Hurricane Michael caused at least 11 deaths as it plowed through the Florida Panhandle and the southeastern United States, and the number dead could rise as rescuers search hardest-hit areas. Falling debris killed some, including an 11-year-old girl in Georgia. Authorities in Virginia, which was inundated with rain, reported five people died there—four who drowned and a firefighter whose truck was struck by a tractor-trailer at the scene of an accident.

UPDATE: Rescuers are starting to get a clearer picture of the immense destruction wreaked by Hurricane Michael on the Florida Panhandle and other parts of the South. Officials at Tyndall Air Force base outside Panama City, Fla., reported “widespread catastrophic damage” and said evacuees from the base should plan for an extended time away.

UPDATE: Hurricane Michael, now a Category 3 storm, was crossing into southeastern Alabama and southwest Georgia late Wednesday afternoon while still thrashing the Florida Panhandle with rain and wind. The hurricane made landfall as a Category 4 storm near Mexico Beach, Fla., about midday Wednesday. As the day wore on, Florida Gov. Rick Scott tweeted to residents, “I urge all Floridians in the Panhandle to continue sheltering in place, and [listen] to local authorities.

Hurricane Michael intensified to a Category 2 storm Tuesday morning as residents along Florida’s Gulf Coast braced for what could be a devastating hit on Wednesday. By 8 a.m. Tuesday, top winds had reached 100 mph, and the storm was barreling toward the Florida Panhandle at 12 mph. Michael’s wind gusts and rain bands will likely start whipping the coast later Tuesday, according to Hurricane Center director Ken Graham. “Guess what? That’s today,” Graham said.

Officials in Georgetown County, S.C., say flooding resulting from Hurricane Florence will not be as bad as expected this week. Originally, forecasters said multiple rivers could bring as much as 10 feet of floodwaters to this coastal community, but that estimate has been lowered to only 2 to 4 feet. The latest predictions also delay the peak period of flooding from Thursday to Friday, giving residents more time to prepare. But South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster warned that forecasts could change again.

Five rivers flowing from eastern North and South Carolina empty into the Atlantic Ocean in or near Georgetown, S.C., making the coastal town Hurricane Florence’s last major target nearly a week and a half after the storm first made landfall 110 miles up the coast near Wilmington, N.C. So much water is heading downstream that it is backing up into rivers that weren’t flooding.

Remnants of Hurricane Florence left the Carolinas one week ago as a tropical depression, but the storm’s lingering effects continue to plague the region as rivers swollen by record rainfall threaten more flooding in eastern parts of the two states. Authorities in South Carolina alerted between 6,000 and 8,000 people in coastal Georgetown County to prepare to evacuate and flee potential flooding of up to 10 feet from the Pee Dee and Waccamaw rivers. County spokeswoman Jackie Broach-Akers said the “record event” could begin Tuesday.