The remnants of Hurricane Michael — the most powerful storm on record to strike Florida’s Panhandle — swept through Georgia on Thursday on a path toward the Carolinas after leaving widespread destruction and at least two deaths in its wake.
In little more than a day, a Category 1 storm became a “worst-case scenario” Category 4. The already bad 2018 hurricane season has gotten even worse.<br />On Wednesday afternoon, Hurricane Michael became the second major storm to make landfall this year. Michael is an incredibly dangerous, history-making storm, bringing catastrophic high winds and deadly storm surge to Florida’s Panhandle.
Hurricane Michael made landfall Wednesday on the Florida Panhandle with winds of 155 miles per hour. A hurricane reaches Category 5 status when winds reach 157 miles per hour.
Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle with frightening fury.<br /><br />The Category 4 storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 155 mph as it made landfall near Mexico Beach.
Hurricane Michael rapidly gained strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday night and continued to intensify Wednesday morning, threatening to become the most intense hurricane on record to strike the Florida Panhandle. The dangerous Category 4 hurricane has winds up to 145 mph, and is predicted to make landfall Wednesday afternoon.
Residents of northwest Florida had until early Tuesday to leave their homes ahead of Hurricane Michael, forecast to crash ashore midweek as a major Category 3 storm with "life-threatening" flash flooding possible.
Despite the monster storms this hurricane season and in 2017, Katrina remains No. 1 on the list of costliest hurricanes. But a twist on the list, with today’s population calculated into historic storms, puts a Florida storm in the top spot, with Katrina at No. 3 and Florida storms otherwise dominating.
As Hurricane Florence surged toward land last week, meteorologists and emergency agencies took notice. The storm was a Category 4 hurricane, the second-strongest type, and it was drawing a bead on the Carolina coast.
Tropical Depression Gordon was expected on Thursday to dump more rain on central U.S. states, while Hurricane Florence, a monster Category 3 storm, churned toward Bermuda, the National Hurricane Center said.
Tropical Storm Gordon never became a hurricane but it was deadly all the same, killing a child by blowing a tree onto a mobile home as it made landfall. The storm later weakened into a depression on Wednesday, dumping heavy rains across southern states.
Tropical Storm Gordon barreled on Tuesday toward the U.S. Gulf Coast, where it was expected to become a hurricane and shake parts of the south with high winds and heavy rain, the National Hurricane Center said.
Insurtech company REIN has launched DroneInsurance.com, with underwriting by Liberty Specialty Markets, providing usage-based insurance for commercial drone operators and simplifying the process of obtaining both base and liability coverage.
As summer approaches along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, residents prepare for the hurricane season ahead. The Atlantic hurricane season — June through November (though known to start as early as January in past years) — has devastated communities from Texas to New England, resulting in significant recovery costs.
With so many businesses and individuals affected by Hurricanes including Maria, Harvey and Irma in 2017, risk managers and insurers are looking to revised forecasts of this year’s hurricane season for a glimmer of hope that 2018 will not bring the same destruction.
