Hurricane Michael, the third-most powerful ever to strike the US mainland, has battered the Florida's Gulf coast with roof-shredding winds, raging surf and torrential rains before it was downgraded to a tropical storm.
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Michael, whose rapid intensification as it churned north over the Gulf of Mexico caught many by surprise, made landfall on Thursday (AEDT) near Mexico Beach, about 32km southeast of Panama City in Florida's Panhandle region, with top sustained winds reaching 249km/h.
The fiercest storm to hit Florida in 80 years came ashore as a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson wind scale, the biggest storm on record to strike the Florida Panhandle. Its sustained winds were just 3.2km/h shy of an extremely rare Category 5.
The storm's intensity waned steadily as it pushed inland and curled northeasterly into Georgia.
The governors of North and South Carolina urged residents to brace for more heavy rain and storm-force winds as Michael ploughs northward up the Atlantic seaboard. The Carolinas are still reeling from severe flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence less than a month ago.
The National Hurricane Centre said Michael would pass through the Carolinas on Thursday, dumping as much as 8 inches of rain in some areas. Up to 30cm of rain was forecast in Florida.
Gadsden County sheriff's spokeswoman Anglie Hightower said a "male subject" was killed by a tree toppling onto his house in Greensboro, Florida, near the state capital, Tallahassee, in the first report of a fatality from the hurricane.
Severe flooding, heavily damaged buildings, uprooted trees and downed power lines appeared widespread in coastal areas near the storm's landfall.
Television news footage during the day showed many homes submerged in floodwaters up to their roofs in Mexico Beach, where the fate of about 280 residents who authorities said defied evacuation orders was unknown.
Numerous buildings in Panama City were demolished, partially collapsed or without roofs amid deserted streets littered with debris, twisted, fallen tree trunks and dangling wires.
Authorities said the full extent of devastation would not be known until after daybreak on Thursday (Friday AEDT). In the meantime, curfews were imposed across much of the region.
By Wednesday night, more than 403,000 homes and businesses were without electricity in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, utility companies said.
Twenty miles south of Mexico Beach, floodwaters were more than 2.3 metres deep near Apalachicola, a town of about 2,300 residents, hurricane centre chief Ken Graham said. Wind damage was also evident.
"There are so many downed powerlines and trees that it's almost impossible to get through the city," Apalachicola Mayor Van Johnson said.
US President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency for all of Florida, freeing up federal assistance to supplement state and local disaster responses.
About 3,500 Florida National Guard troops were deployed to assist with evacuations and storm recovery, along with more than 1,000 search-and-rescue personnel, Governor Rick Scott said.
The Pentagon said it had pre-positioned more than 2,200 active-duty military personnel, along with helicopters, high-water vehicles and swift-water boats for deployment as needed.
Even before landfall, the hurricane disrupted energy operations in the Gulf, cutting crude oil production by more than 40 per cent and natural gas output by nearly a third as offshore platforms were evacuated ahead of the storm's arrival.
Australian Associated Press
