(Image source from: Time)

The fatalities from one of the most powerful storm to make landfall in the United States mainland hurricane Michael has increased to 17, with coastal Florida cities experiencing damage beyond recognition, while homes, trades, and farming tore otherwise flooded from Georgia to Virginia.

More than one million people were left short of electricity, and emergency officials have no entree to many towns, CNN reported on Saturday.

The death toll is as well likely to hike as search and rescue efforts continue.

"I expect the fatality count to rise as we get through the debris," Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long said on Friday.

The 17 victims included five in Virginia, eight from Florida, three in North Carolina and a child in Georgia.

Senator Bill Nelson called the devastation "the worst destruction that the Panhandle has seen for however long that I've been living. It’s akin to Hurricane Andrew in 1992 where everything was leveled".

A psychiatric infirmary in Florida is out-of-the-way after downed trees jammed roads around Chattahoochee, and a tree triggered a water line to break. The facility is running on power generators, and helicopters have distributed food and water, the state's Department of Children and Families said.

                  (Image source from: NBC News)

Aerial footage shows coastal cities in the Florida Panhandle, like Mexico Beach, wiped out, CNN said.

By Sowmya Sangam