Hurricane Michael’s torrential rain, storm surge, and hurricane-force maximum sustained winds that reached 140 miles per hour Wednesday could result in a historically devastating event for the northeastern Gulf Coast, according to A.M. Best.

At the headquarters for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a few hundred people are already coordinating the response to Hurricane Michael.
"It’s doing exactly what the forecasters were pushing forward — storm surges, you’re seeing the ocean rise," said FEMA Administrator Brock Long.

As Tropical Storm Michael moves through Georgia and into South Carolina, its effects are being seen far and wide across the southern United States.

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.
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.

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.

Insured losses from Tropical Storm Gordon, which made landfall near the Alabama-Mississippi border Tuesday night with 70 mph sustained wind speeds, will be approximately $125 million, according to Karen Clark & Co.

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.