Law enforcement authorities are arresting around 10 suspected looters every night in an area of the Florida Panhandle left in the dark since Hurricane Michael crashed ashore a week ago.

The Bay county sheriff’s office has warned that looters are targeting homes and businesses in the devastated region – and they’re almost always armed, the Panama City News Herald reported.

One victim was Victoria Smith, who said thieves entered her home while she and her four children were sleeping. She had left the front door open to allow a breeze in during the steamy weather following the hurricane, as her power was off.

The perpetrator snatched her purse even as she was clutching it to her chest while she slept. She said she was so exhausted from trying to survive and fend for her children after the storm that she didn’t even hear them enter.

In some areas of the county, spray-painted signs warn “Looters will be shot” and “You steal, we kill”.

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Stanford says it’s been a stressful time for officers, many of whom lost their homes but are working 16-hour shifts. He says the current influx of resources and officers from other areas will help quell the lawlessness and deter attempted looting.

“Most our officers lost their homes, have been working 16- to 18-hour shifts with no sleep, no shower; and now they’re encountering armed individuals,” Stanford told the local newspaper. “It’s a stressful time for everyone in Bay county.”

The scope of Hurricane Michael’s fury is still being discovered after nearly a week of missing-persons reports and desperate searches of largely-flattened small towns such as Mexico Beach. Neighborhoods were devastated by the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental US in nearly 50 years, and the most ferocious in recorded history to hit the Panhandle. Cellphone service has started to return to the stricken zone but there are 137,000 customers in northern Florida still without power.

Lack of electricity and phone service is hampering efforts to distribute food and water and to contact residents not heard from since the storm hit. Florida officials have not said how many people are missing. The death toll from those killed in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia currently stands at 29 but could yet rise.

Many residents of Mexico Beach, where the hurricane made landfall, returned to the decimated town on Wednesday, after they had evacuated and been told to stay away for a week.

Some sobbed and clung to each other as they found mere fragments of their homes – structures, belongings and precious keepsakes all swept away by the 155mph wind or huge storm surge. What was considered a charming, traditional Florida seaside town will never be the same again – rebuilding will require up to date codes for buildings better to withstand storms.

“Basically, we lost ‘old Florida’, it’s gone,” resident Lanie Eden said.