Three days after Hurricane Michael unleashed its wrath in the Florida Panhandle, residents in some of the hardest hit areas are growing desperate for food and water.
The storm that smacked Florida’s Panhandle was one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the United States, leaving a trail of destruction stretching as far as Virginia.
Meanwhile in Georgia, officials are receiving reports that 84 chicken houses — estimated to hold more than 2 million chickens — were destroyed in the storm which also caused severe damage to pecan, cotton, vegetable and peanut crops.
I was picking three bale cotton (this week); today it is gone,” cotton farmer and state Rep. Clay Pirkle said.
The 44-year-old is among at least 17 who have died since Hurricane Michael made landfall on Wednesday.
Eight people, including Sweet, have died in Florida.
Five people died in Virginia.
The front door of Bay Medical Sacred Heart in Panama City was boarded up Friday and water service hadn’t been restored but a handmade sign directed patients to the emergency room, which remains operational.
The hurricane-force winds were so powerful that they lifted the roof on the hospital’s tower where most of the patients were, and water poured into the facility.
The hospital is staying open receiving patients in an emergency room that is running on generator power.