Michael Hurricane: Death toll rises to least 29, hundreds missing

The death toll from Hurricane Michael rose to at least 29 on Tuesday as crews scoured debris for hundreds of people reported missing in the Florida Panhandle, nearly a week after the storm flattened whole communities.

Michael slammed into the northwest coastal strip of Florida last Wednesday with top sustained winds of 155 miles per hour (250 km per hour), unleashing a surge of seawater that demolished homes.

One of the most powerful storms ever to hit the continental United States, it has killed 20 people in the Florida Panhandle, five in Virginia, three in North Carolina and one in Georgia, according to a Reuters tally of official reports.

Matthew Marchetti, co-founder of Houston-based CrowdSource Rescue, which had hundreds of volunteers on the ground, said he expects the death toll to rise as phone service is restored and roads are cleared.

“For every one person we have made contact with, there are probably three we haven’t,” Marchetti said.

Teams from the volunteer organization were searching for more than 1,135 people in Florida who lost contact with friends and family.

Debris and downed trees and power lines have hampered access to stranded people but the group has said a number of its missing person reports resulted from widespread phone and power outages.

Most of those missing are from Panama City and many are elderly, disabled, impoverished, or live alone, Marchetti said.

“The hardest hit in disasters are generally our most vulnerable populations,” Marchetti said.

In nearby Mexico Beach, another hard-hit coastal town on the Florida Panhandle where rescue workers were using dogs to look for bodies buried in debris, the number of people missing dropped to three on Tuesday, said Rex Putnal, a city councillor. A day earlier, it was more than 30.

Nearly 190,000 homes and businesses remained without power in the U.S. Southeast, with residents of battered coastal towns forced to cook on fires and barbecue grills.

At least 80 percent of customers in three mainly rural Panhandle counties were without electricity on Tuesday. Officials said it could be weeks before power returns to some.he death toll from Hurricane Michael rose to at least 29 on Tuesday as crews scoured debris for hundreds of people reported missing in the Florida Panhandle, nearly a week after the storm flattened whole communities.