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Hurricane Michael death toll hits 17

Three days after the devastating passage of Hurricane Michael, search teams in Florida pressed their hunt for victims into hard-to-reach areas as the death toll rose to 17 and officials scrambled to deliver aid to those who lost everything.

The mammoth storm, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm on Wednesday, claimed lives in four states, but the Sunshine State suffered the worst damage by far.

Large part of the state’s panhandle were pulverized by the strong winds and rain, and eight storm-related deaths have been reported in Florida so far.

“Mexico Beach is devastated,” Governor Rick Scott said of the town hardest hit by the hurricane, the most powerful to hit the United States in decades.

“It’s like a war zone,” he said while touring the town of 1,000 people on the Gulf of Mexico.

Rescue teams with sniffer dogs were searching for possible victims buried under the rubble in the debris-strewn community.

Brock Long, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), warned that the death toll could yet rise.

Hurricane Michael,

“I hope we don’t see it climb dramatically but I have reasons to believe we still haven’t got into some of the hardest-hit areas,” he said.

Government and private relief centres were opening up to provide badly needed food, water and other aid to people whose lives had been upended by the monster storm.

In Mexico Beach, dozens of structures — homes, shops and restaurants — were lifted off their foundations by storm surge and winds of 250km/h.

President Donald Trump said he planned to visit Florida and Georgia early next week, tweeting, “We are working very hard on every area and every state that was hit — we are with you!”

The Pentagon said about 5,000 US servicemen were deployed to help with relief and recovery efforts, using 100 helicopters and 1,800 high-water vehicles.

Tyndall Air Force Base, home to F-22 stealth fighters, suffered extensive damage, according to aerial photos of the coastal facility.

Source: News24