*By Carlo Versano*
Tropical Storm Michael moved rapidly northeast over Georgia and the Carolinas on Thursday after coming ashore as an unprecedented Category 4 on the Florida Panhandle a day earlier and doing severe damage to coastal cities like Panama Beach.
But the biggest fears of potentially catastrophic storm surge did not appear to have been realized. Sarah Rosario, a reporter for the local CBS affiliate in St. Petersburg, Fla., told Cheddar from Crystal River that the waters there had receded, and "things are looking much better."
Up north on the panhandle, though, the damage was more severe. At least two people are dead and hundreds of thousands remain without power after Michael made a direct hit on the region. "This is the biggest storm that area has seen ever," Rosario noted. "It came out of nowhere."
The focus now turns to flooding in the southeast, where the ground remains saturated with rainwater from last month's Hurricane Florence. Michael is expected to quickly move north toward Virginia before exiting back into the Atlantic as a post-tropical system.
Michael is the [fourth](https://twitter.com/chrisdolcewx/status/1050348660339412992) Category 4 storm to hit the U.S. in 14 months.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/hurricane-michael-hits-florida).
One especially enthusiastic dog, named Fuzzybear, is gung-ho about getting his North Carolina owner's mail, darting across the lawn when the mail truck arrives and carrying back a mouthful of envelopes.
Cheddar's own Shannon LaNier visited The Paris Café at the South Street Seaport in downtown Manhattan to get a taste of the perfect Mother's Day brunch and sample the historic brasserie's DIY flower bar.
Cheddar's own Shannon LaNier visited The Paris Café at the South Street Seaport in downtown Manhattan to get a taste of the perfect Mother's Day brunch and sample the historic brasserie's DIY flower bar.
The cast of Netflix's Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story joined Cheddar News' 'Trending' to talk about their roles in the Bridgerton prequel series.
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A dog in North Carolina enthusiastically waits every day for the mailman to arrive to fetch mail for his owner.
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The top entertainment headlines for May 11, 2023.
Gabrielle Stone invented a fake tiktok trend to share some important news with her husband. Essentially, she challenges him to guess words that she spells out at a rapid-fire pace. She started with "I love you" before moving on to her big announcement.
