(Video: CBS News)
(CNN)(Breaking news update at 3 p.m.) Three additional deaths have been linked to Hurricane Michael, bringing the death toll from the storm to five.
Four people have died in Gadsden County, Florida. Authorities said a man died after a tree fell on a home. The sheriff’s department has not released details on the county’s three other storm-related deaths.
Previously, officials in Seminole County, Georgia, said a metal carport hoisted by the wind crashed through a roof, hitting a girl’s head and killing her.
What used to be a gorgeous beachfront city now looks like an apocalyptic mess after Hurricane Michael shredded Mexico Beach, Florida.
“Mexico Beach was wiped out,” said Brock Long, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “That’s probably ground zero.”
Much of Mexico Beach is in ruins Thursday after Michael’s landfall a day earlier.
Michael made landfall Wednesday near Mexico Beach as monstrous Category 4 hurricane, annihilating homes with its 155-mph winds.
“First the cars started floating by, and all the debris was in the air,” Mexico Beach resident Scott said. “When the water came in, houses started floating in front of our home.”
He spoke with CNN’s Brooke Baldwin live on air Thursday, in front of a home that was pushed onto its side.
When Scott got back to his own house, he discovered “we had furniture in our house that wasn’t our furniture. The surge had brought stuff in so bad, the walls collapsed — the only thing I could find of ours was my briefcase.”
As he looked around, a new reality set in:
“Our lives are gone here. All the stores all the restaurants, everything. There’s nothing left here anymore.”
Kathy Coy looks at the remains of her Panama City home Thursday after Hurricane Michael destroyed it.
Other catastrophic scenes have emerged across the Florida Panhandle, where Michael left more than 350,000 without power and entire neighborhoods in ruins.
In the decimated city of Callaway, obliterated houses litter rain-drenched roads. Every telephone pole in sight is snapped in half.
“It’s very hard to explain,” said Jason Gunderson, a member of the Cajun Navy rescue group. “The only way I can explain it, through my eyeballs, is a Third World country war zone.”
Residents said almost all homes in a Panama City mobile home park were damaged.
The storm has already killed a man in Florida and a girl in Georgia. And as rescue workers sift through the debris Thursday, many fear the death toll will rise.
After slamming Florida and lashing Georgia, Michael is now threatening the storm-weary Carolinas. Tornadoes, dangerous winds and more flooding are possible in many of the same areas still recovering from Hurricane Florence.
