Hurricane Matthew strengthened to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane Thursday as it barreled toward a midnight landfall on the Florida coast, bringing the threat of deadly winds and storm surges along a 550-mile stretch from Miami to SC.
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“This rainfall is leading to record-breaking flooding over portions of eastern North Carolina, and it may result in life-threatening flooding and flash flooding elsewhere across the region”, the National Hurricane Center said.
Hurricane Matthew was about 20 miles (35 km) south-southeast of Charleston, South Carolina as it moved northeast 12 miles per hour (19 kph), the center said in an advisory. Florida airports had canceled hundreds of flights, majority in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.
Airlines canceled at least 4,500 flights Wednesday through Saturday, including many in and out of Orlando, where all three of the resort city’s world-famous theme parks – Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and SeaWorld – closed because of the storm.
As the storm moves north, so do cancellations, with Atlanta, Charleston and Savannah taking the largest hits. Regardless, Matthew will bring strong winds, heavy flooding and massive storm surges to the state.
This morning the National Hurricane Center warned residents along the Florida, Georgia and Carolina coastlines that the worst of the storm’s effects were yet to come as maximum sustained wind speeds were 120 miles per hour, with higher gusts.
Forecasters are warning the storm could dump up to 15in (38cm) of rain and cause a storm surge of 9ft or more in the state.
That’s in addition to possible storm surges of 5 to 7 feet along the coasts, the National Weather Service says.
Haley said this morning the state was preparing for major storm surges, winds, wet grounds, falling trees and power outages.
Earlier, Obama had declared a federal state of emergency in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina.
Roberto and his little girl, Roseberlande, are among the 470 people who died in just one district in southwest Haiti devastated by Matthew as the country braces for a rise in cholera cases and grapples with what could become the worst crisis since a catastrophic 2010 quake.
Many coastal and inland communities were still under water, either from coastal storm surge or overrun rivers and creeks, and unsafe conditions existed from downed power lines and damaged homes. “I just want to emphasize to everyone that this is still a really unsafe hurricane”. The town, which was devastated by Hurricane Floyd in 1999, lies on the Tar River about 25 miles (40 km) north of Greenville.
Still Scott stressed during a television appearance on “CBS This Morning” and NBC’s “Today” show that there was still time for people living in the Jacksonville area to evacuate. Jacksonville had not been under a hurricane warning in 17 years, according to The Weather Channel.
“Follow instructions of state, local and tribal officials, and make sure you’re taking steps to prepare your home, family or business”, Fugate said.
President Obama this morning urged residents to pay attention to their local officials.
In the end, Matthew largely skirted the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Palm Beach areas of over 6 million people and hugged closer to the coast farther north, menacing such communities as Vero Beach, Daytona Beach, Cape Canaveral, St. Augustine and Jacksonville. “We need everybody to consider evacuating and really take this very seriously”.
“People came to lift the rubble, and then we saw my wife who had died in the same spot”, said Jean-Donald, who had been married for only a year. According to the latest figures, Matthew led to the death of 840 people in Haiti. This is expected by high tide this afternoon shortly after 1pm, and could impact Georgia evacuations.
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Most of the damage in Brevard County, which for decades has been the home to the space program, was restricted to blown-out windows and downed trees and power lines.
