At Least 2 Dead, Including Child, After Hurricane Michael Slams Florida & Weakens Over Georgia

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Hurricane Michael has left at least two people dead, including a child, after entering Florida with 155 mph winds on Wednesday.

A 11-year-old girl in Seminole County, Georgia, was killed around 3 pm local time on Wednesday by a tree falling on a mobile home, the Tallahassee Democrat and The Washington Post reported. First responders weren't able to reach the home until Wednesday night.

The Seminole County Emergency Management director did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

Reports of the girl's death follow news that a man in his mid-40s died when a tree fell on his house in Greensboro, Florida, on Wednesday. Olivia Smith, a spokeswoman for Gadsden County Sheriff's Department, told PEOPLE that authorities received a call at around 6 pm local time about a “debris situation where debris fell on the gentleman's home.”

"The county issued a state of emergency on Tuesday, constantly encouraging people to evacuate prior to the storm," Smith added. "Once people decide to leave after the storm has already hit - it's already too late."

Hurricane Michael started in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane. By Thursday, the now-tropical storm was packing reduced 50 mph winds over eastern Georgia, CBS News reported.

About 664,000 homes and businesses have lost power due to the storm.

The National Hurricane Center warned on Twitter, "Strong winds, heavy rain, and tornadoes are expected across portions of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina today." Southeastern Virginia is also at risk of "life-threatening flash flooding."

North Carolina is still recovering from Hurricane Florence, the ferocious September storm that killed at least 39 people.

Michael Graham, the National Hurricane Center's director, labeled the Michael weather event a “history-making, very devastating storm and one that we're never going to forget,” according to NBC News.

Sally Crown experienced the storm on the Florida Panhandle. “It's absolutely horrendous. Catastrophic,”she said, according to ABC13. “There's flooding. Boats on the highway. A house on the highway. Houses that have been there forever are just shattered.”