Iran Press- America/ The terrifying Category 4 hurricane was packing maximum sustained winds of 240 km/h when it crashed ashore near Mexico Beach, a lightly populated tourist town about midway along the Panhandle.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) described Michael as "potentially catastrophic." Debris was strewn across miles of Florida's coastline: roofs and awnings peeled back from buildings, pieces of homes scattered amid snapped trees and downed power lines, chunks of beaches washed away.
As of 2 a.m. EDT Thursday, Michael was about 40 kilometers east of Macon, Georgia, packing maximum sustained winds of 100 km/h.
Nearly 30 million people in the Southeast were in its cross-hairs. Forecasters said strong winds and rains would thrash Georgia and North and South Carolina, including areas that got a drenching last month from Hurricane Florence.
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Tropical Storm Michael continued to peter out over eastern Georgia early Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said.
The NHC says, "On the forecast track, the center of Michael will move through eastern Georgia into central South Carolina on Thursday morning, then moves across portions of central and eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia into the Atlantic Ocean by late tonight or early Friday."
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