Grim search underway for victims of Hurricane

Rescue teams using sniffer dogs carried out a grim search for victims of Hurricane Michael on Friday amid fears that the death toll from the monster storm -- which currently stands at 11 -- could rise.

"When you have that type of damage it takes some time to get in and actually go through and do the search and rescue," said Brock Long, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

"We hope to have 100 percent of the initial search and rescue done in Florida today," Long told reporters.

The Florida Panhandle town of Mexico Beach was pulverized by the Category 4 storm which crashed ashore on Wednesday, razing many homes to their foundations with 155 miles per hour winds and several feet of storm surge.

A mandatory evacuation was issued for the town of 1,000 on the Gulf of Mexico coast, but how many residents actually heeded the warning is unknown.

"You hope that somehow at the last minute a bunch of people got up and left or went somewhere else," Florida Senator Marco Rubio told CNN.

But judging from the number of homes reduced to "sticks," he said "my sense is they are going to find more victims." Rubio added: "I truly pray I'm wrong, but common sense tells you that if you were in that house when that happened you did not make it."
"Luckily we did not get a surge," Tenbrunson said of his home. "I've got two trees on the roof and a couple of holes on the roof. I have been trying to patch it up the best I can."