A family can begin to grieve after officials confirmed Friday the death of a 79-year-old Florida woman who had been missing since Hurricane Michael left her Mexico Beach home in rubble. The Bay County medical examiner's office on Friday confirmed that it was Vicari's body that was recovered Monday. The South Florida woman says she spoke to her Aunt Aggie — affectionately described as a "stubborn Italian woman" — just hours before Michael's devastating winds came ashore. "This is a catastrophic loss to the forest industry in the Florida Panhandle," Putnam said in a news release. ———Associated Press writers Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida, Kelli Kennedy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Freida Frisaro in Miami contributed to this report.

Source: ABC News October 19, 2018 21:56 UTC