Reporters from a local news station were streaming live as Hurricane Michael hit the Florida Panhandle on Oct. 10.
Update as of 1:55 p.m.: It appears the stream died.
News4Jax has a reporter streaming from the storm, which has 155 mph winds and is nearing Category 5 strength. Weather forecasters reported that the storm has 155 mph winds, and a Category 5 storm is 157 mph.
The reporters are stationed at Panama City Beach in a several-story building.
On Facebook live, Justin Barsabias Watson was streaming live from his house, showing a door almost being broken down due to the storm’s winds.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center
wrote at 1 p.m. that “the eye of Hurricane Michael ... is moving toward the north-northeast near 14 mph (22 km/h). A turn toward the northeast is expected this afternoon or tonight. A motion toward the northeast at a faster forward speed is forecast on Thursday through Friday night. On the forecast track, the core of Michael will move inland across the Florida Panhandle this afternoon, and across southeastern Alabama and southwestern Georgia tonight. Michael will move northeastward across the southeastern United States through Thursday night, and then move off the Mid-Atlantic coast away from the United States on Friday.”
Officials said, “Recent data from NOAA and Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that maximum sustained winds have increased to near 155 mph (250 km/h) with higher gusts. Michael is an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Michael should weaken as it crosses the southeastern United States. Michael is forecast to become a post-tropical cyclone on Friday, and strengthening is forecast as the system moves over the western Atlantic.”
Bo Patterson, mayor of Port St. Joe, said about 2,500 of the town’s 3,500 people were still there, including about 100 in a beachside area who did not follow a mandatory evacuation order. The two bridges leading out of Port St. Joe were closed, meaning no one could get out now. “People are finally getting it, that this is going to be pretty strong,” Patterson told
Reuters. “This happened so quickly, we weren’t exactly prepared.”
