Roads have been ravaged, people have lost their homes and the death toll continues to rise. At least 13 people died in severe hurricane “Michael” on the southeast coast of the USA. Sometimes there was talk of 16 or 17 fatalities, but initially there was not official confirmation for all cases.
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Florida Governor Rick Scott said after a visit to Mexico Beach the city was completely devastated. “It looks like a bomb went off, like in a war zone.” The most important thing now is to clarify the fate of the residents who resisted the evacuation requests before the storm.
“I have a feeling they will find more victims,” said Florida Senator Marco Rubio. The head of the disaster control agency Fema, Brock Long, expected more victims under the rubble. He hopes that the number of victims will not increase “dramatically”. “But I have reason to believe we haven’t gotten into some of the worst hit areas,” Long said.
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The rescue workers sent sniffer dogs into the rubble of collapsed houses on Friday. Some residents, who had made themselves safe from the storm, came back into town in delivery and moving trucks to look for belongings in the rubble of their homes.
The storm left massive devastation. Individual villages were largely destroyed and flooded, trees were uprooted and power lines torn down, houses collapsed.
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According to the US media and authorities, more than 1.5 million connections in the affected states were without power on Friday morning. The civil protection agency in Virginia alone reported more than 380,000 power outages and 1,500 blocked roads on Friday afternoon. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said his state was still suffering from flooding, a lot of debris, fallen trees and impassable roads. He warned that the hurricane season was not over yet. “We could very well see more storms in the next few weeks.”
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Video: Hurricane “Michael” devastates Florida
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“Michael” hit the coast near Mexico Beach in Florida on Wednesday – as a category four hurricane with wind speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour. It was just below the highest category five. According to the National Weather Service, it was the strongest hurricane to hit this part of Florida since records began in 1851.
“Michael” then moved to Georgia, where he was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm. He roamed Alabama before moving on through South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. The storm is now over the Atlantic. The National Hurricane Center lifted all “Michael” storm warnings for the US.
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Trump announced on Twitter on Friday that he would visit Florida and Georgia early next week. Trump promised to take care of all the areas and states that the hurricane hit. “We are with you!”
During a campaign appearance in the US state of Ohio, Trump said: “That was a vicious hurricane.” The storm was one of the strongest the country has experienced.
Tropical storm “Florence” only hit the southeast coast of the USA in mid-September and caused severe flooding, especially in North and South Carolina. Several dozen people were killed by “Florence” and the aftermath of the storm.
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