Survivors scramble for food and water in the wake of Hurricane Michael; death toll rises to 17

Three days after Hurricane Michael unleashed its wrath on the Florida Panhandle, responders are still searching rubble for people trapped or dead, and residents in some of the hardest-hit areas are growing desperate for food and water.

Long lines have formed outside fire stations, schools and Salvation Army food trucks as people try to secure anything, from bottled water to ready-to-eat and hot meals.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott tweeted Saturday that millions of meals and gallons of water are on the way to the affected communities.

The death toll from Michael has risen to at least 17, and nearly 900,000 customers remain without power in seven states. The storm that smacked the Panhandle was one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the United States, leaving a trail of destruction stretching as far as Virginia.

The number of people missing in Florida is unclear. In Panama City alone, the fire department has received more than 200 calls asking it to check on people there, but the department hasn't had the resources to do so for all of them, Panama City Fire Chief Alex Baird said.

In the virtually leveled oceanside town of Mexico Beach, search-and-rescue crews made two passes through the rubble and intended to continue searching Saturday.

About 280 of the town's 1,200 residents had indicated they intended to ride out the storm, but several of those likely fled at the last minute when the approaching storm's devastating strength became clear, Mayor Al Cathey said. At least one person -- an elderly man -- has been found dead there, and it's unclear how many are missing.

Cathey said he's been told it could take two months to restore power.

"Seventy-five percent of our city is not here (destroyed)," he said. "There's not one local business that's operational."

Sitting in a red pickup just steps away from her damaged home, Gayle Sweet recalled the last moments she shared with her husband.

"I told him, 'Hold on, just hold on, I'm calling for help now,' " she told CNN affiliate WFTS on Thursday, sobbing.

Her husband, Steven, was killed when an oak tree smashed their home in Gretna, Florida, and landed on top of him. The 44-year-old was among at least 17 who have died since Hurricane Michael made landfall Wednesday.

Hours after the storm left her home in ruins, Gayle Sweet refused to leave. Her husband's body was still trapped in the rubble.

"Hopefully they (emergency crews) will be here soon. I'm not going anywhere until they bring him out," she said.

At least eight people, including Sweet, have died in Florida. An 11-year-old girl died in Georgia when a carport came crashing through the roof. Two out of the three people who were killed in North Carolina died when their vehicle struck a tree that had fallen because of high winds, said Adrienne Jones, deputy director for the McDowell County Emergency Medical Services.

Five people died in Virginia. Four drowned, and the fifth, a firefighter, was killed when a tractor-trailer lost control and hit his truck on a wet highway in Hanover County.

In Georgia, officials are receiving reports that 84 chicken houses -- estimated to hold more than 2 million chickens -- were destroyed in the storm, which also caused severe damage to pecan, cotton, vegetable and peanut crops.

"For me, the cotton crop is as bad as it gets. I was picking three bale cotton (this week); today it is gone," cotton farmer and state Rep. Clay Pirkle said. "Can't tell the difference between what I've picked and what I haven't."

After evacuating hundreds of patients, hospitals heavily damaged during Michael are still finding ways to help those in need.

The front door of Bay Medical Sacred Heart in Panama City was boarded up Friday, and water service hadn't been restored, but a handmade sign directed patients to the emergency room, which remains operational.

The hurricane-force winds were so powerful that they lifted the roof on the hospital's tower, where most of the patients were, and water poured into the facility. About 1,500 people, including doctors, nurses and patients, rode out the storm.

"It was a very scary few hours of howling winds, windows blowing in, crashing roofs, ceilings collapsing, but patients being cared for throughout all of it," said Amir Haghighat, a cardiologist with the Cardiovascular Institute of Northwest Florida who works at Bay Medical.

Hundreds of patients were taken Friday to hospitals across Florida and as far away as Mobile, Alabama, in a parade of ambulances and medical helicopters. The Panama City hospital is staying open receiving patients in an emergency room running on generator power.

In the wake of Hurricane Michael, local journalists in the Florida Panhandle are working in incredibly difficult conditions.

Panama City's two biggest TV stations, ABC affiliate WMBB and NBC affiliate WJHG, have been off the air for days. During Wednesday's broadcast, one of the last things viewers heard was a reporter saying, "It sounds like a train is coming over the roof of the TV station. The whole building is shaking."

WMBB general manager Terry Cole said his staff worked and slept at a next-door church Wednesday into Thursday. They've set up chairs and cameras in the parking lot and produced their newscasts from there.

The daily paper, the Panama City News Herald, still has no power. Cleanup crews were present when a CNN crew stopped by Friday. But the office was pretty much empty -- the journalists were all out reporting stories.

Michael's strength may reflect the effect of climate change on storms. The planet has warmed significantly over the past several decades, causing changes in the environment.

According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, human-caused greenhouse gases in the atmosphere create an energy imbalance, with more than 90% of remaining heat trapped by the gases going into the oceans.

While there might not be more storms in a warmer climate, most studies show storms will get stronger and produce more rain. Storm surge is worse now than it was 100 years ago, thanks to the rise in sea levels.

The scientific research group Climate Central says unless the rate of greenhouse gas emissions changes, hurricanes are expected to intensify more rapidly in the coming decades.

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