飓风“迈克尔”当地时间12日晨离开美国本土重返大西洋，美国东南沿海部分灾区受创严重。
综合美国媒体12日报道，在佛罗里达、佐治亚等美国东南部和东部多个州，至少17人死于这场风灾，其中4名弗吉尼亚州居民被风灾所致洪水卷走。美国联邦紧急事务管理局局长布罗克·朗格12日说，预期死亡人数将继续攀升。
当天，迈阿密消防部门负责人约瑟夫·扎赫罗本说，搜救人员在飓风登陆地点“墨西哥滩”及其附近发现多名遇难者遗体，具体数字尚待统计，搜救人员正在确认死者身份。
据报道，“墨西哥滩”是一个约有1200名居民的旅游小镇，被“迈克尔”几乎彻底夷为废墟，难觅完好建筑。小镇当局预计，小镇需要一年到一年半时间清理重建，呼吁在飓风来临前疏散的居民另觅栖身之地，短期内不要返回家园。
除“墨西哥滩”外，佛罗里达州北部沿海地区还有一些城镇遍地瓦砾，另有城镇因道路不通，救援人员尚未进入，受灾情况不详。风灾后，佛罗里达州救援部门收到数以千计询问亲友下落的电话。由于大片受灾地区手机服务中断，许多灾区居民一时无法与外界联系。
位于佛罗里达州的美军廷德尔空军基地也在风灾中遭受重创，飞机库顶棚被掀飞，停车场车辆被掀翻，一架用于展示的战斗机机翼被吹折。不过，在飓风来临前，大部分战机已转飞其他基地。
此外，在佐治亚州，大片棉花、花生、蔬菜等作物被毁。在弗吉尼亚州，“迈克尔”带来暴雨如注，洪水淹没了许多城镇和道路。
自10日登陆后，“迈克尔”总计导致260万家庭和企业用户电力供应中断。至12日，仍有逾100万家庭和企业用户断电，一些重灾区预期需时数周才能恢复供电。
“迈克尔”登陆美国本土前，在约40个小时内由热带风暴连续升级至四级飓风，速度之快导致许多灾区居民未能及时疏散。美国有线电视新闻网援引美国国家海洋和大气管理局报道说，这可能反映出气候变化对风暴的影响，人为因素导致的温室气体积聚在大气层中，造成能量失衡。如果不控制温室气体排放，未来飓风灾害可能更加严重。
“迈克尔”是有记录以来美国本土遭受到的第三大飓风和最强10月飓风，也是一个月来登陆美国本土的第二场飓风。9月中旬，一级飓风“弗洛伦斯”登陆美国东海岸，掠过北卡罗来纳州和南卡罗来纳州，洪水淹没大片地区，造成至少51人丧生。
Hurricane Michael, which has so far killed at least 17 people across four US states, threatened to wipe a Florida beach town off the map, according to officials who described the devastating storm as the “mother of all bombs.”
The Category 4 hurricane, one of the strongest in US history, made landfall on Wednesday, battering Florida’s northwest coast near Mexico Beach with winds of 250 kph. The storm fell just 3 kph short of a top-level Category 5 but ravaged entire neighborhoods before moving out to the sea on Friday.
Aerial images of Mexico Beach before and after Hurricane Michael passed through, released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), offer a stark look at how there’s nothing left in some parts of the beach town where houses once stood.
Photos via NOAA
Mexico Beach, where Hurricane Michael unleashed its most violent rains and winds, hasn’t reported any deaths yet, but rescuers are still rummaging through the devastated area. They “still haven’t got to some of the hardest-hit areas,” BBC quoted emergency management officials as saying.
The storm has left more than one million homes without power in the southeastern US states of Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, and the North and South Carolinas.
Photos via NOAA
Florida Governor Rick Scott visited Mexico Beach on Friday for the first time since Michael made landfall.
“The city has been devastated – it’s like a bomb went off. It’s like a war zone,” Scott told AFP. “Lots of stuff is unstable, so I want everyone to be cautious.” While food and water distribution is well underway, “we continue to have needs, and I expect the federal government to do their job,” he added.
“The mother of all bombs doesn’t do any more damage than this,” Tom Bailey, the former mayor of Mexico Beach, told The New York Times.
Photos via NOAA
‘It’s going to be a fight’
Since late Friday, residents have been taking stock of the damage, reuniting with their loved ones, and bracing for what will be a long, difficult clean-up operation.
Some came Friday with vans or moving trucks, hoping to recover as many personal effects from their splintered homes as they could. Others came with nothing – as there is nothing left to save.
Charles Smith, 57, has run the beachfront Gulf View Motel for 34 years. Now, it stands in ruins.
The facade was destroyed, the windows shattered. Three beach houses on stilts plowed into the building.
Men recover furniture from their damaged houses in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, in Mexico Beach, Florida, US, October 12, 2018. /VCG Photo
“I couldn’t open the back door because of water. Wind came in, knocked the windows off – the refrigerator is now stuck in the bathroom,” Smith told AFP, surveying the horrendous mess.
But the hotelier said he is determined to get back on his feet.
“Maybe FEMA will help me out – I would appreciate that,” he said, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“I’m going to get my business back, get an architect, go to city planning – maybe I get my motel back within two years. It’s going to take three to six months just to get electricity in here,” he predicted. “It’s going to be a fight.”
A general view of the damage caused by Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Florida, October 12, 2018. /VCG Photo
Emergency crews have set up a temporary cell phone tower to help residents cut off by Michael’s fury.
Firefighters, rescuers, personnel from Florida and other states, and FEMA have set up a task force headquarters in the seaside community and have split up responsibility for the area into different search zones.
From first light on Friday, excavators and dump trucks cleared roads to allow traffic, specifically aid convoys, to get through.
But a bridge was washed out between the city and Port St. Joe to the southeast, making it impossible to get there via coastal roads.
‘Take what you need’
Aerial photo shows homes destroyed after Hurricane Michael smashed into Florida’s northwest coast in Mexico Beach, Florida, US, October 11, 2018. /VCG Photo
Further down the beach from the Gulf View Motel, a local supermarket is beyond repair, its doors smashed in. Locals are helping themselves to snacks, cigarettes and even bottles of booze.
One young woman, who asked not to be identified, said the owners told residents to help themselves.
“‘Take what you need but only what you need,’ they said,” the woman told AFP, a bottle of liquor in her hand. “This is all we need right now.”
Bob Tenbrunson, a retiree, fled his home in Mexico Beach before Michael hit, taking shelter in nearby Panama City with his wife at their daughter’s home.
After seeing the damage, he set about fixing what he could.
An American flag flies among rubble left in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Florida, US, October 11, 2018. /VCG
Tenbrunson, his hands dirty from clearing away debris, said he had spent his life savings and his retirement pension on his home here.
“I can’t sell it now so I just have to be hopeful that (the city) will be rebuilt and fixed,” he said. “I just can’t imagine how it is going to look. Several of our nice restaurants in town are no longer there.”
Tenbrunson admitted he was not meant to be in town – emergency personnel have asked residents to stay away to allow the sniffer dogs to hunt through the debris for victims.
“This is really a beach town – no high-rise buildings. It makes me sad,” he admitted with a sigh.
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