PHOTOS: Hurricane Michael hit Florida's Panhandle like a "bomb"

Even veteran storm chasers are saying they're truly shocked by the extreme devastation wrought by Hurricane Michael, the worst storm to hit the U.S. in over 25 years and the most powerful ever in the Florida Panhandle. As it barreled northward Thursday morning toward the Carolinas, residents in the Panhandle region emerged to assess the damage from the Category 4 hurricane, finding cars submerged, tall trees snapped in half, whole neighborhoods in pieces on the ground, power lines ripped down, and a general trail of destruction.

The fast-moving storm hit like a "bomb" in Panama City, according to one storm chaser, and it's not over.

Though Michael has been downgraded to a tropical storm, it's still packing high winds of about 55 mph and heavy rain, posing major flooding danger to wide swaths of the Southeast, including areas still waterlogged from Hurricane Florence a few weeks ago.

Haley Nelson inspects damages to her family properties in the Panama City, Fla., spring field area after Hurricane Michael made landfall in Florida's Panhandle on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. Supercharged by abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle with terrifying winds of 155 mph Wednesday, splintering homes and submerging neighborhoods before continuing its march inland. (Pedro Portal/Miami Herald via AP)