, flooding related to Michael led to at least 13 deaths in the Central American countries of Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador, according to officials. </s> Hamilton fans know the lyric: "In the eye of a hurricane, there is quiet/for just a moment."

US Air Force Reserve Pilot Will Simmons experienced that quiet Wednesday morning, and it's just as eerie as in Alexander Hamilton's day. Simmons was flying a USAF Hurricane Hunter mission out of Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, and after multiple passes through the eye, finally had enough daylight to see the massive storm.

"Life-threatening effects are imminent along parts of the Florida panhandle," he wrote in a tweet sharing a video of that brief moment in the eye.

Monstrous clouds surround the plane like walls as the crew flies through and records the video.

"I love the job, but at the same time, hate that I had to go out to fly this today," Simmons wrote. "Extremely powerful hurricane."

Hurricane Michael made landfall in Florida Wednesday morning as a category 4 storm that the New York Times called "frighteningly powerful."

"This is the worst storm that our Florida Panhandle has seen in a century," Florida Gov. Rick Scott said. "Hurricane Michael is upon us, and now is the time to seek refuge."

The National Weather Service issued a chilling message Wednesday morning. "Landfall of #HurricaneMichael is imminent," the organization tweeted. "THIS IS A WORST CASE SCENARIO for the Florida Panhandle!!"

Webcams in Florida are also recording the storm activity, though intensifying conditions could force them offline. </s> Hurricane Michael, which made landfall in Florida Wednesday, is being called the third-strongest storm to hit North America. In the D.C. area, its effects are a few days off and should be limited.

WASHINGTON — Hurricane Michael, which made landfall in Florida Wednesday, is being called the third-strongest storm to hit North America. In the D.C. area, its effects are a couple days off and should be limited.

Storm Team 4 meteorologist Lauryn Ricketts said Wednesday that Michael would have a bit more of an impact on the area than it appeared on Tuesday, though a cold front heading across the U.S. would still, in fact, fend off the worst.

On Wednesday, she called for showers Thursday morning for most of the area, with rain increasing over the rest of the day and totaling 1 to 2 inches, with more south and east of D.C.

The National Weather Service issued a Flash Flood Watch on Wednesday afternoon, lasting from Thursday afternoon to late Thursday night for Calvert, St. Mary’s and Charles counties in Maryland and Stafford County in Virginia.

On Friday morning, conditions will dry out, but the winds will pick up, Ricketts said, reaching 35 mph for most of the area and with gusts hitting 50 to 60 mph south and east of D.C.

Ricketts called for Michael to be a tropical depression, or a post-tropical depression, by the time it gets to the WTOP listening area, and to be pushed off the coast of Virginia by the cold front.

Supercharged by abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle with terrifying winds of 155 mph Wednesday, splintering homes and submerging neighborhoods. It was the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in nearly 50 years.

It appeared to be so powerful that it was expected to remain a hurricane as it moves into Alabama and Georgia early Thursday. Forecasters said it will unleash damaging wind and rain all the way into the Carolinas, still recovering from Hurricane Florence’s epic flooding.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> A satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Michael off the U.S. Gulf Coast on Wednesday morning. The Miami-based National Hurricane Center said the storm, which local forecasters are calling an ‘unprecedented’ weather event for the area, is expected to slam ashore on Wednesday with ’life-threatening’ storm surges.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Hurricane Michael has intensified into an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm as it bears down on the Florida Panhandle, which is bracing for extreme winds and flooding on Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Michael is poised to make landfall on the Panhandle later Wednesday while pushing up to 13 feet of ocean water into the coast and drenching parts of three states in as much as a foot of rain. The storm was recently packing maximum-sustained winds of 140 miles an hour while tropical-storm conditions began spreading onshore.

Officials in 22 Florida counties ordered or urged residents to evacuate ahead of the storm, but it wasn’t known how many people heeded warnings to get out of harm’s way. Gov. Rick Scott cautioned that storm surge could reach above rooftops. “This storm is deadly. Do not take a chance,” he said Tuesday. The state is bracing for the second Category 4 storm in 13 months, after getting hit by Hurricane Irma last year. But Michael left the state much less time to prepare, surging from a tropical depression off the Mexico coast to a major hurricane in just two days. The storm could cause “catastrophic wind damage” where the center moves ashore, according to the hurricane center. The storm is expected to remain a hurricane into Georgia as it crosses through the Southeast. Michael poses the risk for significant storm surge along Florida’s Gulf coast
Hurricane Michael is downgraded to a tropical storm, but tornadoes are spotted in Georgia and Florida.