Michael weakens after day of havoc

PANAMA CITY - Hurricane Michael, the third-most powerful ever to strike the US mainland, weakened to a tropical storm early on Thursday but only after wreaking a day of havoc along Florida's Gulf Coast as it flooded homes and streets and toppled trees and power lines in the beachfront areas where it roared ashore as a Category 4 hurricane.

Florida officials said Michael, packing winds of 250 km/h, was the most powerful storm to hit the state's northern Panhandle area since record-keeping began more than a century ago. One death was blamed on the hurricane.

Michael had weakened to a Category 1, with maximum winds of 140 km/h as of 8 pm Eastern time, but that still left it an extremely dangerous storm.