Hurricane Michael is barrelling towards the Florida panhandle and parts of Alabama and Georgia and is due to make landfall in a few hours.

Governor Rick Scott of Florida said Category 4 Hurricane Michael will cause “unimaginable devastation” and could affect areas as far away as North and South Carolina.

Wind speeds are hovering around 145 mph (233 kmh) with some higher gusts of 150mph.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said the storm is travelling north as state and emergency management officials warned residents to get to safety.

The agency warned in a tweet “water levels are rising quickly” all along the panhandle’s Gulf Coast.

Mr Scott said it will be the “most destructive storm the state has seen in a century.”

Florida Senator Marco Rubio also said “every storm's different, but this storm is a monstrosity."

The region was hit in recent weeks by Florence, which was originally a Category 4 storm but downgraded to a tropical storm.

Footage from ISS shows Hurricane Michael from space

Florence still caused flooding throughout the Carolinas and damage to several large farms, bridges, and roads.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) Administrator Brock Long noted "any rain through North and South Carolina is not welcomed" as river beds have still not receded from the previous storm.

Mr Long also noted this morning is “the final call” for residents to get to a shelter or evacuate the area completely as roads in the panhandle are not safe to travel.

Those who try to last through "storm surge...don't typically live to tell about it," he said.

The surge is expected to produce waves and flooding in the range of nine to 18 feet (2.7 m to 5.5 m).

"Our priority is saving lives right now," Mr Long said, adding getting power lines back up and running and infrastructure clear and safe will be a priority.

Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Show all 7 1 /7 Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Inez Gibbs During September of 2017, the Caribbean was hit by two powerful hurricanes, Irma and Maria. Almost a year after the rebuilding effort continue at a slow pace and with fear of what this year hurricane season could bring. who is diabetic, lost everything except her bed and her teddy bears. Cash assistance from the Red Cross helped her to support herself while she waited to return to work. “These and my bed are the only things I saved. The teddy bears are my buddies, they are my friends. I bought them here from Jamaica 20 years ago. Everything else I had I lost. The cash I got was very helpful because I wasn’t able to work after the hurricane so it helped me to pay my bills and buy my medication.” Dennis Rivera/British Red Cross Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Cleve Pennyfeather, Disaster Response Officer at BVI Red Cross Cleve has been working for the British Virgin Islands Red Cross since January this year, working with local communities to help them recover from Irma and prepare for future hurricanes. The house he grew up in was badly damaged by the hurricane. “This house is very sentimental to me - it has been in my family well over 80 years and it means a lot to us. I grew up in this house as a little boy until I left for high school. It belonged to my grandparents, and now belongs to my uncle who is 91. Irma completely destroyed the roof, but thankfully the Red Cross provided him with some cash so that he could buy materials to get it rebuilt.” Dennis Rivera/British Red Cross Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Joan Chimney, 56 Joan runs the popular Sugar and Spice café on the island of Jost Van Dyke. She was on holiday in Grenada when the hurricane hit, but returned home to find her business badly damaged. “Everybody always comes to my restaurant and says they’re here for my patties. I make them every morning, wake up and come down to my shop to make them from scratch. The hurricane did some damage to my restaurant though - all the windows and doors gone. It’s a good thing that the Red Cross was there to give me some help buying them back so I could keep my business going.” Dennis Rivera/British Red Cross Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Lorie Rymer, 70 Lorie, a keen viola player, saw his most treasured possession damaged in Hurricane Irma, all he has now is the broken remains. “My house I will build back, but there’s no way that I could replace my instrument, my viola, I cannot replace it. It was just precious, I can still hear it in my mind how it used to sound. I would give anything if I might be able to purchase one again, a used one. It has to be very old and seasoned wood, maybe 30, 40, 50 years old. I’m going to take this one with me to the UK and have it repaired.” Dennis Rivera/British Red Cross Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Lucia Harrigan, 81 81-year-old Lucia, who had lived in her home for 60 years before it was destroyed by Hurricane Irma, is looking forward to returning to her own home. “When I see the destruction and I see what I had loved so dearly I sit down and I cry. The whole roof went, the shutters, and a brand new washer that I had just bought. I lost all my dining chairs, my living room set and a lot of my clothes, but I’m not worried about that, as long as I could find something to wear. But I saved a few things, maybe some are salvageable or maybe not. My favourite thing that I lost is the deeds to my land. I hope that I will get back in the house soon, because when you get to my age you like to be by yourself.” Dennis Rivera/British Red Cross Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Darrel Turnball Hurricane Irma destroyed almost everything Darrel owned, including his much-loved photo-album, but he managed to recover one of his favourite childhood toys. “This is my best friend – I have carried him with me my whole life. When I got married he was with me, when I got divorced he was with me, he goes everywhere I go. I was so happy when I realised he hadn’t been damaged in the hurricane.” Dennis Rivera/British Red Cross Things lost and saved: One year on from Hurricane Irma Rasheed Jennings, 20 When Irma hit, Rasheed sheltered in the bathroom with his mother, father and brother - from there all they could do was watch as Irma shattered their home. “The first thing that Irma blew out was the windows and then once the wind started to circle through the house it lifted up the doors and the roof, and once that was gone there was no protection and everything just started to float through the doors. Even my computer and PlayStation and all my gaming stuff was blown away, I didn’t even think to protect them. We could see the damage through the window in the bathroom but there wasn’t anything we could do at that point.” Dennis Rivera/British Red Cross

"Power is going to be off for multiple weeks," he warned, adding Michael is "unprecedented.

After Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico devastated last year, Fema and the administration of Donald Trump were widely criticised for leaving millions of people in the US territory without power for several months.

Mr Long noted residents of the area know "living in the Gulf Coast can be dangerous...these things can happen”.

However, meteorologists and scientists have explained part of the problem is the government not acknowledging the role of climate change in the increased frequency of deadly and costly storms.

As environmental news outlet Grist reported: "six of the seven most damaging hurricanes in US history have hit in the past 10 years".

It is estimated Hurricane Irma, which primarily hit parts of southern Florida last year, cost the state $50bn in damage - the most expensive storm in state history.