4 reasons Hurricane Michael was so devastating

Hurricane Michael finally weakened to a tropical storm on Thursday, no longer a Category 4 monster packing 155 miles per hour (250 kph) winds.

Based on its internal barometric pressure, Michael was the third most powerful hurricane to hit the USA mainland, behind the unnamed Labor Day storm of 1935 and Camille in 1969.

Michael was downgraded to a tropical storm as it raced across Georgia late Wednesday night.

According to the National Hurricane Center, the core of Michael will move across central and eastern Georgia Thursday morning, and then over southern and central SC later in the day.

Mark Wallheiser via Getty Images Flood waters hit the Cooter Stew Cafe in Saint Marks, Florida, on October 10, 2018, as Hurricane Michael pushes the storm surge up the Wakulla and Saint Marks rivers, which come together in the town. Scotland says that's hard to predict at this point. He said "aggressive" search and rescue efforts would get underway.

As Hurricane Michael barreled through the Gulf of Mexico toward northwest Florida on Wednesday, risky storm surges had already begun flooding the state's vulnerable coastal communities.

The storm will be making landfall around 2 p.m.

Michael sprang quickly from a weekend tropical depression, going from a Category 2 on Tuesday to a Category 4 by the time it came ashore.

Hurricanes Florence And Michael Highlight Monster Storms' Devastating Differences
The planet has warmed significantly over the past several decades, causing changes in the environment. But many people living in counties farther east in North Central Florida were spared.

"It's hard to convey in words the scale of the catastrophe in Panama City".

Michael began dashing homes into pieces and flooding neighborhoods shortly after crossing near Mexico Beach as a Category 4 storm.

"The more lead time you have, the more prepared you are", Masters said.

That is rarefied air: only three storms have hit the U.S.at Category 5: an unnamed storm that devastated the Florida Keys in 1935; Camille, which hit MS in 1969; and Andrew, which plowed across South Florida in 1992.

A hurricane warning remains in place from the Alabama-Florida border to the Suwannee River in Florida.

Scientists have long warned that global warming will make storms more destructive, and some say the evidence for this may already be visible. The winds ripped off hotel awnings, shattered glass doors, blew down fences and stirred up white caps in swimming pools. It was the strongest storm to hit the continental United States since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

The storm is likely to fire up the debate over global warming. Water seeped into her fourth floor apartment When she dared to look outside, water levels were grazing the fronds of tall palm trees on the beach.

- Top winds: 155 miles per hour (250 kph), strong enough to completely destroy homes and cause weekslong power outages. But without extensive study, they can not directly link a single weather event to the changing climate. Four pine trees had crashed through the roof of her apartment, almost hitting two people. "We haven't seen as robust of an evacuation response from the civilian population that we have seen in other storms".