Hurricane michael is the strongest hurricane on record to strike the panhandle. Its also one of the most powerful to ever hit anywhere in the united states. The winds, horrific. The storm surge, equally catastro catastrophic. Some areas left in ruins. More than half a million homes and businesses without power. Of that, some of those folks could be facing weeks and weeks before its restored. And michael didnt stop there. Now a tropical storm, it roared through georgia and into the care cays. An 11yearold georgia girl is one of two confirmed killed by the storm. Search crews are fanning out today in search of more victims. John berman was there through it all. Hes joining me now. John, you were in the thick of it yesterday. And youre in the middle of it now. What are you seeing . Yeah, im in panama city now, kate. This is where the western eyewall passed over 100mileperhour sustained winds, gusts of 120. Im in what i think was a Conference Room of an Office Building here. You can see the table here. But look up. Look up. Theres no ceiling. The roof was blown clear off this cinder block building. Its just gone. You can see the debris strewn everywhere inside here and through what was some kind of door into a wall. Theres just the outdoors with the furniture and wood and metal and cinder block everywhere. And this is panama city, which did not see the worst of the storm. This was the western eyewall. The center of the storm, as you said, passed over mexico beach. Winds there probably 155 Miles Per Hour. Simply devastating. Our Brooke Baldwin got a chance to see it from the ski. The first helicopter to pass over, and city blocks, complete blocks, just gone. Nearly every home, every dwelling damaged or completely destroyed. Were getting word there is the National Guard on the ground now. Theyre going around, checking for people. There were people who decided to ride it out. There are not many, we think, but maybe a few dozen there on the ground. Were trying to get a sense of the situation there, and brooke is there seeing what she can find out. As of this morning, there were some 500,000 customers without power still in three states, florida, georgia, also alabama, north carolina. That power, theyre working to get it back on. Its going to be slow going. We have seen crews out trying to clear the roads, but theres so much damage here, kate. As you said, its going to take some time to rebuild, in a place like this, the surroundings im in, theyre going to have to start from scratch. Theres nothing salvageable at this point in so many of these buildings. And people now, you know, we had one of the shop owners from the store next door come over and you could hear the crying. Saying everything we had we simply lost. Kate. And john, you spoke with a member of the cajun navy this morning. A volunteer network whos come onsite and has been onsite to help rescue people. The scope and scale of this seems to have even left them speechless. Yeah, really interesting, because i know you have covered the cajun navy before also. This is a group of volunteers that sprout out after hurricane katrina. They travel to scythes where they know there will be devastation and the need for volunteer rescues. I spoke to a member of the cajun navy who was in callaway, florida, between where i am and mexico beach. Also an area very, very hard hit. Listen to him. Listen to not just his words but listen to the tone in his voice. You can see and hear he was struck by the damage. Its very hard to explain. The only way i can explain it through my eyeballs is a thirdworld country war zone. Its beyond recognition and of being repaired. Its survival mode out here, and its very scary. Its very surreal. Its heartbreaking. Surreal, scary, heartbreaking. And thats worse off than where i am. Where i am is panama city, which had it bad. This building is destroyed. Its worse there in callaway and even worse in mexico beach, kate. Absolutely. It is hard to wrap your mind around what we are seeing from these images from the ground where you are and from the air. Thanks, john. I really appreciate it. Its amazing to think what happened in just a 24hour period. Let me check, control room, where are we headed now . All right, so as john was describing, as youre looking at these images of mexico beach, i think its easy to understand that getting in or out of mexico beach right now is nearly impossible. The roads in blocked or washed out. You can only imagine how difficult it is. The cajun navy this morning saying going the distance of something that should be 15 minutes is taking Something Like four hours in certain circumstances. So this morning, cnns Brooke Baldwin was able to get up in a helicopter, to get aboard the helicopter and take a tour of mexico beach to get a view from the air. Heres what she saw. You can see, you know, home after home, what was a home just flattened. So many of the homes im looking at made of wood. And you know, when you think of the sheer force of those hurricane winds clocked at 155 Miles Per Hour, the bulls eye. Chad talked a lot about how the hurricane took that right turn, and this is precisely where it took the turn. Mexico beach is a town about two miles wide by three miles long. Its not huge. But its