
Incredible footage from the eye of Hurricane Michael has emerged as the Category 4 storm battered Florida's Panhandle with one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to strike the U.S. mainland, leaving at least five people dead and blitzing every home in its path.

Michael was downgraded to a Tropical Storm on Thursday as it took its drenching rains to Georgia and the Carolinas - just one day after unleashing deadly fury on Florida with its 155 mph winds.

The Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters filmed their aircraft flying directly into the eye of the 'monstrous' storm as it was making landfall on the small tourist town of Mexico Beach on Wednesday afternoon.

The footage showed a rare pilot's view of the eye wall and revealed a breathtaking stadium-like effect set again the clear sky.

But down below, Michael was shattering buildings, bringing down power lines and ripping out trees as it crashed ashore and caused deep seawater flooding with storm surges as high as 14-feet in some areas of Florida's Gulf coast.

Search-and-rescue teams fanned out across the Florida Panhandle to reach trapped people in Michael's wake on Thursday as daylight yielded scenes of rows upon rows of houses smashed to pieces.

At least six deaths were blamed on Michael, including Sarah Radney, an 11-year-old girl in Seminole County, Georgia, who died after a tree fell on her home. A man in Greensboro, Florida was also killed when a tree crashed through his home and trapped him. Three other people also died in Florida and a man was killed in his car in North Carolina.

The Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters filmed their aircraft flying directly into the eye of the 'monstrous' Hurricane Michael as it was making landfall on the small tourist town of Mexico Beach, Florida on Wednesday afternoon

Michael shattered buildings, brought down power lines and ripped trees as it crashed ashore and caused deep seawater flooding when it made landfall on Mexico Beach, Florida (pictured above) on Wednesday afternoon

Michael was downgraded to a Tropical Storm on Thursday as it took its drenching rains to Georgia and the Carolinas - just one day after unleashing deadly fury on Florida with its 155 mph winds

'This morning, Florida's Gulf Coast and Panhandle and the Big Bend are waking up to unimaginable destruction,' Florida Governor Rick Scott said.

'So many lives have been changed forever. So many families have lost everything. This hurricane was an absolute monster.'

It was not yet known what had happened to about 280 residents of Mexico Beach who authorities said had ignored evacuation orders as the storm approached the state's northwest.

Michael was a Category 4 storm, just shy of a rare Category 5, when it came ashore. It weakened steadily as it traveled inland over the Panhandle.

By 8am Thursday it had been downgraded to a tropical storm with 50 mph winds as it pushed through Georgia into the Carolinas, the National Hurricane Center said.

Though weakened into a tropical storm, it continued to bring heavy rain and blustery winds to the Southeast as it pushed inland, soaking areas still recovering from last month's Hurricane Florence.

Under a perfectly clear blue sky, Florida families emerged tentatively from darkened shelters and hotels to an unfamiliar and perilous landscape of shattered homes and shopping centers, beeping security alarms, wailing sirens and hovering helicopters.

Over 900,000 homes and businesses in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas were without power.

Rescuers searched the Mexico Beach area on Thursday morning after the hurricane made a direct hit on the small town

Kathy Coy stands among what is left of her home on Thursday after Hurricane Michael destroyed it in Panama City. She was in the home when it was blown apart and said she is thankful to be alive

Buildings were completely flattened in Panama City - 20 miles northwest of Mexico Beach where the hurricane made landfall

Boats washed up among the debris of houses in Mexico Beach on Thursday following the devastating hurricane

Keito Jordan (left) comforts his neighbor Hector Benthall after remnants of Hurricane Michael sent a tree crashing into his home in Columbia, South Carolina

The full extent of the damage was only slowly becoming clear, with some of the worst areas difficult to reach. An 80-mile stretch of Interstate 10, the main east-west route along the Panhandle, was closed because of debris.

