Devastation in Florida, flooding elsewhere — WHAT'S HAPPENING

The most powerful hurricane on record to hit Florida's Panhandle left wide destruction and at least two people dead and wasn't almost finished Thursday as it crossed Georgia, now as a tropical storm, toward the Carolinas, that are still reeling from epic flooding by Hurricane Florence.

"As Hurricane Michael continues its destructive path through the Panhandle and leaves our state, we're turning 100 percent of our effort on search and rescue and recovery", Florida Gov. Rick Scott said in a press conference.

So far, Coast Guard crews in Florida have rescued 40 people and assisted 232. Some areas remain out of reach to authorities.

"Please don't come down", Linda Albrecht said.

More than 370,000 people in Florida were ordered to evacuate but officials believe many ignored the warning. The town of 1,200 people was largely leveled, as it was hit by 155 miles an hour (250 kilometers an hour) winds and a storm surge of 9 feet (2.7 meters) from the category 4 hurricane.

As Republican Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted: "Mexico Beach is an old old #Florida town".

Receding floodwater are just starting to reveal the extent of damage.

Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center in hard-hit Panama City, 32 km northwest of Mexico Beach, was treating some of the injured. Cars started floating by, debris tunneled through the air, then the water. All the stores, all the restaurants, everything.

A house in Mexico Beach was picked up and moved a football field length and turned over on its side.

"It sounded like a freight train coming through", she said.

She chokes up talking about it.

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If you were not able to call and donate, you can go to the Red Cross' website and make a donation online.

The students and staff at Jinks Middle School have dealt with disaster before.

This time, the Panama City school was ripped apart by Michael. But at this point, there's really no making sense. The debris was a problem in many coastal communities and still hundreds of thousands of people were also left without power. Scientists say global warming is responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme weather, such as storms, droughts, floods and fires. "I've gotten over 100 messages from people asking me to check on their family members' house because they haven't heard from them since noon (Wednesday)".

"Why people didn't evacuate is something we should be studying", said Craig Fugate, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a former Florida state emergency management chief.

Winds have knocked out power to more than 900,000 homes and businesses across Florida, Alabama, the Carolinas and Georgia.

As Michael plows northward up the Atlantic seaboard, the governors of North and SC urged residents to brace for more heavy rain and storm-force winds.

A 38-year old man died when a large tree fell on his vehicle on Highway 64, East of Statesville, North Carolina, Iredell County Fire Marshall David Souther said.

Marciano was assessing the damage to a home with a local resident who said that when the ceiling collapsed, "four kittens came down with it".

"This is total devastation", she told CNN. Unlike many storms, which form off the coast of Africa, Michael organized in the Caribbean, giving forecasters less time to track it before it made landfall. The planet has warmed significantly over the past several decades, causing changes in the environment. We'll update this story as more information becomes available.

It also brought the dangers of a life-threatening storm surge.