Hurricane Michael, on the brink of Category 3, churns toward Florida Panhandle
MIAMI — Florida's Panhandle could begin feeling tropical storm conditions as early as Tuesday night as a strengthening Hurricane Michael churns across the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday, headed for a Wednesday landfall along the northeastern Gulf Coast.
In an 11 a.m. update on Tuesday, National Hurricane Center forecasters said Michael's maximum winds have reached 110 mph, the top of the Category 2 scale. It was expected to pick up more power as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico and slam the famed white sand beaches of the Panhandle as a major Category 3 hurricane, pushing potentially deadly storm surge into the coast. The storm was located about 360 miles south of Panama City, the center of the potential landfall zone, moving north 12 mph.
Earlier in the morning, tropical storms warnings spread to the U.S. east coast, from Fernandina Beach, just north of Jacksonville, to South Carolina, as forecasters warned of expanding threats as the storm moves inland.
After it makes landfall, the storm is expected to head across Georgia and the Carolinas, which are still recovering from widespread flooding from a slow-moving Hurricane Florence last month. Heavy rain could trigger the same kind of dangerous flash flooding in the Big Bend, Panhandle, Georgia and South Carolina, forecasters said.
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