Michael, the Hurricane

Ken AshfordDisasters, Local Interest, WeatherLeave a Comment

Unlike Florence, which seemed to take her sweet time coming to the mainlaind, Michael just kind of sprang up in the past few days. It was a tropical depression in the Gulf Of Mexico, and very quickly moved to a Category 3.  Today, as it makes landfall, it is a Category 4.

Here’s the latest:

• The hurricane is expected to be the strongest recorded storm to make landfall on the Panhandle. “This will be a catastrophic event the likes of which this region has never seen,” the National Weather Service office in Tallahassee, Fla., warned.

• The storm was about 65 miles south-southwest of Panama City, Fla., as of 10 a.m., moving toward the coast at 13 m.p.h., according to the National Hurricane Center

• The eye of Michael is expected to make landfall in the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday afternoon, tracking northeast across Georgia and the Carolinas on Thursday before moving off the Mid-Atlantic coast on Friday.

• Weather forecasters and government officials are particularly worried about a storm surge, which they said could reach 13 feet in some areas, in a relatively flat region that is particularly vulnerable to it.

• Flash flooding is also a concern. The Florida Panhandle and Big Bend region, southeast Alabama and parts of Georgia could receive four to eight inches of rain, with some spots getting as much as a foot.

• Governors in three states — Florida, Alabama and Georgia — have declared states of emergency, with mandatory evacuations in effect in coastal areas across the Florida Panhandle.

It will hit North Carolina tomorrow evening.

I have Hamilton tickets.

Updates throughout today below:

Fuck. And they are saying that it is still strengthening

Crap, the live images!

3rd Strongest Storm ever.  The strongest storm in 50 years (since Camille)

UPDATE:  Make that the 2nd strongest storm ever.  It was 1 mph shy of a Category 5