this quaint little seaside town. About 1,000 people live here year round. And i have no words. I see some people. I see about half a dozen people on the ground. I can see some official emergency vehicles. You know, we wanted to get in. We wanted to because the roads were impassable and you can understand why just by looking at the pictures, we want to land the helicopter and go drive to tell the stories of the few people who did choose to ride this thing out. Fortunately, i think most people heeded the evacuation. It was a mandatory evacuation in this part of the panhandle and most people did leave, but there are more than a dozen people who did decide to hunker down. You cant even tell where the roads are anymore there. Its unbelievable. Let me get to chad myers for more perspective on this. Chad, this is was rojected to be where landfall, where the storm could have make landfall. What happened that led to what looks like a town obliterated . 54 hours before the storm made landfall, the Hurricane Center had it right within five miles of where it landed. Now, they had it at 120 Miles Per Hour and it landed at 155. I get that, but for 54 hours out, missing that by five miles, thats an impressive forecast, let me tell you. What happened . The video sow see here is storm surge, also wind damage, but we know theres more surge involved here because this is a beach town where the very front houses bought the little old houses and put up big houses on stilts. But behind that front row, there are all these ranch homes that have been there for 30, 40, 50 years. The ranch homes are gone. The houses that were on stilts, theyre still there. But honestly, theres probably six houses from the main highway all the way to that front house thats on stilts. Every single one of those ranches that you see there is gone. That tells me that was a water issue. That was a push of water smashing all of those homes and pushing the boards right into the street. In fact, and even into the canal thats not that far to the north of the main highway. So a couple things happened here. The storm itself got a lot bigger than people thought it would. 120 compared to 155. I think i would still get out of there at 120, to be hansest, but you do what you can do and what you can afford to do. The storm did make landfall with the western eyewall in panama city, but the eastern eyewall, the one were always more concerned with, right over mexico beach. Just a little to the north of port st. Joe. So you get the wind and surge and all that, but then it kept going and kept going over to like wewahitchka and all that. That was the area that could see as much damage but not surge damage. Just winds, trees knocked down all the way, to like blountstown, thats the area youll see a lot of damage inland. 20, 15 miles inland that you dont expect. Hey, i dont live on the water. What could go wrong . A lot of things did go wrong. These are amazing pictures. What happened here, when we got to mexico beach, the helicopter didnt have a signal anymore. So we got here, all of a sudden, brookes signal started to break up like that. We knew we couldnt go any farther south because we didnt have a cell tower to send the signal back to because all the cell towers down there are gone. Theyre literally blasted away. So put the cell tower down. Dont worry about that. You take video and fly and take more video. You land, interviews, whatever. You get back up in the air, you turn around and fly ten miles back toward panama city where you do have a signal and send it all back. So thats where brooke is right now. Thats what shes doing. Well look for her. Shes absolutely fine. Thats what shes doing now. If you have a 75mileperhour wind and a cat1, you get a one when it comes to damage. Like one gutter. You get a cat4, you get 250 times that one gutter in wind damage alone. And we were very, very close to what could have been a cat 5, and even andrew at the time was not a cat5 at landfall at the time. They went back and years later, they reevaluated what happened in homestead, and they said, hey, this couldnt have been a cat4. This was a cat5. So this very well may have the same the investigations they have to do to see what happened to the houses, how big the surge was, and all that. And thats where we are now. And we just hope that the people here that were in mexico beach or points southward were not in those little onestory ranch homes, the beautiful ranch homes that have been there for 50 years. You cant trust them, even if theyre brick, we hope people didnt trust them and got someplace a lot stronger. Thats right, and also chad makes an important point. This is part of just what we need to tell you. This story is far from over for many reasons. One of them being that the images coming out are slow coming out because communication is so difficult. There are people to tell their stories. Its hard to get them on the phone. Believe me, we have been trying and its so difficult to get a cell phone reception out. We have reporters trying to make their way in on the ground, and its hard to get them on the phone. They are working on it, and well, of course, bring it to you, but its one little example of just how devastated the area is. Another city that was