Florida’s governor mobilized National Guard troops and thousands of Gulf Coast residents were ordered evacuated on Oct. 8, two days before Hurricane Michael was forecast to slam ashore with life-threatening waves, winds and rains.
Michael was packing sustained winds of up to 85 miles per hour (140 kph) and gaining strength as it skirted past Cuba’s western tip en route to a likely landfall on Oct. 10 as the most powerful storm to strike the Florida Panhandle in at least a decade.
