Iran press/ America: Hurricane Michael, which hit the Florida Panhandle as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of up to 155mph, left thousands of people reported missing as it moved eastward away from the US coast.
Just under 750,000 people were without power in the affected areas from Florida through to Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, according USA Today.
On Saturday search and rescue teams used cadaver dogs, drones and heavy equipment to hunt for survivors in the rubble. One body was recovered in Mexico Beach, Florida, as volunteers went door-to-door checking homes.
In Panama City a looter was shot dead by a state fire marshal after trying to steal a police car.
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About 4,000 members of Florida’s national guard have been called up to deal with the storm and nearly 2,000 law-enforcement officials have been sent into the Panhandle.
Rescue teams made up mostly of off-duty police officers and firefighters said they had found more than 520 of the 2,100 reported missing since Michael crashed ashore near Mexico Beach.
Hurricane Michael was one of the most intense storms to make landfall in America in decades, and estimates indicate that damages could range from anywhere between $4.5bn and $8bn (£3.4bn to £6bn).
In Mexico Beach and Panama City Beach, Florida – communities that felt the worst of the storm – entire neighbourhoods were torn down after the storm smashed through the area, leaving behind rubble and the occasional home or business that somehow survived. Further inland and away from the worst of it, however, roofs were still torn to shreds and communities hit hard.
Nearly 300 people were said to have defied evacuation orders in Mexico Beach, a town of 1,000. It was not clear if any of them managed to get out at the last minute, or if they had survived the devastation of the storm.
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