PANAMA CITY, Fla. _ Morning light Thursday offered a fresh look at the devastation that Hurricane Michael brought to Florida's Panhandle, where hundreds of thousands of people lost power and communities were devastated by the storm's intense winds and coastal floods.
At least two people in the region were reported killed by trees that fell on their homes after Michael's hurricane-force winds pummeled the area.
Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott said a "massive" effort was underway to clear roads that had been blocked by fallen trees, branches and power lines, hampering the ground response as aerial and water rescue crews made contact with hard-to-reach areas devastated by the storm.
Tyndall Air Force Base took a "direct hit" from Michael's Category 4 hurricane winds of up to 155 mph, which caused significant structural damage and left the runway's use still in question, Air Force officials said in a statement. The base had been evacuated before the storm and no injuries were reported.
After initially maintaining hurricane strength while barreling inland through Georgia, Michael had weakened to tropic storm status by Thursday morning while churning northeast over South Carolina with maximum winds of 50 mph.
The storm was on track to make an expected exit into the Atlantic Ocean by Friday morning, with some parts of Virginia and North Carolina expected to see as much as nine inches of rain, bringing the likelihood for dangerous flooding.
But Michael's quick progress means it won't have a chance to trigger the same widespread, epic flooding as past slow-moving hurricanes such as Florence and Harvey, which unleashed seemingly endless rains after stalling and hovering inland.
Some of the most concerning scenes of devastation could be seen in the air base's neighboring coastal communities of Panama City and Mexico Beach.
CNN video taken from a helicopter above Mexico Beach on Thursday morning showed entire blocks of structures that had been washed away by the storm surge that put the community underwater.
A few houses were still standing, though some larger structures had their roofs torn off by the winds. Roads and yards were covered in sand that the waters had brought ashore.
The storm's winds partially demolished some structures in Panama City and stripped off roofs. On Thursday morning, patients were being evacuated from the city's Bay Medical Sacred Heart hospital and Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center.
"Our hospital has sustained damage including windows blown out, cracking of an exterior wall, and roof damage," Bay Medical Sacred Heart wrote in a tweet Wednesday, saying that no patients had been harmed. The facility's evacuees include 39 critical care patients.
The Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center said it planned to keep its emergency room open.
More than 400,000 homes and businesses were reported without power in Florida by late Thursday morning, and some communities were under boil advisories for fear of unsafe water.
Farther inland, Tallahassee city officials were grappling with wind damage that had brought down many of the city's trees, blocking streets and knocking out power.
"The damage to our infrastructure is the most widespread and severe we've ever experienced," city officials wrote in a tweet. "One of our area's most coveted assets, our lush urban forest, was also our greatest vulnerability. Thousands of trees gave way to the tropical storm force winds."