One of the hardest-hit spots was Mexico Beach where entire blocks of homes near the beach were washed away, leaving nothing but concrete slabs in the sand. Rows and rows of other homes were reduced to piles of debris or crumpled and slumped at odd angles.

Trees were stripped to stalks, roofs were shredded, trucks toppled and boats pushed into buildings. Downed power lines lay nearly everywhere, while pine trees were stripped and snapped off about 20 feet high.

Hundreds of cars had broken windows and twisted street signs lay on the ground.

Scott said the National Guard got into Mexico Beach and rescued 20 people who survived the direct hit. The town was under a mandatory evacuation order as the rapidly developing storm closed in, but some people were determined to ride it out.

The governor pleaded with people in Florida not to go home yet.

'I know you just want to go home. You want to check on things, and begin the recovery process (but) we have to make sure things are safe.'

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard said it rescued at least 27 people, mostly from homes damaged along the Florida coastline, and searched for more victims. Among those brought to safety were nine people rescued by helicopter from a bathroom of their Panama City home after their roof collapsed.

Thousands of National Guard troops, law enforcement officers and medical teams are working their way into damaged communities to search for survivors.

Florida officials also said they were moving patients from damaged health care facilities.

Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 45 miles from the center and were tearing buildings apart in Panama City Beach after the hurricane made landfall on Wednesday afternoon

Boats lay sunk and damaged at the Port St. Joe Marina. Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle with terrifying winds of 155 mph Wednesday

Shredded trees, derailed train cars and a sunken trailer are seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City

Destruction: The sun sets on a wreckage-littered street after Hurricane Michael passed over Panama City, Florida

Damage to a McDonald's in Panama City, downtown area after Hurricane Michael made landfall along Florida's Panhandle

Damages to the Presbyterian school in Panama City, downtown area after Hurricane Michael made landfall Wednesday

An American flag battered by Hurricane Michael continues to fly in the in the rose colored light of sunset at Shell Point Beach

Hurricane Michael barreled into the Florida Panhandle with winds of 155mph Wednesday, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake, as it became the most powerful storm to ever hit the region - and the fourth strongest to make landfall in the US

Bo Lynn's Market starts taking water in the town of Saint Marks as Hurricane Michael pushes the storm surge up the Wakulla and Saint Marks Rivers

In terms of wind speed, Michael is the fourth strongest storm ever to hit the US after Andrew in 1992, Camille in 1969 and an unnamed Labor Day Hurricane in 1935 which had winds of 184mph.

Scientists say it was so strong because warm waters of 84F (29C) extended unusually far up the northern Gulf Coast for this time of year after Florida had its warmest September ever.

Why was Hurricane Michael so strong? Scientists say it was so strong because warm waters of 84F (29C) extended unusually far up the northern Gulf Coast for this time of year after Florida had its warmest September ever. It was also strong because the eyewall - the ring around the eye of the storm - formed late. This meant that there was not enough time for an eyewall replacement - a second ring formed of rainclouds - to form and weaken the storm. Normally, the so-called eyewall replacement cycle weakens a storm by 20-30mph - but Michael was at its strongest when it made landfall. Source: Dr Jeff Masters Advertisement

The winds were so strong they brought down a billboard in Florida's Panama City, tore down a Texaco gas pumping station canopy in Inlet Beach and caused a storm surge that completely knocked a house off its foundations in Mexico Beach.

Beachfront structures could be seen collapsing and metal roofing materials were blown away amid the heavy rain. Murky water was so high that roofs were about all that could be seen of many homes.

Hours earlier, meteorologists watched satellite imagery in complete awe as the storm intensified.

'We are in new territory,' National Hurricane Center Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen wrote on Facebook. 'The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida panhandle.'

The University of Georgia's Marshall Shepherd called it a 'life-altering event'. More than 370,000 were ordered to evacuate but many refused.

By Wednesday night, the storm had moved north into South and North Carolina after sparking flash foods and property damage in Georgia. The tropical storm moved across southwestern Georgia at about 20mph Wednesday night as it made its way northeast towards the Atlantic.

