The National Hurricane Centre in Miami said Matthew passed over Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Saturday afternoon, and warned of potentially life-threatening flooding in Georgia and North Carolina even as the storm slowed as it plowed inland.
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High tide later Saturday could push water “well into the city”, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said. Parts of Interstate 95, the main north-south thoroughfare on the East Coast, were closed due to flooding and fallen trees, state officials said.
“There is a danger of life-threatening inundation during the next 36 hours along the Florida northeast coast, the Georgia coast, the SC coast, and (part of) the North Carolina coast”, the National Hurricane Center warned on Saturday. “What we feared is now happening in North Carolina”.
A disabled woman and her family were some of the many Savannah residents evacuated to Augusta before the deadly storm struck..
The storm, which is blamed for four deaths in Florida, sparked flash-flood concerns.
The number of deaths in Haiti surged to at least 877 on Friday as information trickled in from remote areas previously cut off by the storm, according to a tally of death tolls given by officials.
Nearly 900 Haitians are known to have lost their lives as Hurricane Matthew flattened the island on it’s way north.
Matthew also brought some of the highest tides on record along the SC coast. The storm is now projecting hurricane-force winds 45 miles away from its center – early Saturday, gusts of up to 55 mph were recorded in Orangeburg, some 75 miles inland from Charleston.
Total U.S. losses from storm damages may eventually total $25 billion, according to Chuck Watson, a modeler with Enki Research, USA Today reported.
“There is nothing safe about what is getting ready to happen”, SC governor Nikki Haley said Friday. Georgia Power said at least 275,000 were without power in the state.
Of the 500,000 people instructed to leave low-lying coastal areas, Haley said that more than 300,000 people had pulled out. Officials up and down the coast urged people to stay at home once the storm moved in.
Half of the city’s 14,000 residents have reportedly ignored mandatory evacuation orders, despite the possibility of an eight-foot storm surge. About 1 million people in Florida lost power. Deal activated 2,000 National Guard troops.
Matthew was expected to hit Savannah, Ga., where Mayor Eddie DeLoach warned late Friday that those choosing to stay would be on their own, as conditions were expected to deteriorate to the degree that rescue missions would be impossible. North Carolina is now in a state of emergency as Matthew nears.
In the United States, coastal flooding from the storm surge posed the biggest threat to life and property.
State officials are particularly concerned about victims like McCallum, who have no flood insurance because they do not live in areas typically prone to such inundation.
A woman gets out of a house destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in Cavaillon. Picture taken October 6, 2016.
A woman in northeast Florida died after a tree fell on her camper trailer, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said.
The Category 3 storm, even at a distance, has had gusts on land of more than 100 miles per hour, causing power outages for more than 1 million customers as of 3 p.m. ET, according to the office of Florida Gov. Rick Scott.
But in many places along the Southeast coast, the damage consisted mostly of flooded streets, blown-down signs and awnings, flattened trees and power outages.
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Florida struggled with the rising water, rain and strong winds as meteorologists said the storm surge had been measured at more than 4 feet in some areas.