so hard hit, as we have been talking about, john berman was there, is panama city. This is what left behind of jinx middle school. Look at this video. Hurricane michaels winds just barely shy of a category5 strength, as chad was pointing out. Ripped apart much of that school. Joining me now by the phone is britt smith, the principle of jinx middle school. Can you hear me . Yes, i can. Thank you so much for calling in. I really appreciate it. You evacuated ahead of the storm, and thank goodness, after what were seeing in the aftermath. First off, how are you doing, and how is your home . Well, im doing fine. Fortunately, we took the advice that came from Emergency Management services because we live in an evacuation zone. We evacuated. Came down to my daughters house in bradenton, so that part is good. As far as our home, i live in lynn haven. Its devastated. Were waiting on an update, but according to some of the neighbors that we have that stayed there, they have trees that are on houses, roofs that collapsed. Water in homes. Its really bad. And i have heard a few stories were getting out is lynnhaven is another town that has been brutally rocked by the storm. Do you have any idea of when youre able to get back to see whats left . No, at this point, were listening to Emergency Management services. I know that sheriff ford and that crew, that theyre busy trying to take care of the most important things, which are the people that are there. The roadways still have to be cleared. There are power lines down. Debris thats in the road that has to be cleared. Theres a lot of work that needs to be done before they have a sudden influx of people that are coming in to the community. Lets talk about the school. These images, im not sure if youre able to see them as were playing them from where you are. When you saw these pictures of your middle school, what did you think . Its heartwrenching. I know what the school means to our kids and our community. And to see that type of devastation on their school and realizing that that devastation not only is there at their school but also with their homes because the kids live nearby. They have walked out of their apartment complexes. We have been keeping up with people on facebook. They have the second floor of some of the apartments are just gone. Roofs are gone. So its a tough situation. Mr. Smith, it must be so hard, so hard to see this. Well, it is. Because you want to reach out, you want to help. And we spent i spent this morning just reaching out to people. Just trying to make contact, see where people are, what they need. We have a great, great staff there at jinx middle school, and they live in the community where we serve kids. They have been going door to door, checking on kids, checking on families. We have been lining up social work support to come in to assist. Just to be ready, because this is the type situation that with all of this devastation, we know that while we have contractors that will come in and rebuild the homes, we have to rebuild the kids and their emotional wellbeing. Thats what i was going to ask you. I read this morning that your school actually welcomed in children who was displaced by Hurricane Maria in puerto rico. That was almost exactly a year ago, and now you and your students are now in a very similar spot. I mean, are you able to make sense of this right now for your kids this morning . No. You cant make sense of it. It is what you do is take the situation and what we have to make certain that our kids know is that we must be resilient. Resiliency is important. Its important life lesson that we all have to learn. So were going to take this experience, were going to help our kids and our community to learn from it, and were going to be better as a result. But at this point, theres no making sense. Its just how do we get together, how do we recover . You know, again, our governor, he talked about and said that, you know, we can rebuild homes, we can rebuild lives. We have to rebuild our kids and their emotional wellbeing. Yeah. Well, i can tell you right now, you have a whole country thats here with you guys to rebuild when you can get back in there and for the poor kids. Thank you so much, mr. Smith. I appreciate your time, and let us know whatever we can do to help and whatever you need in terms of getting the word out to the community and to the country. I appreciate your time. I appreciate it. Our kids need to know that our Current Situation is not our permanent one. Well be better. I appreciate the support. Very important perspective. Thank you so much. We have much more to come. 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Brooke baldwin is there for us. Right now, i want to go back to panama city. John berman is there speaking to folks on the ground. Hey there, john. Yeah, all morning long i have been looking at this print shop behind me and looking at some of the destruction inside. The roof blown clear off. A few minutes ago, the Hernandez Family who has been running this print shop for decades came and got a chance to see the damage for the first time. Robert hernandez, three generations, by the way. Robert, raul, and christian. When you got a chance to come here and looked inside, tell me what