Hurricane Michael – now a cyclone – has claimed 11 lives in four states so far, and officials are warning that the storm is again gaining strength and will continue to pose a danger.

News reports say Virginia has been hit the hardest, with five people killed. The storm killed four in Florida and one each in Georgia and North Carolina. Among the dead: a man who died when a tree fell onto his car and an 11-year-old girl who was in her home when strong winds picked up a carport and sent it through the roof over her head.

"This hurricane was an absolute monster," Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday. "And the damage left in its wake is still yet to be fully understood."

The National Hurricane Center said that with the storm still on the move, North Caroline could experience another storm surge, Virginia will be lashed by heavy winds today and parts of the Northeast could get up to five inches of rain.

Hurricane Michael, a Category 4 storm which made landfall Wednesday when it blasted the Florida Panhandle is considered one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the United States, with winds as high as 155 mph.