The storm was expected to move across North Carolina and Virginia and push into the Atlantic Ocean by late Thursday or early Friday.

The National Weather Service said tornadoes were possible across the Florida Panhandle, southeast Georgia and southern South Carolina through Thursday morning as the hurricane now moves inland.

Forecasters warned rain could reach up to a foot and the life-threatening storm surge could swell to 14 feet.

A collapsed boat housing after the arrival of Hurricane Michael which hit with winds of 150mph on Wednesday afternoon

A woman and her children wain near a destroyed gas station after Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Florida

Wrecked boats sit near a pier after the arrival of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Florida

Hurricane Michael formed off the coast of Cuba carrying major Category 4 landfall in the Florida Panhandle. Surge in the Big Bend area, along with catastrophic winds at 155mph

A hubcap blows by as a man runs to his car during Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday

A view of storm damage during Hurricane Michael which slammed into the Florida coast on October 10 as the most powerful storm to hit the southern US state in more than a century

Pam Heckstall surveys the damage as the remnants of Hurricane Michael move through Panama City, Flaorida

Hotel employees look at a canopy that had just collapsed as Hurricane Michael tore through Panama City Beach on Wednesday afternoon

The president (pictured at a rally on Wednesday) has come under fire for failing to visit Florida or the Carolinas as they are battered by the storm

More than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast were ordered or urged to evacuate as Michael closed in.

But it moved so fast and intensified so quickly that people didn't have much time to prepare, and emergency authorities lamented that many ignored the warnings.

A Red Cross official said it's possible that as many as 320,000 people on Florida's Gulf Coast did not evacuate and likely rode out the storm.

Emergency managers said they don't know how many left the area, but there were about 6,000 people in 80 shelters in five states, including nearly 1,200 who are still in shelters following Hurricane Florence.

President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency for all of Florida, freeing federal assistance to supplement state and local disaster responses.

About 3,500 Florida National Guard troops were deployed, along with more than 1,000 search-and-rescue personnel to the area immediately after the hurricane hit.

Meanwhile, Trump came under fire for failing to visit Florida or the Carolinas as they were battered by the storm.

Speaking in a interview with Fox News on Wednesday night, Donald Trump explained that he'd wanted to attend his Wednesday rally instead because he didn't want to let down his supporters.

'If I didn't go, they would also criticize,' he explained. 'This was set up a long time ago. We had thousands of people lined up from yesterday. I mean literally they stayed 24 hours and sometimes more than that to go to these rallies. They like them. You probably saw the pictures on television tonight.

'Thousands and thousands of people outside after the arena. It was a big arena. But it was full. We had 15 or beyond that thousand people outside. If I didn't go, that would have been the wrong thing too.'

Trump said that he'd been in 'constant communication' with Florida governor Rick Scott and the governor of Alabama, and has 'people in Florida'.

He added that it had been a 'tough' storm, offering the insight: ' The wind was probably more dangerous than anything else.'

Cameras outside the International Space Station captured views of Hurricane Michael on Wednesday as the storm made landfall as a category 4 hurricane

A damaged condo building is seen after hurricane Michael passed through the downtown area in Panama City

Boats that were docked are seen in a pile of rubble after hurricane Michael passed through Panama City on Wednesday

Hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 45 miles from the center and were tearing buildings apart in Panama City

A storm chaser climbs into his vehicle during the eye of Hurricane Michael to retrieve equipment after a hotel canopy collapsed in Panama City Beach on Wednesday

Mike Lindsey stands in his antique shop after the winds from hurricane Michael broke the windows in his shop in Panama City

A business in Port St. Joe, Florida lay in ruins after taking a direct hit from the hurricane on Wednesday afternoon

Collapsing building structures brought down power lines in Panama City from the strong winds brought about by Michael

Emily Hindle lies on the floor at an evacuation shelter set up at Rutherford High School near Panama City Beach on Wednesday