Hurricane Michael: One year later

FLORIDA — A year ago today, Michael became the strongest hurricane ever to hit the Florida Panhandle, and the first Category 5 storm to make landfall in the United States since Andrew in 1992.

On Oct. 7, 2018, Michael upgraded to a tropical storm over the extreme northwest Caribbean, then hit the Panhandle as a Cat. 5 about 72 hours, or three days later.

It made landfall to the immediate west of Mexico Beach – a community nearly completely destroyed.

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East of Panama City to Tyndall to Mexico Beach to Port St. Joe saw the greatest damage.

There was also significant damage well inland through the Panhandle and into southwest and central Georgia.

Michael has since retired from the Atlantic list of names. It's the third straight year the "M" name has been retired: Matthew in 2016 and  Maria in 2017.

Cox Media Group