Hurricane Michael made landfall in Mexico Beach, Florida as a high-end Category 4 storm early Wednesday afternoon — the strongest such storm on record to hit the Florida Panhandle and one of the strongest ever to strike the continental U.S.
Why it matters: This storm has caused catastrophic damage in parts of the Florida Panhandle where the core of the storm first moved ashore. Hurricane Michael will continue to cause damage overnight as it moves through Georgia and into South Carolina, with hundreds of thousands likely losing power. The storm has set milestones even as it moved further inland, becoming the first Category 3 storm to hit Georgia in 120 years (and doing so after it passed through another state, no less).