Man and girl killed as record-breaking Hurricane Michael brings devastation

The most powerful hurricane on record to hit Florida’s Panhandle has left widespread destruction and at least two people dead as it crossed Georgia toward the Carolinas.

A man was killed by a tree falling on a Florida home and an 11-year-old girl died after a car port was picked up by the wind and came down on her house in south-west Georgia.

Search and rescue crews have been escalating efforts to reach the hardest-hit areas and check for anyone trapped or injured in the storm debris.

Downgraded to a tropical storm early on Thursday over south-central Georgia, it continued to weaken but was still menacing the south east with heavy rain, blustery winds and possible spin-off tornadoes.

Damage in Panama City near where Michael came ashore on Wednesday afternoon was so extensive that broken and uprooted trees and downed power lines lay nearly everywhere.

Roofs were peeled away and homes were split open by fallen trees, while more than 380,000 homes and businesses were without power at the height of the storm.

Vance Beu, 29, was staying with his mother at her home, Spring Gate Apartments, a complex of single-story wood frame buildings where they piled up mattresses around themselves for protection.

“It was terrifying, honestly. There was a lot of noise. We thought the windows were going to break at any time,” Mr Beu said.

Sally Crown rode out Michael on the Florida Panhandle thinking at first that the worst damage was the many trees downed in her yard. But after the storm passed, she emerged to check on the cafe she manages and discovered a scene of breathtaking destruction.

“It’s absolutely horrendous. Catastrophic,” Ms Crown said. “There’s flooding. Boats on the highway. A house on the highway. Houses that have been there forever are just shattered.”

Governor Rick Scott announced that thousands of law enforcement officers, utility crews and search and rescue teams would now go into recovery mode.

“Hurricane Michael cannot break Florida,” Mr Scott vowed.

Michael sprang quickly from a weekend tropical depression, going from a Category 2 on Tuesday to a Category 4 by the time it came ashore.

It forced more than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast to evacuate as it gained strength quickly while crossing the eastern Gulf of Mexico toward north Florida.

Based on its internal barometric pressure, Michael was the third most powerful hurricane to hit the US mainland, behind the unnamed Labour Day storm of 1935 and Camille in 1969.

Based on wind speed, it was the fourth-strongest, behind the Labour Day storm (184 mph), Camille and Andrew in 1992.

It also brought the dangers of a life-threatening storm surge.

In Mexico Beach, with a population of 1,000, the storm shattered homes, leaving floating piles of lumber.

“We are in new territory,” National Hurricane Centre Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen wrote on Facebook.

“The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida panhandle.”

Four pine trees had crashed through the roof of her apartment, nearly hitting two people, and her one-year-old Siamese cat, Molly, was missing.

“We haven’t seen her since the tree hit the den. She’s my baby,” Ms O’Brien said.